CISA Certified Information Systems Auditor All-in-One Exam Guide, Third Edition 3rd Edition, Kindle Edition

Hi there, and thanks for reading my review. This review is intended to serve as a guide for any person endeavoring to take and pass the CISA using this book. As the title says, I passed the CISA today using only this book, but it’s up to you if you choose to supplement it with additional material. My intention is to help you to understand everything that I did, what you can do, and the pros and cons of using this book as an alternative to the ISACA study material. With that said let’s begin!My Background: 4-year degree in business, master’s degree in accounting. I started at a Wall Street bank in June 2018, where I work in internal audit and SDLC for analytics. So, I have ~3 months experience in anything IS. The CISA exam recommends 3-5 years of experience in IS and IS auditing prior to taking the exam, so the take away is that with enough study, you can overcome that knowledge gap. In 2016 I took the CompTIA SY0-401 Security + certification exam and passed as well. If you’re unfamiliar with the certification, it is basically cyber security fundamentals, and is an in-depth coverage of the topics covered in knowledge area #5, or Chapter 6 of the book, Protection of Information Assets. I mention this because having knowledge from this previous certification may have helped me in prepping for the CISA, although I would argue that the CISA questions were no where near as detailed as those. It more helped because when I encountered topics like subnetting or the TCP/IP model while studying, they were familiar concepts for me already.My Study Program: This book and the included CD were the only things that I used to prepare for the exam. I started out by reading each chapter during my commute. In my opinion, the book covers about 90% of what you need to know. From my exam, I didn’t know terms like “traceability analysis” or “OLA”. But that said, with such varied topics, I don’t think you could possibly retain all the information anyway. The questions in the book and CD are similar, but not exact matches to those on the test. Often, the CD will ask the name of a control. For example: “What is the network device that forwards packets?”. The answer is a router, but on the CISA exam, it will usually ask you in the context of a scenario. So, the questions surely set you up to know the material. I felt prepared, just unfamiliar with the way that some of the questions were being asked, and this could be detrimental to some. Therefore, it is critical to focus on reading and getting the ideas and flows into your mind. I took the questions at the end of the chapter as well. I did this for all the chapters, and this was easily a 6-week process. I took it a chapter a week and made sure that I was digesting the material. Some chapters are 120 pages as well and can be a bit dense. The information is clear, but there’s just a lot of it most times.I then reviewed each chapter again, this time going through the pages, marking down steps and flows (for things like BIA and SDLC) and making lots of notes. I then booted up the testing software on the CD and took 60-80 questions based on the chapter. It has an exam mode, a practice mode, and a custom mode. I used the custom mode here, with hints turned off, and unlimited time as the key here is learning and reinforcing.The first night helped teach me all sorts of things that I missed in reviewing the chapter (usually a lot), and I tried to read and understand the brief explanation, using the book if I was still confused about a topic. I would score somewhere between 80%-87% the first night. Bear in mind that this is after reading the chapter slowly, and then reviewing and marking it up as needed. The second night was more of the same, this time the scores were 91%-96%. After I did all the chapters again with some days off, it was time for one more week of cramming before my test date.I went through all the chapters one last time, writing down anything that I still got wrong on the testing software (like that a router is a layer two device or some of the standards numbers), and basically created a study guide of facts to accompany me to the test. I was also taking a full-length practice exam 1 to 3 times a day using the exam mode (average of 1 a day). This mode on the software is 150 questions, 240 minutes, and covers the areas as they will appear on the exam. At this point, I was saturated with the material and was clicking through the questions with ease having seen them so many times. On one day, I took 3 exams, then didn’t do any for Tuesday to Thursday. But the idea here is to memorize and reinforce. It helps you to get used to the idea of taking 150 questions, which is a lot of time. And its also about making sure to move closer to 100% correct, since you never know what type of question or bit of knowledge can be the difference maker on the actual exam.My Test: During breakfast, I read over my study notes that I had written down over the last week. This was useful because the stuff that I just couldn’t remember was in front of me on a piece of paper. Way better than bringing the book with me considering how friendly we had gotten over the past few days. Also, please eat breakfast, hydrate, sleep well before the exam, and use the restroom before you go into the test. Trust me, the little things in the morning help you settle in. I was grateful to have taken so many full-length tests. They teach you to sit down, be patient, and just keep clicking. During the exam, I went through all the questions, and then reviewed them all before submitting again.And there you have it. My guide to passing the CISA with only the book and CD. I’ll now provide some of my very subjective thoughts on all of this.One big pro of my process is that it is very cheap to purchase this book for $40 on Amazon, in place of purchasing the $100+ materials from ISACA. The exam is already $760, so the costs of study material can be a point of concern. When I started prepping for the exam, I saw other reviews which stated that ISACA materials were used in addition to this book, but I realize that is a luxury that not all could be able to afford. Rest assured, this book truly is all that you need.That said, this test doesn’t offer a discount to repeat the test if you fail. So, if spending an extra $150 in prep materials helps you avoid an additional $760 for an exam retake, then I am a huge proponent of being efficient. My main point is don’t be stingy, as it can end up costing more in the long run. If you can afford it and think the extra practice will help, then do it. If you are a little strapped for cash and cannot afford, then you can certainly make due with just this $40 purchase.One issue that I have with the testing software is that the scores are calculated as percentages of the amount right of the total. This is totally different than the test’s actual format, which is a scaled conversion where incorrect answers don’t matter. The questions themselves are like, but not exact matches to the ones of the test. I feel as though the questions force me to learn about things, but as I mentioned before, the real trick is taking this knowledge and applying it in the test to the situations that the CISA exam seems to love so much. I will say that these questions are, in my opinion, more representative of the exam than the ones on the ISACA self-assessment. It’s my opinion but take it with a grain of salt.Another random issue is that the book states that the exam is not computerized. I suppose that was true in 2016 when it was written, but as of 2018, it is computerized. So just be aware that some things are a little inaccurate, not that its a big deal. Also, there’s a little mystery with the grading of this exam. The book offers very little guidance on the scoring, other than telling you that it is scaled. And the scale isn’t included. It’s not available anywhere on the web either. Just a heads up that it’s not like the SAT where the scale is at the back of the book, and you can target a passing score by knowing how many questions to get right. You’re going in blind in that aspect. I feel like people think they need to “get 100%” like in school. Realistically speaking, you either pass or fail. The amount you got over passing does not make you more of a CISA than another person with a lower score. So, while I think you should do your best to know as much as possible, just know that you’re looking to pass at the end of the day. Not break the scale.In summary, this book and CD will get the results that you need. But you need to be willing to study so that you do more than “just barely pass” as another review puts it. Make sure to know the material inside and out and repeat so that you’re sick of it. That’s when you’ll know you’re ready... Happy studying, good luck on your exam, and thanks for reading!

This book covered the 5 domains quite well and I consistently scored well on all of the practice tests. I struggled with one particular domain and that was the "The Audit Process" domain. This could be because I did not read Glossary A prior to taking the exam which covers IS auditing in the real world. Since I solely used this book to prepare and passed the exam on my first attempt, I have to give it 5 stars. Unfortunately, the exam is changing as of 2019 so I cannot say how useful this book will be for the new version of the exam. With that said, it is very well written and easy to follow. Definitely money well spent.

I am using this book to prep for the CISA exam. I'd say about 70% of the content is very familiar to me given that I worked in an IT environment almost all my life. If you come from a business administration background with some common sense for tech matters, like I do, then you'll find your way fast into the subject.Went through the book once, wrote the questions to index cards and learned them that way. I also was lucky to get the ISACA Review Manual as well as Questions, Answers and Explanation Manual for an OK price pre-owned on eBay. The questions in the ISACA manual I think they can be quite different and more into depth than the ones in this book.One unpleasant downside of the CD is that it requires a PC to install and use it, hence only for stars. I first called the tech guys as advised in the book, who then referred me to the actual manufacturers of the software. They were very friendly and supportive but neither of them could help me to get access to the questions in some other format (I'd have taken a PDF or other as I merely wanted to be able to see the questions to bring them to index cards, which is my way of learning fast and sound).Anyway, I ended up purchasing a Windows 7 version and used it with Virtual Box (tool similar to Boot Camp or Parallels, but free) on my Mac. That worked quite well, especially given that Boot Camp on my Macbook Air with Mac OS 10.14.1 would not have supported Windows 7. But once installed I liked the UI of the CD and the different questions mode (random, exam etc.).All in all, I absolutely recommend this book as it teaches you well and the style of the author helps very well to digest the content. One can tell that the guy comes from that field. Plus, if you bring some background knowledge and familiarity with the subject, the book might actually be sufficient, as others said. I personally just like to have a second source and just happened to choose the ISACA material because I got them at a deal. I most likely would not have purchased them at the full price, given the overall costs of the test.Last but not least, thanks to all the other reviews, they guided me well of how to approach the prep. Good luck with your study and with passing the exam.

Used this book to pass my CISA test on December 2019

I am currently reading and I bought the product as a book to teach me about CISA and use as a future ref guide.No complaints as yet although not the most enlightening of subjects

Excellent book. The all in one guide are brilliant, great for on the job and exams.

This is the book you need, a must have.

The delivery was done in good time and the book is new with CD.The content of the book itself is ok. It seems to make a decent effort at going through a very soporific and un-exciting subject.