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.