ISACA Reviews 15

My experience with the ISACA AAISM certification process was disappointing from start to finish.

First, the exam results timeline is unnecessarily long. Candidates are told to wait up to 10 business days for results, I received mine in 8, which is still excessive. In an era where other certification bodies provide results within hours or a couple of days, anything beyond 5 business days feels outdated and inefficient.

The bigger issue, however, is the post-exam application process. After already paying for the training and exam, candidates are then required to submit an application to determine if they’re even eligible for the certification. This is backwards. Eligibility should be verified upfront not after time and money have already been invested. What happens if a candidate is deemed ineligible after passing the exam?

Additionally, the application workflow itself is overly complex, with multiple status stages that add no real value. In my case, verification should have been straightforward—confirming a CISSP certification can be done online in seconds using a membership number. Instead, it becomes a drawn-out process.

ISACA should seriously reconsider both the eligibility validation process and the result turnaround time. Compared to organizations like ISC2 and others that provide faster, more streamlined experiences, this process feels unnecessarily bureaucratic.

This will likely be the first and last ISACA certification I pursue unless meaningful improvements are made.

ISACA asserts that many candidates pass the CISA exam with focused preparation, but doing so typically requires paying significant sums to ISACA for exam registrations, official materials and, in many cases, multiple retakes.

I bought the CISA Official Review Manual. I subscribed to CISA Questions, Answers & Explanations Database 2024, Purchase Date: November 7, 2025 Expiration Date: November 6, 2026.

I studied all of the above for three days straight.

My real problem is that I cant challenge them. There is absolutely zero feedback on how I performed in the exam.

I have over 20 years of senior IT consulting experience, like real experience, not just theoretical experience, I have a Masters in cybersecurity, I have practised in commercial law for more than 10 years, and hold a master’s in law, yet I still did not pass. Why?

I'm actually now thinking about walking away from a CISA certification via ISACA due to the cost, stress, and time I have invested. I studied like three days straight. I do not feel that this certification is designed for IT or other professionals who just want to simply be certified in Cybersecurity.

Personal judgement: This strongly suggests a disconnect between the exam and real-world professional capability.

Why? When full, non‑refundable fees are charged for every attempt and pass rates are far from guaranteed, the structure appears to prioritise ongoing revenue from candidates rather than accessibility, fairness, and genuine merit-based assessment.

these company have total lie to me i found them on linked for a volunteer by remote connection as they say its non pay volunteer and these course are free the course are not free as they are over pricing it one couse price was $999,000 + higher price and on there site it say volunteer get paid the have lie on there linked page by promote there bussinse to scam user and steal there money by fruad the feds need to invesgation them and shut them down for good . i would avoid voluntter here i would reccomd ISC2 .

I have over 15 certifications ISC2, Comptia, ITIL, etc. This is the only test I have ever taken where I thought I passed and ended up failing. I can say its usually the exact opposite where I felt that I failed and passed haha. They're grading system or questions are designed to torment you as opposed to ensuring you have the appropriate knowledge and experience to lead a team of cybersecurity professionals. Instead of asking questions for the correct answer it's always for the best answer style and are strictly by the book, while others may see the theory practiced differently for a variety of reasons. And then they give you a preliminary - like really, just give the result, you should not have to review it or make the person wait 10 days to know that you have preliminarily reviewed..........COMPLETE JOKE. GO WITH ISC2.

It’s terrible that some test can only be done remotely, the pandemic is over and ISACA doesn’t give the people the option to do it person knowing the difficulties that one can encounter remotely (power outages, network connectivity issues ) but on top of everything the PSI browser that’s the worst experience ever. You give the people 30 min prior to test to launch it, however it takes sometimes 20 min just to launch the test. Then with the room and ID check it’s 40 min wasted. That’s ridiculous, stressful and its something that can be avoided by giving the people the option to do it in person.

No resource at all really bad certificate

I cannot believe that this company is providing certifications for cybersecurity. This entire process is a mess. You will have no idea what it takes to pass their test, and I'm pretty sure that's how the SCAM works, to keep you taking tests. They provide no results so you can't even see how you scored. Weighted scoring system that makes no sense. My favorite part though is during the week long class we took a practice test where 6 of the answers on the test were actually wrong. These are the answers provided by Isaca!!!! How can we be sure the real exam is any better? ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY from them. The instructor spent the better part of the week explaining why he didn't agree with the answers ISACA would give, but he was trying to prepare us. What a joke.

Support is awful, to raise a ticket you need to login, however if you need a password reset, you can't log in... and you can't raise a ticket to fix a password reset. Catch 22!

Awful support, took way too long to look at my support ticket and then ignored the point I was making and closed the call. Rubbish

For such a widely considered elite organisation, the ISACA support infrastructure is poor at best. If you want to submit funds to support your subscription fees, then it's pure plain sailing. If you want to invoke procedures detailed within published ISACA policies, then emails will remain unanswered, phone calls will be redirected back to the queue. They are a pure money making machine with a very poor level of customer care.

I needed info about the CSX Technical Foundations course to help me decide whether to buy it. I sent a request through support several weeks ago. No response.

I finally purchased the course and began the Linux portion five days ago. Errors with lab 01. Lab 03 doesn't work (no Evalu8R app). Lab 06 doesn't work (no way to submit work for grading). Lab 08 has errors, but I was able to work around them. Lab 09 errors (missing files, etc.) make it impossible to complete the lab.

I opened cases, which still all show 'new' (unopened).

Trying to access Support by chat took most of the week until the chatbox finally showed something other than 'offline.' I was able to chat with someone who doesn't actually have the ability to fix the labs.

So ... here I sit unable to finish the course or get help.

As a member I have found that following the 'upgrade' to their website, the ability to access information has been difficult. I have been requested to reset my password four times, and the only option is to call Chicago during business hours as reset emails are not arriving in members mailboxes.
As a member outside of the US that's expensive and impracticle.

The price quoted is for non-member even though I was a member of ISACA. I report an issue, but there was no response for more than two weeks. The support is terrible.

Resources that are available to members are good but support and exam process is terrible.

They outsource the exam to PSI and between the two of them I had to reschedule my exam twice because of problems with their software and/or processes. No clear line of accountability. They kept shifting the blame between the two of them. Really stressful process to go through when you're already stressed about doing the exam.

Unfortunately if you want to be qualified you have no choice. So their support is lacking as well. Very annoying.