Over the years, the average CISA pass rate has been between 50-60%, meaning if 100 people take this exam, more than 40 will fail. However, the statistics also show that about 96% of well-prepared candidates successfully pass the exam.

Practicing with CISA sample tests has proven to be one of the most effective ways to pass the CISA exam. The questions assess your knowledge and expertise, help you detect your weaknesses, and know where to focus to perform better.

However, random mock exams are not effective; CISA practice exams only work when the exam questions effectively mimic the conditions and requirements of the real exam. Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of how to create a CISA certification test that meets the ISACA standard, helping you ace the real certification exam.

What Is the CISA Exam and Certification?

The CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) is one of the major certifications offered by the ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association). It tests your knowledge and expertise in information security management.

The exam cuts across various areas to assess your understanding of major information and security systems including review management practices, risk strategies, continuity planning, and monitoring IT personnel. Here’s a breakdown of all the certification’s focus areas:

Domain 1: The Information Systems Audit Process

 This section tests your knowledge of ideal frameworks and methodologies for performing information systems audits. This includes questions about planning system audits, the method used for the audit, and how to report the findings.

Domain 2: IT Governance and Management

This part evaluates your IT management skills – can you meet business goals while remaining compliant? It also tests your ability to spot security risks and apply effective security measures to prevent and mitigate them.

Domain 3: IT Acquisition and Implementation

This covers the productivity and effectiveness of your IT project management skills.  Do you know the right order to execute IT projects from the beginning to the end? What key qualities would you check for selecting vendors for IT products and services? 

Domain 4: IT Service Delivery

This section breaks down your  IT services’ day-to-day operations. What are the ideal predefined steps for an IT service department for everyday tasks like help desk support, managing network infrastructure, and maintaining data centers? How do you ensure that IT services are delivered efficiently, and follow service-level agreements?

Domain 5: Protection of Information Assets

The questions here focus on your information security expertise and knowledge. How do you prevent malicious threats and unauthorized access to information assets? How do you manage security controls and administration? What are the right measures to detect and prevent different cybersecurity threats? If there’s a data breach, what principles and techniques would you take to mitigate the damage?

Importance of Practice Quizzes in Exam Preparation

CISA is a multiple-choice examination with 150 questions and you need to score at least 450 points and have four hours to complete the examination. The exam costs $575 for ISACA members and $760 for non-members. You also need to pay an annual renewal fee maintenance fee of pay $45 for ISACA members, and $85 for non-members.

The bottom line is the CISA exam is not only rigorous, it costs a significant amount. So, it’s not an exam you go for without adequate preparation, and that’s why you need to get as many practice tests as much as you can before the actual exam and boost your success rate.

Here are some ways creating mock tests can boost your certification exam preparedness:

• Knowing Your Strengths and Weaknesses: While reading the exam manuals helps you know the different areas you will be tested, CISA practice questions create similar conditions to the actual exam, highlighting what you know and what you don’t.
• Building confidence: Practice quizzes reduce the anxiety that comes with having a major exam. It also makes you more confident about the exam because you are already familiar with the exam format and answer questions within the specified timeframe.
• Simulating exam conditions: When your ISACA CISA practice quiz follows the same format, it better prepares you for the real exam. You’ve gotten used to the time constraint, and you’ve also practiced questions and answers to ensure you get the right answers and exceed the cut-off.

Common Challenges Faced by Candidates

Here are the most common challenges for the majority of people taking CISA:

• Broad Topic Range: the CISA exam covers so many topics, making it pretty difficult to have a broad knowledge of all of these topics. However, constant practice gives you insight that helps you familiarize yourself with areas you might have not encountered in your experience as an IT professional.
• Poor Quality CISA Tests- there are so many free CISA practice exams and courses but the majority of them don’t meet the standard you need to ace your exams. This is one of the reasons why creating your quiz is a great solution as long as you are objective about it.
• Time management: While four hours seems like a lot of time, it’s not. You must answer 150 questions that will critically review your skills as an information systems auditor. Also, practicing will help you get used to the exam conditions and effectively manage time during the exam to attempt all questions.
• Understanding the exam format: The CISA exam format is a little different from other exams, which puts a strain on you if you’re not well prepared for it. Go through the manual and take multiple mock exams to get better at answering the questions.

Why Choose Formplus for Creating Practice Quizzes?

Formplus is a form-building software that allows you to create custom forms for different use cases including practice quizzes. Let’s see the major ways Formplus makes preparing for your CISA exam easier:

• User-Friendly Interface: formplus has a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to create and add different question types easily. You can also add a progress bar to track the test progress and motivate you to stick with time.
• Different Question Types: CISA is a multiple-choice exam with different questions and option types e.g. rating scales, true/false, checkboxes, etc. Formplus has all these question types making it easy for you to recreate the exam format.
• Automatic Grading: You can also allocate points to each question and at the end of the quiz, you get the score. This helps you gauge your preparedness e.g if you score less than 450, you know you need to keep practicing to exceed the cut-off.
• Customizable Templates: You also don’t need to start from scratch when creating your practice quiz with Formplus. Formplus has a template gallery with customizable quiz templates; you can easily pick one, edit it, and you’re done.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating CISA Practice Quizzes with Formplus

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your GMAT quiz  with Formplus:

• Go to Formplus quiz maker  or use the online quiz template
• Sign up with Formplus or Sign in if you already have an account
• Go to create new form

• Drag and drop question types to fit your quiz format

• Edit the question fields to include your CISA practice quiz questions
• Add calculations to your form to automatically score respondents based on their answers

• Add a timer to your quiz questions to simulate CISA exam conditions and save

• Customize the form by changing the color palette, and font.
• Share the practice quiz with other candidates via email, direct form link, social media cards, or QR code. You could also embed the form code on your website or add the link to your social media link in bio.

Tips for Creating Effective CISA Practice Quizzes

• Matches the Real Exam– The whole point of your practice test is to ensure you ace the actual CISA certification exam. So, your questions should mimic the actual ISACA CISA exam in questions and time. It should cover all the areas of the exam, and follow the same question format.
• Mixed Difficulty Level: be objective when creating your exam sample questions. Don’t load your practice quizzes with simple questions, you would only ill-prepared yourself for the actual exams. Also, don’t only include difficult questions, the test will most likely become overwhelming and defeat the entire purpose of practicing. The goal is to have an assurance of your preparedness not to strain or scare you.
• Regularly Update Quizzes: Regularly review and update your practice quizzes to reflect the latest information and address feedback. If there’s a change in the syllabus ensure your practice exam includes that.

Conclusion

ISACA’s CISA exam ensures you’re a skilled leader in information security capable of creating, reviewing, and maintaining excellent IT policies. It’s a challenging and expensive exam, but with repeated practice, you can familiarize yourself with the exam format, identify your weaknesses, and ace it.

Also, using Formplus for your practice quizzes ensures you have the top user-friendly tool to seamlessly create your CISA practice exam and track your progress over time.

 You may also like to read practice quiz guides for GMAT and SAT.