CISA 12-08-12 Who's taking it?

YuckTheFankees

I'm most likely in, who else? You have until 10/03/2012 to register.

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F_A_H_D

i already registered

am studying career academy videos

what about u ??

YuckTheFankees

I'm reading the All in One CISA book, after that..I'll buy some practice exams. I heard the All in One book should be sufficient (along with practice exams).

F_A_H_D

good

i finished module one watching careeracademy videos after that i tried to solve questions i failed in most not because the career academy is poor that because really the practice questions is tricky

i think we shouldnt care about that study materials as much as focus on the practice

i believe we should spend 70% of the study hours on the practice

me also i will buy the downloadable questions practice software from ISACA its 185 for members and 225 for non-members

All in One book from learnkey ? what is the publishing date ?

z3mms

I've registered for the exam Dec this year too. I'll be using the same technique i used for passing CISSP which is reading through a reference book once (for CISA, I'm using Sybex) and then focus more on practice questions until I understand the main concepts througout all the domains

F_A_H_D

z3mms
i believe that ur wayof study is the best ... practice is the most important .. u liked sybex book ?

tridibur

I would like to know how time i get for each section for my CISA exam date, therefore,
What is the real-time I would be given that day for the CISA exam for each of the domains:

1) Process of Auditing

2) Govt and mgmt of IT

3) IS acquisition and development

4) IS operations and Maintenance

5) Protection of information of Assets

I know its 4 hours do we get a break after 2 hours?

Thanks!

JayDub211

im taking it in December. been studying since Middle of the month. Got the review manual and the practice Databse. Hoping that studying + experience carries me through

CISPhD

JayDub211 wrote: »

im taking it in December. been studying since Middle of the month. Got the review manual and the practice Databse. Hoping that studying + experience carries me through

Check with your local ISACA chapter to see if they are offering any weekend study groups. I'm taking these now for the CISM exam on Dec 8th and they are proving absolutely invaluable. Not only do you get a look at the material dynamically from an ISACA rep, meaning you get an understanding of what their thought processes were when they wrote it, but you get the experience, feedback, and point-of-view of a myriad of other industry professionals.

JayDub211

CISPhD wrote: »

Check with your local ISACA chapter to see if they are offering any weekend study groups. I'm taking these now for the CISM exam on Dec 8th and they are proving absolutely invaluable. Not only do you get a look at the material dynamically from an ISACA rep, meaning you get an understanding of what their thought processes were when they wrote it, but you get the experience, feedback, and point-of-view of a myriad of other industry professionals.

Thanks! I didnt have time to do that as I was travelling for work. Hopefully, I will be able to pass. I have 5 years IT Audit experience, and have been doing well with the database

newmove

Goodluck everyone!

CISPhD

newmove wrote: »

Goodluck everyone!

For as much as I've been studying, I don't think luck is going to have anything to do with it. >

Quick tangent here, is there such a thing as studying too much?

paul78

CISPhD wrote: »

Quick tangent here, is there such a thing as studying too much?

I don't have any experience with that issue

I decided to register for the CRISC - just started my exam preparation. Should be interesting...

bmac

I'm also taking the exam this Saturday - Birmingham, UK.

I've been using the official CRM and questions database since about July.

I'm very nervous - I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about the exam, some saying it is much harder and nothing like the questions database and others saying it is fairly easy and very similar to the database.

I have found the questions very confusing at times and often argued with it questioning whether it is correct. I have read the CRM 3 times and think it’s very difficult to read. All of this is making me doubt whether I will be able to pass the exam. I guess I will only know when the results are out.

My other main concern is the pass mark. It’s difficult to know if I am on track when there is no percentage pass mark for the actually exam but the question database is marked on a percentage. It would be a lot easier if I knew what percentage 450 related to.

My main point of studying is the questions database. I am finding that I am learning a lot more from getting the questions right or wrong than I am reading the CRM. It helps to understand the way they want you to answer the questions. I’ve answered nearly 5000 questions which I think is way more than enough but it was either answer the questions or watch the rubbish that is on UK TV at times!

Sorry for the rant, I’ve just spent so long studying for this that I don’t want it to be to waste.

CISPhD

@bmac

I've had the materials since around July as well, but have only really been studying seriously since about October. I've been using the CRM, dynamic question database offered by ISACA, and the CBT training series offered for last year's exam. I've also been meeting with my local ISACA chapter on a weekly basis to form study groups, as well as taking the CISM boot camp offered by New Horizon (Fairly useless).

Throughout all of that interaction, I've had an opportunity to interview many people who are very closely tied with ISACA, including perspectives from those around involved with: grading of the exams, recent "passers" of this years exam, question development, organizational governance, and curriculum developers. That being said, the questions in the database are fairly similar to those on the exam. The questions on the exam are a bit more "wordy" than those in the question database, but I'm told it is to our (the test taker's) advantage. The extra wording often provides the additional clarification required to select the "best" answer. Very rarely is the extra information erroneous in nature. Hopefully this extra information helps to address the "confusion" you mentioned in your comment.

Regarding the CRM... I found reading hieroglyphs more educating than that lump of garbage text. The content is very dry, half the book is a supercharged table of contents, and their ability to transition between materials is abysmal at best. However, I doubt ISACA is concerned with the recent reviews of their latest publication.

On that note, I've found reading each "paragraph" and writing down, in a single sentence what that section of the text is trying to convey helped me to understand (and memorize) the key points.

Regarding the passing percentage... A best estimate, according to exam designers, is around a 75%. It's hard to exactly judge a passing percentage because you need a minimum score in each section as well as getting a 450. However, getting a minimum score in each section will not get you a 450. That is to say, you can get the minimum score in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th domain, and do really well in the 1st domain, and still pass the exam. Other factors going into the score are there are 25 questions on the exam that are not graded... they are merely experimental questions that have the potential to be in future exams. Additionally, your score starts in the 200s, not at zero. So a 450/800 does not mean ~57%. Obviously a 57% is not enough to demonstrate mastery of the skills tested in the CISM.

The practice exams suggests a passing score of 85%... If you can consistently achieve that in the exam database... you stand a fair chance of performing well enough on the exam to pass.

Regarding study method... I'd suggest you lock yourself in the room with some test databases for the next couple days. I learned more from the exam databases and explanations than I learned from the CRM, boot camp, study sessions, CBT videos, and other books combined.

I hope this post answered more questions than it created, and at least made a dent in your exam anxiety.

paul78

I keep hearing mention of the test engine. It looks like ISACA just released one for the CRISC. Did anyone get it? I doubt that at this late stage, it would be useful but I was curious.

bmac

Thanks for that CISPhD, its helped put my mind at rest some what.

The exam database certainly is useful. It seems to explain things better and it also seams to me that there is content in there that isn't in the CRM. I've just made sure that I've answered every questions correctly at least once. Tomorrows plan in as many questions as possible with a skim read of the CRM and hopefully that will be enough.

CISPhD

PM me your email address and I'll send you some last minute study notes.

paul78

@CISPhD - good info - thanks.

@bmac - thanks for sharing your experience with the exam database. I have the CRISC Q&A book which I find more valuable as well. I had similar experience with the CISM. I am on the fence about the purchasing the CRISC Exam subscription. It only contains an additional 100 hundred questions. So at $1.85 per question - my question to myself is - does the additional compensating control help reduce the residual risk further to support the investment? Since I already accepted the risk, based on the CRISC body of knowledge, I should not purchase it, except the control landscape did change, so I probably should conduct a new risk assessment.

@ everyone else - good luck on Saturday.

bmac

Well I didn't enjoy that. Not looking forward to the results!

tridibur

Hello All,

Just took the test today. hopefully i passed, i only studied from the isaca database questions which prepared you but at the end of course, it's not identical. however just like CISPhD mentioned the extra wording helped you in selecting the best answers. how did you guys do? did anyone took the test in New York?

paul78

Sorry bmac. Hopefully you did ok to pass. Waiting for the results can be just as excruciating.

bmac

I was lucky enough to have enough time to go through it again when i had finished which made me feel a lot better so I haven't lost all hope. At least the next month over christmas will go quickly. There were a few tricky ones i thought that i just had no clue on so i'm hoping they were the research ones.

CISPhD

@BMAC

I studied my butt off for that exam, and I honestly think I passed it... But regarding the several tough questions you had: There were 11 questions I marked for a revisit because I wasn't certain of the answer I had provided. 2 of those 11 I didn't even answer on the first pass. My general multi-choice test methodology is to answer everything the first time through unless you really can't decide on an answer. When I'm done with the test, I go back and answer the questions I really couldn't decide on, and then review the other questions I marked for a second look. I only ever change an answer on the "to be reviewed" questions if I am 100% certain the answer I provided was incorrect. In this particular exam, I changed none as I generally trust my initial gut decision.

The moral of my story is... I feel I nailed this exam, and even I had several questions I wasn't comfortable with. It wasn't because the knowledge wasn't there, rather both answer B and answer D BOTH seemed to answer the question very well, and I had to get into the ISACA mindset to try and provide my best educated guess. Let's just hope all 11 (or at least the 2 I had a hard time answering) were the infamous "practice" questions they put in to test questions for a future exam.

Final point: It isn't uncommon to walk out of a 200 question exam feeling as though you failed. A lot of these questions are vague and/or poorly worded. Look at it this way... You can't do anything about it now, so just relax and enjoy the holidays. If this was the CISSP (back in the day on scan-tron), I'd tell you to start cracking the books in preparation for the small chance you didn't pass, but this is ISACA... you can't take the exam again until June anyway (but you won't have to... right!?). In lieu of that, you have plenty of time to study after you get your marks back (if needed).

Should the unfavorable happen, PM me your email address and I'll coach you further for the June exam. While a lot of my materials apply to the 2012 exam, I have a great deal of material that is universal in the ISACA academia.

Keep us posted!

C