How to know if i’m prepared for the exam
I’m currently studying for the CISA and spent about a month and a half on it so far. My method has been to watch Peter Zerger’s videos for each domain, take some notes, then do the qae questions in the structured plan. After i finished the structured plan i cleared my questions and switched to adaptive. I think it was broken somehow, because it basically ended up making me complete entire domains at a time and not mixing them together. Regardless, these are my stats after going through qae the second time:
Total percent correct - 84%
Auditing Processes - 82%
IT Governance - 73%
Systems Acquisition - 84%
Operations - 82%
Information Asset Protection -95% (I did this a week after my first run through so it might be a little inflated from memorization, although i do think it is my best section due my familiarity with the content)
I haven’t done any practice tests yet.
Should I do the qae a third time? Is there another (free) resource i should look at for either different questions or as a compliment to the Peter Zerger videos?
I worry about my heavy reliance on the QAE, but I do take the time to understand the questions and why incorrect answers are incorrect, although i can’t say i know the definitions of every single term in the answer options sometimes.
Some people seem to think the test is harder than qae and some think it’s easier, but I can’t figure out what the disconnect there is and which category i might fall in.
Any advice?
Posted Jul 10, 2026, 5:54 PM UTC