CISM passing score

ogarciajogarciaj Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
in CISM
Hi, I have the CISM exam next December, and I still don't know what is the score to pass the exam. According to the "ISACA Exam Candidate Information Guide", ISACA uses and reports scores on a common scale from 200 to 800, and you must receive a score of 450 or higher to pass the exam. But I don't know if all questions have same value, and if this score can be translated to real % values. If all questions had same value, each question would be of 2 points (total number of questions is 200), and you would need 56,25% to pass the exam (450 points of 800). Can anyone help me?

Thanks
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  • 636-555-3226636-555-3226 Member Posts: 975 ■■■■■□□□□□
    My understanding is that ISACA uses the standard a bell curve, so your score is based on how well everybody else does. If everybody else does a bad job, then you all pass. If everybody else does a good job and you don't, you're going to fail. Since this is the last CISM of the year, ISACA should have all of the poorly worded or poorly understood questions figured out and removed from the exam (since the earlier test takers were sort of a "beta" for this year's questions). Not that that means much in terms of answering your question....
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  • ogarciajogarciaj Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Well, then I hope the other people won't study too much... ;)
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  • Mike7Mike7 Member Posts: 1,107 ■■■■□□□□□□
    636-555-3226 wrote: »
    My understanding is that ISACA uses the standard a bell curve, so your score is based on how well everybody else does.

    Guess that explains why I scored around 70% to 80% in QAE and still end up with top 5% score during June exam. Everyone was just as confused over the questions and I guessed more correctly than others. icon_wink.gif
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  • Nabsh07Nabsh07 Member Posts: 72 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Mike
    Did you score 70-80% first time around you took the QAE or final practice session?
    Also could you share some tips how you took practice test/ studied for the exam?
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  • Mike7Mike7 Member Posts: 1,107 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Nabsh07 wrote: »
    Mike
    Did you score 70-80% first time around you took the QAE or final practice session?
    Also could you share some tips how you took practice test/ studied for the exam?

    I did a lot worst first time round. Think was around 50%. icon_sad.gif
    Only managed to hit 80%++ about a week before exam.

    Many CISM questions are of the "select the best of", "what is the MOST important" type. Do take note that the CISM exam is for those with relevant management experience, so view the question from the perspective of a manager and draw from your experience. I was doing badly because I was viewing them from a security engineer perspective. Once I view things from a manager perspective and how he should react to help the business, the answers make sense.

    My main study resources were the CISM Review Manual (CRM) and QAE online database subscription. Go through CRM and focus more on sections you are not familiar with. Then spend time with QAE to reinforce your understanding on "the ISACA way". For example, you may want to read the CRM one chapter at a time and do the questions for that domain.

    Read and understand the explanation not only for the right answer but also the wrong answers. I copied and pasted some of the explanations into Evernote as study notes. The key is not to memorize the answer, but to understand why. You should be able to explain why an answer is correct and why the other three are not.

    Well, this was how I studied for it , and it may or may not work for you.
    Since this is the year, MTFBWY icon_wink.gif
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  • Nabsh07Nabsh07 Member Posts: 72 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Thank you Mike
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