Effective Time Management in the CISA Exam

The CISA exam contains 200 questions which need to be answered in 4 hours. This means that there are around 240 minutes available for the entire 200 questions. A candidate thus approximately gets 70 seconds to answer each question. Considering the above statistics, how does a candidate manage time in the CISA exam. Effective time management holds the key to passing the CISA exam. Let me share with you some time management tips which can be very useful in managing your time in the CISA exam.

Look at answering 50 questions in a block of one hour. The CISA exam contains questions some of which are easy, some of medium difficuly, and some which require you to crack your brains. Depending upon the type of question, the time required by a candidate may vary. Instead of using 70 seconds, a candidate may reuire only 30 seconds for an easy questions. Similarly, a tough analytical question may require well over 100 seconds or even two minutes. When you have the "one hour block for 50 questions" in your mind, you can chart your progress every hour. Thus, if you are able to answer only 45 questions in an hour, you need to increase your speed by making up some time. My personal experience has been that it is important to have the time element in your head while answering questions. Candidates sometimes get bogged down by a question, and tend to spend unreasonable amount of time on a single question. Some candidates I have talked to have spend almost 5 minutes on a single question! In the CISA exam, you need to remeber that you have to answer 200 questions, if you are not able to answer a question within a reasonable time, simply mark the question for later and move ahead with the next question. There are many more questions to answer. If you have time left later on, come back to the question and make a good guess. Remember, no negative marks in the CISA exam.