Best free resources for ISA prep — what's actually worth your time

Congrats on passing! Can I ask — how many questions did the actual exam have compared to what the practice tests simulate? I've seen different numbers online and want to calibrate my timing during practice.

Same experience here. The free isa network security & defense questions and answers was what finally made it click for me — specifically the way it explains the reasoning rather than just giving answers. Took me 2 weeks of consistent practice but scores went from 68% to 82% by exam day.

The part about reviewing wrong answers thoroughly is so underrated. Most people (including me, first time around) just move on after getting something wrong. Going back to understand the concept is what actually builds retention for the ISA.

Quick update from me -- I've been grinding through practice questions for the past few weeks and just pulled a 78% on my most recent full mock. Wasn't expecting that honestly, I started out pretty rough in the network security and defense sections but it's starting to click. Still got some gaps in the IoT and industrial control systems stuff so I'm not ready yet.

Planning to sit the real exam in early July. If you're around the same stage I'd say just keep hammering the practice tests until your weak spots stop being weak spots. That's basically my whole strategy at this point.

Just cleared the ISA last month so I can confirm pretty much everything in this thread. One thing I'd add about the free practice questions — don't just check whether you got an answer right, really dig into why the wrong answers are wrong. That sounds obvious but it's the step I kept skipping until about two weeks out, and it's what actually moved the needle for me on the network security and defense stuff specifically. The distractors on the real exam are well-crafted enough that if you only know the "right" answer without understanding the concept underneath it, you'll second-guess yourself into the wrong choice.

The isa practice test questions on the access control and identity management domains were probably the closest to what I actually saw on exam day. I spent a disproportionate amount of time there and it paid off — that section felt almost familiar when I sat down. The incident response questions are trickier because they're scenario-based and the "best" answer depends on a specific sequence of steps that isn't always intuitive.

Give yourself at least a week on the legal and compliance pieces even if they feel dry. I underestimated that section and had to scramble. Passing on the first attempt is very doable if you're methodical about it.

Just passed last month so this is fresh. The thing that actually moved the needle for me was drilling practice questions under timed conditions — not just reading through them, but forcing myself to commit to an answer before checking. I'd been reading study guides for weeks and felt like I understood the material, but the first time I did a full timed set I realized I was way slower than I needed to be.

It's easy to think you know something until the clock is running. Once I switched to treating every practice session like the real thing, my confidence going in was completely different. Don't underestimate the pacing — that's what caught me off guard more than the content itself.

Working full-time made this tough. I'd squeeze in 20-30 minutes during lunch or right before bed, so I had to be really selective about what I spent time on. Honestly the topic-specific practice sets made the biggest difference for me — I used the isa/questions/digital forensics investigation section a lot because it's one of those areas where you can't just read theory and hope it clicks, you need to actually work through scenarios.

The key thing I'd say is don't try to cover everything at once. I picked two or three weak spots each week and drilled those specifically instead of jumping around. It's slower feeling in the moment but you actually retain it. If you're working around a job and family stuff like I was, that focused approach will save you a lot of wasted hours on material you already kind of know.

I'll be honest, I almost quit after the first two weeks. The material felt overwhelming and I wasn't seeing progress on the practice questions, so I took a week off and nearly didn't come back. What finally clicked for me was slowing down and actually reviewing why I got questions wrong instead of just drilling more of them. That shift alone probably made the biggest difference in my score.

The free resources are genuinely better than I expected. You don't need to spend money to pass this thing, especially early on. Just don't make my mistake of treating practice questions like a numbers game. Quality over quantity, and take the time to understand the concepts behind the answers you miss. It's slower but it actually sticks.