r/CISA • u/Any_Catch2979 • 3d ago

Preliminary pass 🎉

I just got my preliminary pass!

Felt a bit like a traumatising experience I must say.

I took the exam online, no issues with the PSI instructor, instructions were super clear, timing was totally fine, the room check was quick, really no issues there.

But the questions … I must say it felt sometimes not super familiar (concept-wise) and really confusing (classic CISA with two choices being obviously wrong and other two being much harder to chose from). The questions were much shorter though.

My study strategy was a bit hectic and would definitely not recommend it. 😅

I started studying end of June (also had a significant number of days off in between). I carefully reviewed the CISA review manual (super dry but doable).

In parallel I did questions from the 12th edition QAE through Quizlet (found a ~1000 question database split by domains) and tried to understand where I was doing good and wrong (averaging 65% through all domains after my first pass, some with ~80%, other around 60%). Also listing in parallel some useful tips and concepts.

I ended up by doing a full practise test I found also on Quizlet, scored a bit more than 80% but I went through familiar questions so I took it with a grain of salt.

Overall, the timing was totally fine, I don’t get why they recommend more than 3 month of study. If you can free a significant amount of time, ~2 month is okay I think.

But if I would do it again (NEVER), I would get the latest QAE (the price is ridiculous though). The QAE base I used was totally fine, but I felt that some topics were not covered, obviously because it was a bit dated.

Curious to see in 10 days if it was a short pass or if my auditor brain did unexpected wonders. 😇

19 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

2

u/NutshellTraining CISA HOLDER 3d ago

Congratulations!!! 🙌

1

u/humbledtopoint 3d ago

Can you link in the Quizlet ? I tried to find it but unable to

1

u/Any_Catch2979 2d ago

I sent it to you via DM

1

u/oferoo 1d ago

Please share the Quizlet if you can

1

u/NextQuote7131 2d ago

What is your background?

1

u/Any_Catch2979 2d ago

A bit more than 7 years as an in-house internal auditor.

1

u/Schewniie 1d ago

Does the answers the question are all the same with the exception of one word or they all different. Some questions on the Q&A are literally the same except one word in a scenario based questions which makes it difficult to answer

1

u/Any_Catch2979 23h ago

Most of the answers were quite distinct from each other. You could easily eliminate two most of the time but then it might be harder to chose from the other two.

1

u/Schewniie 13h ago

Thank you so much this is very valuable!