Hey guys, Passed my ISACA AAIR exam this morning! It was pretty intense on the threat modelling and model drift side but I'm excited to have it out of the way.
My next target is lAPP AIGP. My brain is already in "study mode" so I want to keep the momentum going and dive right in.

For those of you who've done both (or just the AIGP):

How much does the AAIR IT risk knowledge transfer to the AGP privacy and governance focus?

work full time but can provide around 2-3 hours a day. Can we get through the APP syllabus and the EU Al Act frameworks in 4 weeks?

What are the best practice exams available right now? I find I learn best by asking questions based on scenarios.

Thanks for the advice in advance!

I just passed the IAPP AIGP barely. My score was 30x/500. Mine is probably not a good preparation model to follow, but it might give people an idea of what the bare minimum can look like.

For info, AIGP is the first IAPP certification exam I take.

My preparation

Due to some disastrous time management, I only seriously studied for about one week before the exam, roughly 3–5 hours per day.

In hindsight, I would probably want to double that effort to feel reasonably confident about getting a safe pass.

My main resource was Dr. David Kyle’s AIGP course.

What I managed to complete:

• All lecture videos, mostly at 2.0x speed
• About 30% of the flashcards
• 2 of the four available mock exams provided by course.
• My mock scores 8x% range to 9x%

That last part gave me a false sense of security.

Despite doing very well on my final mock, my actual AIGP score was only 30x/500 — a very narrow pass.

The real exam was MUCH harder than the practice questions

It's not a surprise, but the actual exam felt considerably more difficult than any of the practice tests I did.

Process of elimination is extremely important when doing multiple choices questions.

I also thought a number of questions were poorly or ambiguously framed. There were probably at least 10 where I felt important facts and info were missing.

My basic approach was:

Learn → Quiz → Review mistakes → Quiz again → Review again

I strongly believe that you learn this material by repeatedly testing yourself rather than just rereading notes.

Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a huge bank of high-quality AIGP MCQs available. If I could go back, I would definitely complete every mock exam available to me.

Another thing I didn't have enough time to do: read the major legislation/frameworks themselves at least once.

Dr. David Kyle's course was extremely helpful, but I would describe it like this:

The course gives you the skeleton, the structure, and the door into the subject. You still benefit enormously from opening that door and reading some of the original materials yourself.

For things like the EU AI Act, GDPR-related concepts, NIST AI RMF, OECD principles, etc., I think reading the relevant original text/framework at least once would have helped me internalize the distinctions rather than just remember what the slide deck said.

Memorization absolutely matters. There are terms, frameworks, roles, lifecycle stages, regulatory distinctions, etc. that you simply need to know.

But one thing I wish I had spent much more time doing was connecting the dots.

The hard part was not knowing individual definitions, but understanding:

• how concepts relate to each other;
• which governance controls apply at different lifecycle stages;
• how laws, standards and voluntary frameworks interact;

Final thoughts

If you have enough time, don't study the way I did. One week at 3–5 hours/day was enough for me to scrape through, but based on how close my score was, I wouldn't consider it a safe strategy at all.

And don't get overconfident because you're scoring 80–90% on practice exams. The real exam humbled me very quickly.

Good luck to everyone preparing!

Failed AIGP Exam
Well, I went in for the AIGP exam today and despite months of studying and thinking I was prepared, I failed. 😔

I scored a 275, and honestly, I’m pretty discouraged. I studied consistently for months, read through the Body of Knowledge, used an AIGP prep book, took practice exams, and felt like I had a pretty solid understanding of the material going in. The actual exam felt much harder and more nuanced than the practice questions I had been using, and there were several topics/questions that caught me completely off guard.

According to my score report, my weakest area by far was Govern AI Deployment and Use, so clearly there are some gaps in my understanding that I need to address before attempting this again.

For those who have passed—especially anyone who failed their first attempt and then passed on a retake—what did you do differently the second time around? Were there particular resources that helped you with the deployment/use domain or with the more scenario-based questions?

I’m trying not to let one failed attempt convince me that all the studying I did was for nothing, but this one definitely stings, especially considering how expensive the exam is to retake.
Any advice on how to approach round two would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all! Many people keep posting asking what to study. With the caveat that each person is different and may not agree with me, this is how I passed and my experience:

TLDR - I did all of the IAPP program and it was useless - if you want to pass, buy the CertsClub AIGP practice test and hammer it.

Quick and dirty:

1. I have no related background and people ask if this matters for the test. It doesn't. Some may disagree. I believe if you already know some basics of AI/ML that may help, but not necessary.
2. "How long do I have to study for?" This questions get asked a lot and surprises me because it's so subjective. If you study for 2-3 days straight, you can retain enough to pass this test. You don't need months of studying, but it also depends on how much time you're putting in every day.
3. What do I study? I took the IAPP Course, and have their practice exam, entire coursebook (300+ pages), recordings of the classes, notes I took during class, etc. In retrospect, this was not needed and not helpful, so I therefore spent thousands of dollars on something I didn't need. The BEST thing to use to study I learned from another Reddit post...the AIGP CertsClub practice text. Hammer this test, and use your favorite AI chat tool to dive into why you got what you got wrong, and what you need to know about that specific topic for the test.

More info if you want:

3a) Please be aware the CertsClub test has a PDF and online test taking tool for $60-ish. The online tool sometimes marks a question incorrectly, but always explains the actual correct answer in the explanation section. Example: The correct answer is A, the tool says B is correct when grading, but the explanation portion below the question is actually correctly explaining why A is correct, not B. Just something to be mindful of as you go through it.

4. Many people comment on how surprised they are by the scenario questions. I found the opposite and thought there were more foundational definition knowledge questions than I was expecting. I'd say 10% of questions were incredibly easy, 10% I had no idea what they were talking about and never saw before, and 80% were just solid questions you had to read slowly, understand what was being asked, and pick the best response.

Hope this helps and good luck!

EDIT: adding CertsClub link https://certsclub.com/iapp/info/AIGP

Hey Community,

I‘ve already bagged my CISSP and GSEC, and now I'm heading into the AIGP cert.

I’d like to ask if anyone has experience with the official online training from the IAPP? Also, which additional study materials would you recommend to feel fully prepared?

Looking forward to your comments!

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to get a realistic idea of how much time I should set aside to prepare for the AIGP.

I already have the CIPP/E and work in privacy, so I’m comfortable with GDPR, governance, and compliance. My main gap is that I don’t have much practical experience with AI governance yet.

If I were able to dedicate around 3 weeks to studying almost full-time (roughly 5–8 hours a day), would that generally be enough to be well prepared?

My plan is to use both the official IAPP materials and Dr. Kyle’s Udemy course, which I’ve already purchased.

I’d also be interested to hear:

- What your background was before taking the exam.
- Whether 3 weeks was enough for you (or what timeline you’d recommend).
- Whether the exam was more conceptual or detail-oriented.
- Anything you wish you’d known before you started studying.

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thanks in advance 😊