CISA- December 2015- DB average?

gabequinn

Hello all!

I am taking the CISA exam this December. I am using the ISACA database and wondering what others were averaging or trending at before the exam? Also, I know this will be different for everyone, but how many hours did you spend in the database?

Thanks for your replies!

dustervoice

averaging 65% aiming for 80% within two weeks. My hours are off as i normal start a test leave it open and go to lunch then return.

gabequinn

Thanks Duster! I am averaging about the same. Hope to get around 85% as well. Trending average is around 90%

Edizah

70% average at the moment,hopefully will hit 85% in the next two weeks too

Nabsh07

I have been stuck at 70%. Any thought how to move the avg?
I have done about 400 question. How many have you done.

Is it recommended to repeat the questions as well?

dustervoice

repeat if you are getting them incorrect... read explanations

IMalik

I will be taking CISA in December as well, I would suggest to take the tests in DB chapter-wise, go over the chapter in CRM and then customize in DB to take the test for only that chapter. That way you'll understand which part of the chapter you need to focus on and once you have gone through all the chapters then start taking the practice exam. Hopefully this will improve your score.

This method helped me a lot and now I am averaging at 85%

mokaz

Hi all,

What would be a safe average you'd say? I'm at 75% at the moment, haven't seen all the questions yet, doing 50 by 50 questions a sessions and two sessions a day...

Thanks,
cheers,
m.

dustervoice

They say you should aim for 80% but 70-80 is fine.

IMalik

I would strongly suggest to go through as many questions as you possibly can. Gradually increase the number of question you take at a time to build up the stamina for real exam with 200 questions.

Good Luck.

gabequinn

Thanks for the input guys! How's everyone doing with one week left? Just slamming MCQs?

akhilesh_rb

Dont know if I can make it through this one since been busy for the pas few weeks with workload. Fingers crossed.

mokaz

akhilesh_rb wrote: »

Dont know if I can make it through this one since been busy for the pas few weeks with workload. Fingers crossed.

Yep, same thing here, and traveling everyday.. well, let's see what happen - I've cut and paste every single questions explanations I've had wrong in a document which i'll review strongly before the exam... Some questions are also sometimes very well, bizarre so to say - like what is the best method to erase magnetic tapes / a=degauss them / b=burn them... = degauss them because burning them would prevent their reuse.. I can tell you from the field that some of my customers are physically destroying every single cyber media that shall quit their enterprise by clearly destroying them - so it's really subjective indeed... haaa well

RohanKinhikar

Hi all,
I have registered for CISA DECEMBER-2015.
I am finding few of the questions very bizarre, such as the one about destruction of digital media as mentioned above. Another confusing question is about BCP. What is more important with respect to BCP --- Contacts of key individuals ? or periodic test results ?
Anyone else struggling with these questions ?

gabequinn

Another confusing question is about BCP. What is more important with respect to BCP --- Contacts of key individuals ? or periodic test results ?

It really depends on the question. In some instances it's making sure the appropriate people are contacted, in others it's making sure the plan is tested. Read the question very carefully!

dustervoice

I'm struggling with about 80% of these questions. In Organisations that i've worked, we have done things differently so thinking in the mind frame of Isaca is really challenging. Not to mention the wording of the questions. Sometimes it makes me wonder if i'm reading English. Like why does the questions have to be worded so strangely? anyway im averaging about 72% 2 days before the test hopefully i can really push it to at least 80% by end of day tommorow.

gabequinn

In the same boat here duster- averaging around 73%. The wording reminds me of the Auditing portion of the CPA exam, very vague and strangely worded questions! Good luck to you!

IMalik

I have noticed that ISACA is very particular about the wording of the questions. In certain questions the focus is on words like "effectiveness of BCP", "adequacy of BCP", "Clarity of BCP", now here comes the tricky part ... they all have different answers.
You would test:
Effectiveness of BCP ---> results of previous tests
Adequacy of BCP ---->compare to standards
Clarity of BCP ----> interview stakeholders

Frustrating Isn't it? there are so many questions like these and its almost impossible to remember the specifics of each topic.

dustervoice

This is where i prefer ISC2 over Isaca because isc2 tests concepts and understanding not trickery of English words and terminologies.