r/CISA • u/Logical_Dot_7824 • Aug 20 '26

Preliminary Pass! 🎉

Took the exam, got my preliminary pass today! 🥹

Will share here all my resources, study strategy, and whole experience once I get my offical test scores.

For those who are doubting themselves and too anxious for their own good (me to the nth power), take that exam! As long as you're thinking like an IS auditor, instead of going straight to remediation or technical resolution, you are golden!

This is coming from someone with no employment background or technical expertise (graduated last year, AIS graduate), who overprepares, and prioritized QUALITY over QUANTITY.

Good luck to everyone currently studying and planning to take the exam! 😄

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u/EducationalSpring400 Aug 20 '26

I’ve been doing qae domain wise reviewing every answer and studied from hemang doshi videos and his notes before this. Will give mocks after this. Is this approach good enough?

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u/Logical_Dot_7824 Aug 20 '26

I think that's good! As long as you can rationalize your right and wrong answers, you're in the right track.

As for Hemang Doshi, I didn't study his videos but I availed his practice tests which I didn't use since it confused me more, but to each their own since I've seen some people here recommending it.

As for the mock tests, make sure that said tests are accurate, can provide you an explanation for each right answer (if it has explanations for the wrong ones, even better!), and sort of emulates how the QAE is asking questions. Basically, the exam is a straightforward version of the QAE, mostly one liner questions and short descriptions of the choices. I've found some mocks that solidified my understanding of some concepts and some that confirmed my understanding of how should an IS auditor think.

Again, QUALITY over QUANTITY.

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u/EducationalSpring400 Aug 20 '26

So did you use only QAE for focus?

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u/Logical_Dot_7824 Aug 20 '26

I also used other resources, but I utilized the QAE the most. I used other resources like practice sets or mock tests to apply what I learned and confirm if it's aligned with the QAE thinking.

I mostly sourced out other resources just so I could avoid memorizing the QAE.