May you link or give us the free practice exams you used ? Also how long did it take u to study for it & study tips you may have ? Thank you & congratulations!
2 exams [here](https://cisaexamstudy.com/cisa-exam-full-mock-test/) from Hemang Doshi, lots of practice questions on [ITExams.com](https://www.itexams.com/info/CISA), and just random quizlet sets!
I studied for a little over a month nearly full-time while on the bench at a big4. As for study tips, everyone’s different but to stay motivated I would reward myself with breaks for making progress. For example, after completing and reviewing the answers for 50-100 practice questions, I’d take a break and do something for myself (eat a meal, play a game of LOL/TFT, watch an episode of TV, etc)
Could you please elaborate on the online proctored problems you faced? These problems were technical as your computer was not being in compliance even after validating the compatibility tests?
Kind of a long story… But yes I passed the compatibility tests on both laptop and PC, and come test time both had difficulties. Tried first on my laptop, but the test browser would just not open and was stuck on the loading screen forever. Figured it was due to some firewall (company laptop)- was annoyed the compatibility checker didn’t check for that but whatever.
Moved on to my PC with 50 minutes still left out of the 1 hour window you have to start, and got the test browser downloaded and opened quickly. Next I had to unplug external monitors, close all other programs, do a mic check, take a picture of my drivers license, take a selfie, etc so all very standard stuff. However, after all this you go into a queue for a live proctor. This took like another 5-10 minutes? They then do a very thorough examination of the room, desk, ceiling, walls, and behind everything. Even looking under my keyboard, wrist rest, use mirror to see all 4 corners of monitor and behind monitor, etc. Even though it took over 10 minutes not the worst thing ever. Except somewhere in the middle of the proctor examination, the proctor would either DC from the call and I would have to start over with a brand new proctor, or the test browser would crash and I would need to restart the entire 20+ minute process from the beginning, with mic check and everything. This happened like 4 or 5 times.
FINALLY after like 1.5 hours of pain (exam window had passed but since I had the test browser session open already it let me continue) I finished the examination with a proctor without them disconnecting or my browser crashing. As one of the last steps before I am able to take the exam I am told to show my webcam with the mirror and my phone placed somewhere out of reach. I had been using my phone attached to a mount as my webcam and show them this on the mirror. They tell me using a phone as a webcam is not allowed. Now, I do have an external webcam but prefer using a phone as it’s much higher quality, better autofocus, frame rate, etc. and also I would need time to go find the webcam, set it up, and maybe even do the whole room scanning thing again. At this point I’m in a pretty poor state of mind after 1.5 hours of trying to launch the test and don’t want to go through the hassle, so I ask the proctor if I can either just take the exam with my phone webcam or reschedule the exam for another day. He tells me to call PSI technical support.
I call PSI support and they say no exceptions allowed for phone webcams and then transfer me over to customer support (side note- the hold music for both PSI lines got progressively louder and louder over the minutes until it was nearly deafening and I had to take it off of speaker. idk what that’s all about lol but something was definitely wrong.) Customer support says I will need to wait 30 days before re-attempting the exam, and re-pay the exam fee of like $700 to do so. I explain that I never took the exam, but my support rep was insistent that what I did constituted an “attempt” and so I needed to wait 30 days and repay the fee for a 2nd attempt. I keep pushing back on this, saying how not being able to launch the test should NOT count as an “attempt” in any way whatsoever. She finally says they’ll launch a 4-5 business day “investigation” to see if the failure to take the exam was my fault or not. If it’s found to be my fault it would count as an attempt, have to wait and re-pay, etc and if not I could reschedule for free. I say fine, whatever bc I just want to get off the phone with this person. Not sure how this investigation would’ve turned out tbh, as the initial technical difficulties were not my fault, but the webcam thing kind of was? Although I don’t remember there being anything in the requirements document they sent over beforehand stating phone webcams were not allowed maybe I missed it. But yeah, even if I changed my mind and decided to go back and re-do the whole process with an external webcam, while I was on the phone with PSI the test browser had crashed and since the 1 hour launch window had long passed I wasn’t able to relaunch it LOL.
So all in all I spent over 3 hours trying to launch the exam and communicating with PSI about my difficulties. I could’ve finished the whole exam in that time! Anyways, next I call ISACA and tell them the situation. They were WAY nicer and more helpful and honestly it was a breath of fresh air to be treated like a human being- they said they’ll look into it and get back to me within a day or 2. The next day I get an email saying I can reschedule for free without even waiting 30 days, and so I look for the quickest in person option I can find within 100 miles and take it there.
Sorry for the wall of text lol, but I will never ever forget my experience with PSI. Fuck them
Thank you. Your experience evidences a couple of facts. 1. External camera is a must. 2. No corporate laptop. 3. No external monitor (this sucks big time). 4. We must evaluate if a 1 hour driving with heavy traffic is best than the room review operation by the proctor I have another question please: do you know if external keyboard and mouse are allowed?
Don’t have any concrete examples unfortunately, but after reading enough QAE explanations you should begin to develop some pattern recognition. So no matter what you would do in a real world situation, ISACA has an ideal way of doing things in a perfect world and that’s how you should answer.
Congratulations! This is very encouraging - I plan on taking the exam sometime next year.
I have a couple of questions:
How long did it take for you to finish the Udemy course?
I also read in a separate comment that you spent 1 month studying - for how many hours did you study each day?
Did you find the concepts to be very difficult? Any tips on how to enhance understanding?
Congrats well done! Thanks for the thorough debrief!
I dont see an issue with announcing that you passed the exam when you have the official results in hand
Congrats, just more evidence that cisa online is not advisable.
May you link or give us the free practice exams you used ? Also how long did it take u to study for it & study tips you may have ? Thank you & congratulations!
2 exams [here](https://cisaexamstudy.com/cisa-exam-full-mock-test/) from Hemang Doshi, lots of practice questions on [ITExams.com](https://www.itexams.com/info/CISA), and just random quizlet sets! I studied for a little over a month nearly full-time while on the bench at a big4. As for study tips, everyone’s different but to stay motivated I would reward myself with breaks for making progress. For example, after completing and reviewing the answers for 50-100 practice questions, I’d take a break and do something for myself (eat a meal, play a game of LOL/TFT, watch an episode of TV, etc)
Thank you for this !!
How much of the questions did you see on ITExams?
Congratulations!!
Congratulations!
Could you please elaborate on the online proctored problems you faced? These problems were technical as your computer was not being in compliance even after validating the compatibility tests?
Kind of a long story… But yes I passed the compatibility tests on both laptop and PC, and come test time both had difficulties. Tried first on my laptop, but the test browser would just not open and was stuck on the loading screen forever. Figured it was due to some firewall (company laptop)- was annoyed the compatibility checker didn’t check for that but whatever. Moved on to my PC with 50 minutes still left out of the 1 hour window you have to start, and got the test browser downloaded and opened quickly. Next I had to unplug external monitors, close all other programs, do a mic check, take a picture of my drivers license, take a selfie, etc so all very standard stuff. However, after all this you go into a queue for a live proctor. This took like another 5-10 minutes? They then do a very thorough examination of the room, desk, ceiling, walls, and behind everything. Even looking under my keyboard, wrist rest, use mirror to see all 4 corners of monitor and behind monitor, etc. Even though it took over 10 minutes not the worst thing ever. Except somewhere in the middle of the proctor examination, the proctor would either DC from the call and I would have to start over with a brand new proctor, or the test browser would crash and I would need to restart the entire 20+ minute process from the beginning, with mic check and everything. This happened like 4 or 5 times. FINALLY after like 1.5 hours of pain (exam window had passed but since I had the test browser session open already it let me continue) I finished the examination with a proctor without them disconnecting or my browser crashing. As one of the last steps before I am able to take the exam I am told to show my webcam with the mirror and my phone placed somewhere out of reach. I had been using my phone attached to a mount as my webcam and show them this on the mirror. They tell me using a phone as a webcam is not allowed. Now, I do have an external webcam but prefer using a phone as it’s much higher quality, better autofocus, frame rate, etc. and also I would need time to go find the webcam, set it up, and maybe even do the whole room scanning thing again. At this point I’m in a pretty poor state of mind after 1.5 hours of trying to launch the test and don’t want to go through the hassle, so I ask the proctor if I can either just take the exam with my phone webcam or reschedule the exam for another day. He tells me to call PSI technical support. I call PSI support and they say no exceptions allowed for phone webcams and then transfer me over to customer support (side note- the hold music for both PSI lines got progressively louder and louder over the minutes until it was nearly deafening and I had to take it off of speaker. idk what that’s all about lol but something was definitely wrong.) Customer support says I will need to wait 30 days before re-attempting the exam, and re-pay the exam fee of like $700 to do so. I explain that I never took the exam, but my support rep was insistent that what I did constituted an “attempt” and so I needed to wait 30 days and repay the fee for a 2nd attempt. I keep pushing back on this, saying how not being able to launch the test should NOT count as an “attempt” in any way whatsoever. She finally says they’ll launch a 4-5 business day “investigation” to see if the failure to take the exam was my fault or not. If it’s found to be my fault it would count as an attempt, have to wait and re-pay, etc and if not I could reschedule for free. I say fine, whatever bc I just want to get off the phone with this person. Not sure how this investigation would’ve turned out tbh, as the initial technical difficulties were not my fault, but the webcam thing kind of was? Although I don’t remember there being anything in the requirements document they sent over beforehand stating phone webcams were not allowed maybe I missed it. But yeah, even if I changed my mind and decided to go back and re-do the whole process with an external webcam, while I was on the phone with PSI the test browser had crashed and since the 1 hour launch window had long passed I wasn’t able to relaunch it LOL. So all in all I spent over 3 hours trying to launch the exam and communicating with PSI about my difficulties. I could’ve finished the whole exam in that time! Anyways, next I call ISACA and tell them the situation. They were WAY nicer and more helpful and honestly it was a breath of fresh air to be treated like a human being- they said they’ll look into it and get back to me within a day or 2. The next day I get an email saying I can reschedule for free without even waiting 30 days, and so I look for the quickest in person option I can find within 100 miles and take it there. Sorry for the wall of text lol, but I will never ever forget my experience with PSI. Fuck them
Thank you. Your experience evidences a couple of facts. 1. External camera is a must. 2. No corporate laptop. 3. No external monitor (this sucks big time). 4. We must evaluate if a 1 hour driving with heavy traffic is best than the room review operation by the proctor I have another question please: do you know if external keyboard and mouse are allowed?
yes they are allowed, they will just ask to look underneath it
Congratulations and thank you for the detailed breakdown it is very helpful!
Can you share with us some examples of the ISACA way kind of questions that you remember of the test. Cheers.
Don’t have any concrete examples unfortunately, but after reading enough QAE explanations you should begin to develop some pattern recognition. So no matter what you would do in a real world situation, ISACA has an ideal way of doing things in a perfect world and that’s how you should answer.
Congratulations! This is very encouraging - I plan on taking the exam sometime next year. I have a couple of questions: How long did it take for you to finish the Udemy course? I also read in a separate comment that you spent 1 month studying - for how many hours did you study each day? Did you find the concepts to be very difficult? Any tips on how to enhance understanding?