Passed CISA Exam on 12 September
Hello to all,
I would like to mention my CISA experience for May- September 2018 window.
I am an auditor with 10 years of experience, mainly on process audits. For last 3 years, I have involved with the IT Processes and internal controls regarding IT.
Tools I used: For exam study, I received CISA Review Manuel ( 26th Ed) from my friend but it was pretty boring so I decided not to use and keep it only for informative purpose and I bought QAE from ISACA Online in the beginning of July.
Some quantitative info: Every weekday, except for 2 weeks of annual leave - c.a. 33 days, I studied and solved questions in database . Since I have already passed CIA and CFE, I have experienced my learning method is always "solving questions and practicing" other than reading, reviewing, highlighting etc books. I have seen all 999 questions in database and kept solving same questions again and again. ( 2963 attempts) My average trending scores were %84, 74, 76, 72, 75 respectively for 5 domains.
Exam: I can not say that the exam was easy nor hard but I can say there are many choices sound very similar and I had to guess very carefully on which choice can make ISACA happy. I remember that I 've seen only 4-5 questions in QAE and there 7-8 technical questions that I have no clue about. Almost every questions were 1 or 2 sentence questions containing "most appropriate, best technique, first action for an auditor, example of xxxx, greatest factor" etc... there was no diagram, chart, true-false, select that apply question.
Time is more than enough for 150 questions, honesty I had more than 1 hour when I finished solving and reviewing questions including flagged one.
I am not a native English person but I studied in English for this course and generally work in English, however I took the exam my mother language. If I needed take the exam again, I would definitely prefer an English one.
Getting results: I saw the result exactly on screen when I completed the exam and received official result in 10th days (8 working days) After I gathered all past experiences and verifications documents and paid certification fee, I received certificate confirmation in one day. Now, I am waiting for my certificate to be issued and delivered.
What I could do differently, if I need to take the exam again: I could set an earlier exam date ( 1-2 weeks before) because after a while, it doesn't matter how much questions you solved but whether you got the perspective of ISACA or not. Other than that, do not get drowned memorizing questions on QAE, abbreviations, technical steps but have a general understanding of work flows and how to audit them according to IIA and ISACA standards. To keep everything in your mind, try to make connections to your daily work life ( if you are working in an "ideal" company)
Good Luck for everyone and thanks again for all of contributions you made in this forum.
xerox
I would like to mention my CISA experience for May- September 2018 window.
I am an auditor with 10 years of experience, mainly on process audits. For last 3 years, I have involved with the IT Processes and internal controls regarding IT.
Tools I used: For exam study, I received CISA Review Manuel ( 26th Ed) from my friend but it was pretty boring so I decided not to use and keep it only for informative purpose and I bought QAE from ISACA Online in the beginning of July.
Some quantitative info: Every weekday, except for 2 weeks of annual leave - c.a. 33 days, I studied and solved questions in database . Since I have already passed CIA and CFE, I have experienced my learning method is always "solving questions and practicing" other than reading, reviewing, highlighting etc books. I have seen all 999 questions in database and kept solving same questions again and again. ( 2963 attempts) My average trending scores were %84, 74, 76, 72, 75 respectively for 5 domains.
Exam: I can not say that the exam was easy nor hard but I can say there are many choices sound very similar and I had to guess very carefully on which choice can make ISACA happy. I remember that I 've seen only 4-5 questions in QAE and there 7-8 technical questions that I have no clue about. Almost every questions were 1 or 2 sentence questions containing "most appropriate, best technique, first action for an auditor, example of xxxx, greatest factor" etc... there was no diagram, chart, true-false, select that apply question.
Time is more than enough for 150 questions, honesty I had more than 1 hour when I finished solving and reviewing questions including flagged one.
I am not a native English person but I studied in English for this course and generally work in English, however I took the exam my mother language. If I needed take the exam again, I would definitely prefer an English one.
Getting results: I saw the result exactly on screen when I completed the exam and received official result in 10th days (8 working days) After I gathered all past experiences and verifications documents and paid certification fee, I received certificate confirmation in one day. Now, I am waiting for my certificate to be issued and delivered.
What I could do differently, if I need to take the exam again: I could set an earlier exam date ( 1-2 weeks before) because after a while, it doesn't matter how much questions you solved but whether you got the perspective of ISACA or not. Other than that, do not get drowned memorizing questions on QAE, abbreviations, technical steps but have a general understanding of work flows and how to audit them according to IIA and ISACA standards. To keep everything in your mind, try to make connections to your daily work life ( if you are working in an "ideal" company)
Good Luck for everyone and thanks again for all of contributions you made in this forum.
xerox
Comments
-
FSF150
Member Posts: 119 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats on your pass!
The ISACA QAE databases are probably the best prep tools out there. Used it for both CISA and CRISC.First we drink the coffee. Then we do the things.
-
ger_saf
Member Posts: 17 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats,
Mine is scheduled on 26th Nov. Still watching CISA Video Course By Sari then after I will purchase QAE.
Hopefully both prep material will help, since I have only 4 in PCI DSS assessment. -
averageguy72
Member Posts: 323 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats!CISSP / CCSP / CCSK / CRISC / CISM / CISA / CASP / Security+ / Network+ / A+ / CEH / eNDP / AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty / AWS Certified Security - Specialty / AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional / AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional / AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate / AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate / AWS Certified Developer - Associate / AWS Cloud Practitioner -
COBOL_DOS_ERA
Member Posts: 205 ■■■■■□□□□□
Congrats!!CISM, CRISC, CGEIT, PMP, PMI-ACP, SEC+, ITIL V3, A-CSM. And Many More.
