CRISC Dec 2016 exam preparation

Rehana44

Hey all,

How are you preparing for this Dec CRISC exam? Review manual and Questions DB would be sufficient for the preparation? I request experts out there in this area to provide some basic guidance. I hear that June CRISC exam was very tough

P.S. I passed CISA (June,2015) and planning for CRISC this Dec.

dustervoice

Yes as you have read from our post the June exam was very difficult. I'm not even sure how to advise you to study as things came up that wasnt in the review manual, IT risk framework, IT risk practice guide or Q&A. Wish i could tell you what i saw without violating the NDA. all have can really say was it was a strange test. I had to look at the test paper about 5 times to make sure i wasnt taking CGEIT or some other strange test i didnt prepare for.

jcundiff

thats odd, dustervoice, I took the CRISC December 2015 and from my experience, I would say the Review Manual, Question DB, and IT Risk Framework would be an appropriate study regimen. Sounds like something went haywire between the 2 exam periods.

December 2015 exam I thought was very straightforward, I was done in about an hour and 20 minutes and passed.

dustervoice

@jucundiff yes something must have went haywire as you said. Really strange there was about 11-15 questions a specific term that was only mentioned in all of the materials only once on a one liner. It is virtual impossible to answer those questions on study material alone. then there was another group of questions that didnt really had anything to do with risk management perse. anyway i will wait for my results to see.

shaanp92

I totally agree with dustervoice, the Reivew Manual and Q&A were definitely not sufficient for the June 2016 CRISC exam. I'm pretty much mentally preparing myself to retake in December 2016, even though scores will not be posted for another 5 weeks or so. Even then, I am not sure what additional materials to use for my second attempt, assuming I did not pass.

oakland

There's a McGraw Hill CRISC book that's very well written and helps to fill in some gaps that the official manual left out. Also comes with 300 questions (id say 75% of the questions are helpful).

dustervoice

should have taken a look at the book. oh well

thehayn1

Oakland is actually wrong- the McGraw Hill book does not cover even half of the material on the June 16 exam. Idk ISACA is trying to do by making the questions so cryptic and not in he study material

mika123

So what else beside from the official material is needed to cover the exam? How much time did you spend for preparation?

dustervoice

mika123 wrote: »

So what else beside from the official material is needed to cover the exam? How much time did you spend for preparation?

Some of the questions you will not find the answer anywhere.. not in the official book, DB or Q&A, etc. the only way would be if someone violated the NDA and tell you what they are. To be honest, if I had to do it over again i wouldve just showed up on test day and give it a try as the official book, Q&A was useless for this exam. I doubt if i saw more than 3-4 items that i said "oh i saw that somewhere in the book or DB" ....again this was just a strange test.

jcundiff

dustervoice wrote: »

@jucundiff yes something must have went haywire as you said. Really strange there was about 11-15 questions a specific term that was only mentioned in all of the materials only once on a one liner. It is virtual impossible to answer those questions on study material alone. then there was another group of questions that didnt really had anything to do with risk management perse. anyway i will wait for my results to see.

I have a co-worker who took it this time around, but I havent had a chance to talk to her regarding her thoughts. From what I have seen, it should have been an easy exam for her ( based on 12/2015). When she gets back in the office, I will talk with her and see if she saw the same thing @dustervoice

thehayn1

dustervoice wrote: »

Some of the questions you will not find the answer anywhere.. not in the official book, DB or Q&A, etc. the only way would be if someone violated the NDA and tell you what they are. To be honest, if I had to do it over again i wouldve just showed up on test day and give it a try as the official book, Q&A was useless for this exam. I doubt if i saw more than 3-4 items that i said "oh i saw that somewhere in the book or DB" ....again this was just a strange test.

That is exactly how I feel, so disappointing because I purchased the DB questions, the official manual, the McGraw Hill book, AND my company paid for a bootcamp from INFOSEC (3day) and I get to the test and the questions seem like they are coming from left field.

Rehana44

@dustervoice, I hope our experience in the Risk management area will be helpful at least. What kind of questions usually show up in the exam? If it is scenario based, may be we could leverage our practical experience to answer the questions. FYI, I work in risk consulting area

dustervoice

Rehana44 wrote: »

@dustervoice, I hope our experience in the Risk management area will be helpful at least. What kind of questions usually show up in the exam? If it is scenario based, may be we could leverage our practical experience to answer the questions. FYI, I work in risk consulting area

The strange questions werent really scenario based they were just focused on one specific thing. about 7-8 questions was basically the same just asked in different ways about a topic not covered much in any study material.

oakland

thehayn1 wrote: »

Oakland is actually wrong- the McGraw Hill book does not cover even half of the material on the June 16 exam. Idk ISACA is trying to do by making the questions so cryptic and not in he study material

True, the McGraw-Hill book doesn't cover every nitty gritty technical detail. The utility for me was that it clearly explained the concepts and gave decent examples (especially for Domains 1 and 2).

One thing that I can absolutely agree with is that ISACAs own material didn't even cover half of what was asked on the exam. On a serious note, it would be a good idea to incorporate test taking strategies into your study routine. The exam goes to great lengths to assess how well you take a multiple choice exam versus actually challenging your actual knowledge of the material.

shaanp92

dustervoice wrote: »

The strange questions werent really scenario based they were just focused on one specific thing. about 7-8 questions was basically the same just asked in different ways about a topic not covered much in any study material.

Exactly! I saw this repeated throughout the test multiple times. I thought I was losing my mind at one point lol