Passed CISA today - 11-Jan-2019

sumeetgandhi

Hi All,

I passed CISA today, got the prelim pass screen. Exam was good and some questions were really nice, in our day to day life we see the things but we never wonder why is it like that. Will come to know the score in 10 days.

References used:

1. This blog - big thanks to all the people who responded to my queries over the months
2. QA DB - gone through once with another pass focusing on incorrect ones only
3. CISA-Study-Guide-4th-Edition - much much better than the crm - read once full and second pass quick
4. CISA Exam- Study Guide by Hemang Doshi - super easy and short manual - read twice
5. Sari Greene videos - highly recommend, it will clear some concepts well - watched once

Thanks again everyone.

Regards
Sumeet

COBOL_DOS_ERA

Congrats on the Pass Sumeet!! 👍So, what's next?

sumeetgandhi

promethuschow said:

Congrats on the Pass Sumeet!! 👍So, what's next?

Thank you! I am looking to get into full cloud mode now. Azure / GCP / AWS and cover their security part as well. Any suggestions?

averageguy72

Congrats!

COBOL_DOS_ERA

Since you already have AWS cert why not stick with it for now, and down the line Maybe GCP. As for Azure, let MSFT sort out there indifferences with it, then maybe you could go for it.

ksm

sumeetgandhi said:

Hi All,

I passed CISA today, got the prelim pass screen. Exam was good and some questions were really nice, in our day to day life we see the things but we never wonder why is it like that. Will come to know the score in 10 days.

References used:

1. This blog - big thanks to all the people who responded to my queries over the months
2. QA DB - gone through once with another pass focusing on incorrect ones only
3. CISA-Study-Guide-4th-Edition - much much better than the crm - read once full and second pass quick
4. CISA Exam- Study Guide by Hemang Doshi - super easy and short manual - read twice
5. Sari Greene videos - highly recommend, it will clear some concepts well - watched once

Thanks again everyone.

Regards
Sumeet

Hi Sumeet, congratulations on passing!

I have my exam on the 23rd. I would be really grateful, if you could answer the following:
1. Were there any concepts the exam was heavy in covering?
2. Did you have to purchase Sari Greene's videos?

sumeetgandhi

averageguy72 said:

Congrats!

Thank you !!

sumeetgandhi

ksm said:

sumeetgandhi said:

Hi All,

I passed CISA today, got the prelim pass screen. Exam was good and some questions were really nice, in our day to day life we see the things but we never wonder why is it like that. Will come to know the score in 10 days.

References used:

1. This blog - big thanks to all the people who responded to my queries over the months
2. QA DB - gone through once with another pass focusing on incorrect ones only
3. CISA-Study-Guide-4th-Edition - much much better than the crm - read once full and second pass quick
4. CISA Exam- Study Guide by Hemang Doshi - super easy and short manual - read twice
5. Sari Greene videos - highly recommend, it will clear some concepts well - watched once

Thanks again everyone.

Regards
Sumeet

Hi Sumeet, congratulations on passing!

I have my exam on the 23rd. I would be really grateful, if you could answer the following:
1. Were there any concepts the exam was heavy in covering?
2. Did you have to purchase Sari Greene's videos?

Hi,

Thanks!

1. No, exam covered all the domains pretty well, nothing appeared to be specific topic heavy.
2. I already spent a lot of money (from my own pocket as my company does not reimburse even a cent) for all other materials, I read in a few places that Sari Greene's videos are good. Then I checked and found that its a lot more expensive which I was in no position to buy. Then I did some googling around for quite sometime and found it (not all but most of them I guess).

What all materials are you using currently?

ksm

Hi,

Thanks!

1. No, exam covered all the domains pretty well, nothing appeared to be specific topic heavy.
2. I already spent a lot of money (from my own pocket as my company does not reimburse even a cent) for all other materials, I read in a few places that Sari Greene's videos are good. Then I checked and found that its a lot more expensive which I was in no position to buy. Then I did some googling around for quite sometime and found it (not all but most of them I guess).

What all materials are you using currently?

Thanks for the reply Sumeet.

I'm currently using Hemang Doshi's material on his website, and also the ISACA QAE and Study Manual. To be honest, I'm finding the study manual to be extremely dry. 
I would be grateful, if you could send me any materials that helped you, or a link to Sari Greene's material?

Also, I have heard from a lot of my colleagues that the actual CISA exam is not very technical, did you find that was the case for you?

sumeetgandhi

ksm said:

Hi,

Thanks!

1. No, exam covered all the domains pretty well, nothing appeared to be specific topic heavy.
2. I already spent a lot of money (from my own pocket as my company does not reimburse even a cent) for all other materials, I read in a few places that Sari Greene's videos are good. Then I checked and found that its a lot more expensive which I was in no position to buy. Then I did some googling around for quite sometime and found it (not all but most of them I guess).

What all materials are you using currently?

Thanks for the reply Sumeet.

I'm currently using Hemang Doshi's material on his website, and also the ISACA QAE and Study Manual. To be honest, I'm finding the study manual to be extremely dry. 
I would be grateful, if you could send me any materials that helped you, or a link to Sari Greene's material?

Also, I have heard from a lot of my colleagues that the actual CISA exam is not very technical, did you find that was the case for you?

Hi,

Yes its true, the questions were not technical, but to answer them would technical understanding to some extent. The link from which I got the videos is no more active, I got it few months back. Isaca need to make the manuals more interesting like other authors do, then only people will read them. I also had the manual but it was total waste of money I would say. The other book that I mentioned is nice. Now since you have less days you must be spending time in doing practice questions.

sumeetgandhi

Got the results email now, 

Overall score - 640

Job Practice Area                                                                                              Scaled Score

The Process of Auditing Information Systems                                                     541

Governance and Management of IT                                                                    655

Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation                  716

Information Systems Operations, Maintenance and Service Management         686

Protection of Information Assets                                                                          617

First domain's score looks crappy, not sure why, maybe got swayed away by ISACA wordings in the questions. They have changed the way the email gets sent, it looks really suspicious to me at first (unlike the CISM score email). They ask to download the email attachment (html) and then follow the steps in it. Not a user friendly way at all and at first looks like some phishing attempt. But then I opened the ISACA portal to see if the scores are updated there atleast.

COBOL_DOS_ERA

Congrats!!! Sumeet. I believe that's should put you in the top  5-10% for the Asia region for the CISA exam. That's one of the highest scores I have seen for CISA.

sumeetgandhi

promethuschow said:

Congrats!!! Sumeet. I believe that's should put you in the top  5-10% for the Asia region for the CISA exam. That's one of the highest scores I have seen for CISA.

Thank you sir!
How and where do I check that part ? In the email nothing of such kind was mentioned. 

COBOL_DOS_ERA

Unfortunately, there is no way you can check that out unless you received an e-mail from them. 

This one about being the 2nd highest CISA scorer for South Africa.

https://www.slideshare.net/SimangaShongwe/cisa-exam-top-scorer-simangaliso-robert-shongwe-3

This is from ISACA, listing top score for each exam(worldwide for 2017)
http://www.isaca.org/About-ISACA/Volunteering/Pages/ISACA-Awards.aspx

Certification Top Scores

The following individuals received the highest scores worldwide for the CISA, CISM, CRISC, CGEIT and CSX Practitioner certification exams during 2017.

CISA (tie)
Don Morgan
Guy Buxton, AIFS, CPFA

CISM
Alexey Baksalyar, CISA, CISM

CGEIT
Rolf Rexson Serrao, PMP, ITIL, CSM, CSO

CRISC
Robert GC Blyth, MA, DPhil, FCA, CISA

CSX Practitioner (tie)
Koby Zvirsh, CSXP
Spyridon Dosis, CSXP

sumeetgandhi

promethuschow said:

Unfortunately, there is no way you can check that out unless you received an e-mail from them. 

This one about being the 2nd highest CISA scorer for South Africa.

https://www.slideshare.net/SimangaShongwe/cisa-exam-top-scorer-simangaliso-robert-shongwe-3

This is from ISACA, listing top score for each exam(worldwide for 2017)
http://www.isaca.org/About-ISACA/Volunteering/Pages/ISACA-Awards.aspx

Certification Top Scores

The following individuals received the highest scores worldwide for the CISA, CISM, CRISC, CGEIT and CSX Practitioner certification exams during 2017.

CISA (tie)
Don Morgan
Guy Buxton, AIFS, CPFA

CISM
Alexey Baksalyar, CISA, CISM

CGEIT
Rolf Rexson Serrao, PMP, ITIL, CSM, CSO

CRISC
Robert GC Blyth, MA, DPhil, FCA, CISA

CSX Practitioner (tie)
Koby Zvirsh, CSXP
Spyridon Dosis, CSXP

Thanks for the insight, unfortunately I have not recd any email indicating this. Its ok, I am not that much concerned about all that as I know there are much greater minds out there.

sumeetgandhi

ksm said:

sumeetgandhi said:

Hi All,

I passed CISA today, got the prelim pass screen. Exam was good and some questions were really nice, in our day to day life we see the things but we never wonder why is it like that. Will come to know the score in 10 days.

References used:

1. This blog - big thanks to all the people who responded to my queries over the months
2. QA DB - gone through once with another pass focusing on incorrect ones only
3. CISA-Study-Guide-4th-Edition - much much better than the crm - read once full and second pass quick
4. CISA Exam- Study Guide by Hemang Doshi - super easy and short manual - read twice
5. Sari Greene videos - highly recommend, it will clear some concepts well - watched once

Thanks again everyone.

Regards
Sumeet

Hi Sumeet, congratulations on passing!

I have my exam on the 23rd. I would be really grateful, if you could answer the following:
1. Were there any concepts the exam was heavy in covering?
2. Did you have to purchase Sari Greene's videos?

Hi @ksm how was your exam, as you mentioned it was yesterday.