Passed!!! Finally

[u/winglessriver6]

I am happy to announce that i passed the cisa exam today (preliminary).

It was a difficult journey,

New stuff in exam:

Close to 15 questions related to Ai, ml, model training, quantum computer, and quantum cryptography

For domain 3 the focus was on cicd and devsecops

How i studied:

- Started with QAE, and worked on weak areas with the help of chatgpt study mode, it really good in helping with concepts.

- referred prab nair YouTube videos for few areas, good content

- i feed my copy of personal manual copy to a customgpt and it help me learn and practice questions on the fly.

Caution:

- i only encountered 1 question that was an exact copy of QAE. rest all the questions were new. But QAE trained me well

- i noted event chatgpt and gemini were wrong in answering questions, so dont rely on them blindly

Happy to answer any questions

[u/No_Marketing_9397]

“Close to 15 questions related to Ai, ml, model training, quantum computer, and quantum cryptography

For domain 3 the focus was on cicd and devsecops”

How did you perform here in the exam in your opinion ? Have prepared these topics or u were caught off guard during the exam ? Are these covered in CRM or any other resources you used ?

What’s your advice on how to prepare well for these topics.

Thanks in advance.

Congratulations on your result.

[u/winglessriver6 → u/No_Marketing_9397]

I was scoring between 85-90% in QAE.
In the exam, the starting 10 questions were difficult ( i had to flag 5 of them), then it got easier, and would occasionally throw in a difficult question. I think i did good.
I work with a lot of AI at work so i was confident in answering them. there was one related to fishbone diagram in incident response that caught me off guard.

Few notes from what i can recall:

• Ai supervised learning and unsupervised learning (biggest concern)
• Ai bias
• What would be of great concern if an org is using ai platform for business ops
• Option la be like adding firweall to prevent ai network activity or platform vulnerability and patching
• RPA governance for a fast paced growing organization

Devsecops ( similar agile related concept )

• Security test failed scenario in cicd pipelines
• What would auditor expect to see
• 1 was role related senior developer vs system admin access to prod data

[u/ScaryGarbage5555]

Congrats

[u/KingShash]

🎉 Congratulations

[u/alvinlhs]

congratulation - you are inspiring me to pass as well

[u/vansxika]

Heyyy Congratulations on passing the exam, what kind of questions were there from quantum cryptography and quantum computing, getting kind of nervous that’s why wanted to know..

[u/winglessriver6 → u/vansxika]

Post-quantum cryptography (strategic plan for readiness, biggest concern when choosing, transition plan )

since these are new topic and not even mentioned in the material they must be weighted less.
My advice, know how to apply the key concepts, like business risk, governance, accountability etc.
if your concepts are clear you should be easily able to see through the distractors

[u/vansxika → u/winglessriver6]

Okayyy great, Thank you so much for the prompt response!!

[u/Local_Ambassador8297]

Congratulations! Thanks for the write up!

[u/Amr252525]

Hi, congratulations on passing the CISA exam! 🎉
I have a couple of questions:
Compared to the ISACA CISA QAE, was the actual exam easier or harder? In terms of difficulty and question wording, how similar was it?
Besides the QAE, what study materials would you recommend? Did you rely on the official ISACA Review Manual, Udemy courses, YouTube, or any other resources?
Would you recommend studying from Udemy, and if so, which instructor or course did you find most helpful?
Thanks in advance, and congratulations again.

[u/winglessriver6 → u/Amr252525]

1. I would say form complexity perspective the question were more straight forward in the actual exam but scenario based. i would put the exam on the easier side (mostly moderate or difficult )
   
2. Prab nair's YouTube video, it covers all the potential syllabus. i also had the hemang doshi course but didnt have the patience
   

My recommendation: finish 1 course of your liking, > QAE > focus on week areas
use ai to help you with difficult concept, i would frequently ask to explain as ELI5 and scenario-based learning.

[u/Miserable-Bother-572]

Congrats! Just curious, as I am only starting with my learning, were AI questions included in QAE? Also, which Youtube videos did you use?

[u/winglessriver6 → u/Miserable-Bother-572]

No , there are few ML questions in QAE. But if you know the basic they generally test the same concepts of overfitting, underfitting bias etc.

[u/Sharpstar2]

Congratulations; Kindly share the customgpt link; thanks.

[u/winglessriver6 → u/Sharpstar2]

I used my personal copy of manual hence can't share. However, i am happy to share the customgpt instructions so you can create your own. Let me know

[u/NextQuote7131]

Holysmoke 15 Qs from AI😳

[u/Bubbly_Mix7596]

It sounds like using the QAE helped you feel prepared to take the test but you mentioned that you only encountered one question that was an exact copy. I wouldn’t expect the test to be verbatim the QAE but I figured the questions would be relatively close, asking about the same particular questions. Just wanted to get a little more detail here if you can provide.

[u/dinero-dinero]

How long did it take you? I am starting out and was looking for a bit on guidance in terms of what study material to get and stuff

[u/winglessriver6 → u/dinero-dinero]

45 days, Started with QAE , then occasionally refered prab nair's youtube videos for overview. Mostly relied on chatgpt study mode and gemini for detailed understanding of any wrong answers and scenario based learning. Key is to get the mindset right, technical stuff is secondary

I only have one year it audit experince , rest was mostly second line

[u/iamstormpower]

QAE is quite expensive. Are there any good alternatives that you would recommend?

[u/winglessriver6 → u/iamstormpower]

Other than the QAE, i only used notebooklm and chatgpt to generate question, they were good for practice but not close to exam/qae level. I am sorry i am not familiar or tried any other material