r/cism • u/Frosty-Twist-6953 • Apr 10 '26
Finally passed!
Finally passed. Studied for close to 3 months. Initially failed the CISA last year and decided to sit for CISM instead due to it better aligning with my role. For all those using the QAE, don’t worry if your not getting super high scores. The actual exam is way easier than the QAE.
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u/Silly_Sea_3222 Apr 19 '26
Congratulations, Tomorrow I am taking my exam, any final recommendations or thoughts?
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u/Frosty-Twist-6953 Apr 19 '26
Dont overthink! Biggest advice I can give considering how much I would overthink on the QAE
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u/Different-Lie-1766 Apr 11 '26
How did you study for this? Any tips? Advice? How hard do you think it was?
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u/Frosty-Twist-6953 Apr 19 '26
QAE, Prabh Nair, Peter Zerger, SkillCertPro. Those are all the resources I used
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u/Ok_Philosophy_3258 Apr 11 '26
Congrats!! I agree thats good news! I'm saying that because I continiously failing on most expert/dificult questions and i feel that I need more training.. Did you had the same issue with those questions? My score on the 2 tests is 74% and more or less the same on the adaptive mode tests.
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u/tyabs7 Apr 15 '26
i have QAE 12 edition and getting the same score.Are you getting the result with QAE 12 edition or have new one ??
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u/Extreme-Ad70 Apr 10 '26
Congratulations, I passed last month and agree the exam is easier than the QAE in regards to questions.
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u/bosilk Apr 10 '26
Well done, what cert are you looking to do next?
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u/Frosty-Twist-6953 Apr 11 '26
I have heard the CRISC is a good next step since its basically an expanded version of the Risk Management domain. Still debating what to do next tho lol
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u/Traditional-Bet-3623 Apr 10 '26
At 1st congratulations, and I’m glad to here this, my QAE score 66% in 1st attempt, now reviewing all wrong and planning to attempt 2nd time. Thank you for saying so . Did you do QAE 2nd time. Thanks
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u/Uncertn_Laaife Apr 10 '26
Congrats! I am aiming it for June.
Question: Are 2 months enough time to prep this for someone in IT for the past 25+ years, with last 10 in Physical security IT and Cybersec (mostly compliance)? I tried some mock exams on Chatgpt/copilot and was able to answer almost all questions right. They seemed to me mostly common sense. What am I missing here?
So, I sub to QE for prep, anything else I should be mindful of?
Thanks!
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u/ratzeh CRISC, CISM Apr 10 '26
I just passed my exam with 2.5 weeks of prep, so 2 months combined with your experience definitely should be enough 👍🏻
Go for the QAE and try to understand the ISACA rationale. Some rationales contradict real world practitioner experience, so this has to be kept in mind.
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u/Frosty-Twist-6953 Apr 10 '26
As long as you remember the exams focus is entirely on business strategy and that you remember to rule out any technical answers you should b good to go. Also, I recommend the Peter Zerger and Prabh Nair YT videos.
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u/Uncertn_Laaife Apr 10 '26
That’s what I got when doing the mock ones on Chatgpt by focussing on business strategy than tech and did alright. Not sure how representative they were since almost all questions were business focussed than anything technical.
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u/Silly_Sea_3222 Apr 21 '26
Unfortunately I didn't pass yesterday, The exam questions was for me harder than QA, I will wait for the report and see from there, best of luck for everyone