Can anyone who has successfully taken the CIA Challenge exam please recommend what study materials worked for them and if possible why?
And does the IIA provide any study materials or question banks at all? Free or included in the application/exam fee?
A big thank you to this sub and everyone who took time out to answer questions are just encourage me on this month's journey. Best of luck to those still going through it.
I passed the exam today (4/29). I didn't have the certification on my to-do list till end of March.
- I started on 4/1 with AR's Udemy course for the 35 PDUs, completed on 4/8, registered as a member and submitted my application the same day.
- My application was approved on 4/13, and I paid for & picked my exam date immediately.
- Bought Study Hall+, did all the practice questions and 5 mocks, posted here about my experience as I went through them. Mock scores were 79, 74, 74, 69, 65 (no adjustment for expert questions) average on practice questions was 71. I reviewed the ones I got wrong and those I indicated as low confidence,
- Did AR's 200 in full, DM's 110 Agile in full. MR's 100 over a two week span.
- Watched mindset videos on YouTube from AR, DM, MR and PM Aspirant. I find a personally prefer DM's & MR's presentation style to AR, but that's just me.
- I also bought Rita Mulcahy's book but never opened it, so can't say if it's good or not (~$100)
- I also used PMI’s AI (Infinity) a whole lot, it’s extremely helpful
- Tried to get Third3Rock but didn't accept my card so I couldn't use it.
- I never felt like I was ready, felt like I had forgotten everything this morning in fact.
- Took the exam at a centre, 8am slot. Exoerience was seamless. Qestions were similar to SH, much more concise but somehow harder too (maybe that was tension). One drag & drop, no calculations, no graphs, 5-7 select 2.
I couldn't tell if I was doing well or not. Didn't make much use of the highlighter or strike through functions, flagged many questions for review but only changed answers 5 times.
I didn't take any breaks, thugged my way through it, finished with 5 minutes to spare and completed a survey before I left. (I don't recommend but that's how I did my mocks). Got my printout as I was checking out, I much prefer this to having to wait for results.
- I wore blue all through too.
Thanks again everyone, I can't fully express how relieved I am, would not have liked to go through this again.
u/PerspectiveMean2898 I didn't have to retake the exam like you said I would, hope you're doing better and working on your emotional intelligence wherever you are.