As a globally renowned certification for IS audit, control, and security professionals, passing the CISA exam can be quite a challenge especially for those who are taking the exam for the first time. These are some CISA exam strategy tips:
- If you are new to the profession, spare adequate time to prepare before the exam. Read the CISA review manual thoroughly line by line and make a time plan. Be sure to read The Candidate's Guide to the CISA Exam (see cisaguide)
- It is a multiple choice exam and each option may seem similar to each other. Try to find the best answer to the question, therefore a deep understanding of IT governance, audit, and security terminology is very important. You can access cisaguide for technical terms in English along with how they will appear on the exam in each other language offered as well as glossary and acronyms applicable to CISA exam.
- If you are having difficulties to commit learning independently, you can also consider attended a CISA review course. ISACA provide CISA Review courses in numerous ISACA chapters and Online Review Course (see elearning).
- Consistently practice the CISA practice questions. By consistently practicing to answer the questions, you will be familiarized with the reasoning and pattern on how to answer exam questions so the faster you can answer it right. There are no penalties for incorrect exams so try to fill in all the questions.
- If you are unfamiliar with the exam location, spare your time to come to the location before the exam day so you are better prepared for the route and the traffic. It is imperative to be prompt because it will take time to register and based on ISACA rule no candidate will be admitted to the test center once the chief examiner begins reading the oral instructions which is approximately 30 minutes before the exam begins.
- Prepare for supporting items during the exam. You must bring several sharpened No. 2 or HB (soft lead) pencils and a good eraser since they will not be available at the test center. Some people cannot take the cold temperature in the exam room so you may want to bring warm clothes to warm up yourself. Try to eliminate any distractions during the exam.
- Be fit for the exam. Have enough food intakes before the exam and don’t stay up late the night before the exam.
Good luck!
DISCLAIMER:
While these tips may be useful, they do not provide assurance of success for the CISA exam.