CISM Passed/Observation of ISACAs' Exams

AuditDude

My timeline: purchased the CISM Review Questions & Answers online subscription on 6/5/2017, took the exam this morning (6/15/2017). Slightly under 20 hours worth of study time, per the subscription, which tracks time spent answering questions. At the end of the computer based test, I was given a "preliminary pass."

This is the 3rd ISACA exam I have taken and passed, all on the first try, all taking under 75 minutes to complete. If your intention is to take more than one ISACA exam, I would recommend not waiting to long in between exams, as to leverage the similarity and complementary nature of the questions across exams.

talbert80

Congratulations, AuditDude! Did you receive your official result yet? I took the CISM exam today (6/30/17) and had a preliminary 'passed' as well. I used the following ISACA Publications:
- Business Model for Information Security (BMIS)
- Information Security Governance: Guidance for Boards of Directors and Executive Management
- COBIT 5 Implementation
- COBIT 5 for Information Security
- one chapter of the CISM Review Manual 15th Edition ebook (very dry)

I also reviewed the NIST Business Continuity, Risk Management, and Incident Response Handling Guides (know the process in each NIST publications!) and Cybrary CISM video course. I reviewed the CCCURE practice test engine, but read more into the governance, risk, and compliance publications.

I studied a good ten days before the test. I have the CISSP, SSCP, HCISPP, COBIT 5 Foundation and Implementation certifications. I also recommend taking ISACA exams close together. Many of the exams have similar flow. The same goes for ISC2 exams. I took the CISSP in April 2015 and failed the first time (tried using work experience to answer questions...), took the SSCP that same weekend, the HCISPP in July, and passed the CISSP in September.