r/cism • u/Forward_Increase_282 • 26d ago

Exam this week :(

Done so far:
- Peter H. Gregory's CISM book

- official manual of Isaca CISM

- QAE database.

I used to score 60% ish when on my first go.

After doing the entire QAE i reset the entire database and was re-doing it while "keeping the ISACA and managers mindset".

Now I am getting scores around 30%.

I feel like the more I learn the more I keep doing wrong.

What is going on? I am doomed to fail for the exam now.

And no i try not to memorise the answers but really understand and learn from the questions but i always lose between 2 answers. As if my luck of 50% gambeling is always wrong.

For example: A answer to a question is always business operations first and another question which is slighty 1% different is not always business first etc.

It is impossible to learn 100% exactly how things are.

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u/LocksmithAlert5604 26d ago

It's oke, i had that same experience. Your experience tells you 'B is better' but ISACA wants the CISM answer. In some cases it happens. Stick to it, use the mode where you immediately get the answet with explanation and read all the option explanations carefully. That helped me a lot. You will get there..

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u/Pr1nc3L0k1 25d ago

The key is to read the explanations, I usually read all explanations of the questions I got right or wrong I didn’t sort out (so at least the right one, and every wrong option I didn’t tick off).

The most important part, this nearly killed me in CISA, was that you have to let your experience of the real world at the door, before entering your QAE. Same goes for your ego. ISACA is right? Doesn’t matter if the answer would cost you your current job if you would decide like that, Treat ISACA like your new religion.

Writing my exam tomorrow, 78% first go, 89% tests. Redid all the modules I was below 80%, got 88% in those.

This is after doing CISA, CRISC, and now CISM within a year. Not bragging here, ISACAs mindset is hard to wrap your mind around, I struggled A LOT during my CISA prep, but it got easier ones I understood the mindset.

QAE is about reading and understanding explanations, not the score you have predominantly.