Certified: The ISACA CISA Prepcast

Welcome to The Bare Metal Cyber CISA Prepcast. This series helps you prepare for the exam with focused explanations and practical context.
In the final seventy-two hours before your exam, your priority is no longer deep study—it is controlled review, mental preparation, and preservation of energy. This window is a transition zone, not a cram session, and your best results will come from easing your cognitive load while sharpening your recall through light exercises. Summaries, one-pagers, and short review sessions are ideal here because they allow you to reconnect with key ideas without overwhelming yourself or risking burnout. You should also shift your focus to your physical well-being—rest, nutrition, and hydration are critical to optimal brain function, and maintaining these routines will help you arrive at the exam with energy and clarity. Light mental drills, like revisiting flashcards or answering five practice questions in the morning and evening, are useful to keep your mind active without reintroducing fatigue. As you enter this critical period, confirm all your logistics—check your test center location or remote testing platform access, ensure you know your login times and technical setup, and remove any uncertainty that could cause last-minute stress.
When packing for the exam, whether in person or remote, it’s important to understand exactly what you are allowed to bring—and what you are not. Identification must be current, government-issued, and contain a clear photo and signature, and the name on your ID must match the name on your exam registration exactly, without exception. You’ll also want to bring your confirmation email or scheduling notice, as this is sometimes requested during check-in and can speed up the process. Leave behind anything that’s not allowed inside the testing environment, including watches, paper notes, calculators, or any kind of electronic device—if in doubt, assume it’s not permitted. Dress comfortably, bearing in mind that you may be in a climate-controlled room that’s either too warm or too cold, and that you will likely be seated for several uninterrupted hours. At most test centers, you will be asked to store personal belongings in a locker, go through security protocols including identity verification and a visual inspection, and follow strict rules regarding movement, behavior, and access to break areas—knowing all of this in advance allows you to focus fully on the test itself, not the logistics surrounding it.
Familiarizing yourself with the testing environment reduces surprises and builds a sense of control before the exam begins. If you’re testing at a Pearson VUE center, expect a standardized room setup with individual cubicles, noise-canceling headphones, video monitoring, and minimal distractions, although other test takers may still create occasional background noise. If you’re testing remotely, the software will lock down your screen and activate a live proctor view, and you’ll need to ensure your webcam, microphone, and screen-sharing settings are fully functional before starting. On either platform, you’ll see a digital countdown clock that shows your remaining time, and you should be comfortable checking that time without becoming obsessed by it—practice this during your timed review sessions. Breaks vary based on delivery format; some exams allow scheduled breaks, while others only permit them unscheduled, meaning the clock continues to run, so know your format and plan accordingly. In the rare event of a technical issue—whether it's a system freeze, network drop, or environmental interruption—stay calm, report the issue immediately, and document what occurred so that test support can assist you appropriately.
Managing exam-day logistics is about more than showing up on time—it’s about removing friction from your entire day so that your full attention can be directed to performance. For in-person exams, arrive at least thirty minutes early to allow time for check-in, instructions, and last-minute preparation without feeling rushed, and factor in traffic, parking, and unexpected delays so your arrival is relaxed, not frantic. If you’re taking the exam online, verify that your internet speed meets the testing platform’s requirements and run a browser compatibility check the day before; it’s also smart to have a backup computer ready to go, especially if you’re relying on a single laptop. You may not be allowed to eat or drink during the exam, but preparing light snacks or hydration for after the exam—or during breaks, if permitted—can help maintain energy and mental sharpness. Whether remote or in-person, assemble any items you’re permitted to bring—like tissues, lip balm, or a jacket—the night before, and plan your transportation home or your post-exam downtime to avoid committing to anything mentally taxing immediately afterward.
Mental conditioning before the exam can have a significant effect on how you perform, especially in the first hour of the test, which often sets the tone for your pacing and confidence. Simple breathwork exercises, such as slow inhales followed by even slower exhales, help activate the parasympathetic nervous system and reduce anxiety, especially in those final moments before the test begins. Visualize yourself walking calmly into the test space, sitting down with a clear head, and approaching each question with steady focus; this type of mental rehearsal primes your brain to follow the pattern you’ve imagined. Confidence statements—short affirmations like “I’ve prepared with purpose” or “I know how to think through this”—can be reviewed silently while waiting for the exam to begin and are more effective than trying to re-study under pressure. It’s also helpful to avoid all forms of emotional noise in the twenty-four hours before the test, including news, arguments, or dramatic social media content; these things consume energy and attention that you’ll want to preserve. Most importantly, remind yourself of how far you’ve come—the hours you’ve invested, the questions you’ve mastered, and the mindset you’ve cultivated—because reminding yourself of the process is often the best way to unlock calm and clarity when it counts.
Inside the exam, managing your time and attention is just as important as understanding the material, and that begins with pacing checkpoints. A useful rule of thumb is to aim for thirty questions every forty-five minutes, which helps you maintain a steady pace without panicking about the clock. If you notice yourself rushing or skipping steps in your reasoning, pause for ten seconds, breathe, and reset—awareness is the key to regaining control. Use the flagging feature to mark questions that feel uncertain and move on quickly, trusting that your future self will return with a clearer mind and a fresh perspective. Stay present by focusing on one question at a time—do not think about your overall score or how far you have left to go; those thoughts will only distract you and increase anxiety. When you encounter a tricky section, acknowledge the challenge but don’t let it shake your rhythm—stay in the moment, trust your process, and keep moving forward.
If your test allows for breaks, managing those pauses with intention can be a powerful tool for restoring focus and avoiding fatigue. Plan ahead for when you’ll take a break—perhaps after seventy-five questions or around the halfway point—depending on your personal energy levels and the structure of your exam. During the break itself, use the time to reset physically and mentally: stand up, stretch your shoulders, drink some water, and do three slow, deep breaths to return your nervous system to a grounded state. Pausing before re-entry helps prevent the adrenaline crash that can follow a burst of intense concentration; instead of diving straight back into questions, take ten to fifteen seconds to re-orient your focus and remind yourself that you are in control of your pace. If snacks are allowed during breaks, choose quick sources of glucose like fruit or simple carbs, which can support mental alertness without creating a crash later. Most importantly, treat your break as a buffer zone—not a place to panic or re-analyze previous questions, but a deliberate pause to clear your mind and restore your focus for the next section of the test.
There are a handful of common pitfalls that can disrupt even a well-prepared candidate’s exam performance, and awareness of these can help you avoid them. Starting too fast is one of the biggest risks—if you dive in with too much urgency, you may misread the first few questions or set a frantic pace that’s hard to maintain, so take the first ten minutes slowly and let your brain settle into its rhythm. Encountering a difficult question early on can shake your confidence if you let it, but remember: every exam includes a mix of easy, moderate, and difficult items, and one tough scenario does not define your readiness or your score. Obsessing over time, flag counts, or the number of questions left can create anxiety that undermines your thinking—these are reference points, not judgments, and your best performance comes from staying with the question in front of you. If you find yourself mentally spinning, ask whether you’ve been breathing steadily, and take a deliberate pause to re-center. Finally, trust your reasoning when selecting answers, and avoid changing your responses unless you clearly misread the question or have new insight—second-guessing based on fear tends to lower scores rather than raise them.
After you submit the exam, you may feel a rush of emotions—relief, nervousness, pride, or even uncertainty—and all of these are normal reactions to completing something meaningful and difficult. Some candidates receive preliminary results right away, depending on the delivery format and region, while others must wait several days or weeks for official scoring and confirmation, which includes scaled results and performance feedback. In those first hours after the test, give yourself space to decompress—don’t immediately rehash every question or dive into postmortem analysis, because doing so often leads to unnecessary doubt and mental fatigue. Instead, reflect briefly on your process—how you managed your time, how you handled uncertainty, and what you learned about your own decision-making—because these insights can inform your growth no matter the outcome. Give yourself permission to rest before moving on to the next thing, whether that’s scheduling another exam, updating your resume, or simply taking a well-earned break from structured study.
As this phase of your CISA journey concludes, remember that exam day is not a separate event—it’s the culmination of weeks of preparation, and your ability to succeed lies in the patterns of effort you’ve already established. You are ready because you’ve built knowledge through study, judgment through practice, and confidence through consistent discipline, and those traits will carry you through any challenge the exam presents. Go into the testing environment with patience, clarity, and self-trust—approach each question as an opportunity to apply what you’ve learned, rather than a test of what you may not know. This exam is an important milestone, but it is not a measure of your worth; it’s one marker on a much longer path of professional growth and mastery. However your result arrives, celebrate the effort it took to reach this point, and let that accomplishment stand as proof that you are advancing—not just toward certification, but toward long-term success in the field.
Thanks for joining us for this episode of The Bare Metal Cyber CISA Prepcast. For more episodes, tools, and study support, visit us at Baremetalcyber.com.