Preliminary Passed 20/05
BananaIsland19
Member Posts: 1 ■■□□□□□□□□
I got a preliminary pass on 20/05, apologies for the late update. I’ve been shadowing this thread for a while and the experiences shared on here have been invaluable to me. I’ll like to give back by sharing my experience too...
Background: Work in IT, 7 years of experience in roles across SDLC (Agile & Waterfall projects) and Assurance, and last two years in technology risk and control. Got a bachelor’s and masters in Business Management and Technology, so know a bit about tech. 😊
Study: I studied over a 6month period; I didn’t want to rush myself to sit for the exam. Also, I wanted to understand and enjoy the process as well. Studied for 2hrs every weekend for the first 3 months. By the fourth month, I was studying 5hrs every weekend. By this time, I’d finished reading CRM (which was painfully dry). My colleagues at work suggested that the best approach is to do all the questions, per domain, in the QAE database and then read the corresponding domain in CRM. Magically, that worked for me, and I noticed that I started absorbing the information in CRM.
Fast forward to the fifth and sixth month, I’d done 8 practice exams (average score was 93%) and my ready score was 94%. Weeks leading up to the exam, I decided to give ITAF (ISACA standard) a go, read it all, I recommend it, it’s ISACA’s bible of IT Audit. During this time, I also watched Hemang Doshi’s videos and decided to give back by buying his CISA guide on Amazon. All these materials were enriching and helped during the exam. In summary, I used the following during my study:
· CRM
· QAE Database
· HD videos & guide
· ITAF
· Miscellaneous (Sari Greene’s video, IIA standard)
Exam: The questions in the exam was totally different from the QAE and I ended up flagging the first 20 questions. But I was glad when the majority of the questions were around what an auditor should do in a given scenario – which ITAF was all about. I finished all the questions in 3.5 hrs and decided not to review any of the flagged questions because my brain was fried at this point. I submitted and saw something like PASSED; I couldn’t read all the words on the screen because I needed a drink badly. I called ISACA two days after and it was confirmed that I PASSED and got an email to that effect. I’ll keep you posted on my score.
Overall, like others have said, anyone can ace CISA exam with enough preparation and experience.