Starting my SAIWA prep next month and can't find much info online. I've worked in security for 2 years, mostly retail and event work. Anyone here taken it recently?
I'm trying to figure out how much time I need. Some people say 2 weeks is plenty, others say they studied for 6 weeks. I don't have a ton of free time — maybe an hour a day max. Is that realistic?
Also curious about the legal section. A colleague said there's a lot on use of force law and I want to make sure I'm not caught off guard on that part.
The scenario questions were trickier than I expected. They put you in a situation and ask what you'd do. There's usually a 'most appropriate' answer that depends on de-escalation first.
Passed first time with 83%. The report writing section surprised me — they actually test whether you know what goes in an incident report and what format to use.
Did mine 3 months ago. Took me 4 weeks studying about 45 minutes a night. The legal stuff is definitely heavy — know your state legislation on use of force and search powers.
I just passed SAIWA last month so this is fresh for me. Two years in retail and event security puts you in a way better spot than you think, you already know the situational stuff. Honestly the one thing that made the difference for me wasn't grinding for 6 weeks. It was doing actual practice questions early instead of just reading the material over and over. I wasted my first week highlighting notes and barely retained any of it.
What flipped it for me was this free saiwa training and certification requirements set I found, I ran through the questions until the wording stopped tripping me up. The exam itself isn't brutal but it loves to phrase things in a confusing way, so getting used to how they ask is half the battle. With your background I'd say 3 weeks is plenty if you're doing questions most days. Don't psych yourself out over the 6 week people, a lot of them were starting from zero.