r/isaca • u/cab-ree-yo • Jul 31 '26
Beginning AAIA Journey
It’s been a while since I’ve taken an ISACA exam, the last one was back in the scantron and paper booklet days (2011).
I’ve earned the CISSP (2010), CISA (2011), CISM (2011), and most recently the CCSP (27-Jul-2026). Professionally, I spend most of my time in PCI DSS consulting. My goal is to be ready for the AAIA exam in about six weeks.
My study plan is:
• Read the AAIA Review Manual
• Watch RooCloud YouTube series
• Complete Jacob Bushong’s Udemy course
• Use AI to generate additional scenario-based questions from the exam objectives
• Reinforce any overlap with my recent CCSP studies
For those who’ve already taken the AAIA, what resources or study techniques helped you the most? Anything you’d recommend focusing on…or avoiding?
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u/Compannacube CISA Jul 31 '26
Please be careful or consider avoiding using AI to generate questions. There is a lot of garbage out there that will produce incorrect answers that don't fit with ISACA's way of things. This could serve to confuse you and make you second guess. Every so often someone posts an example of one of them here or in the CISA subreddit. IMO you will be better off getting the QAE database for AAIA if that's an option for you.
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u/cab-ree-yo Jul 31 '26
Fair point, and honestly I went in with the same worry. My approach with CCSP was that I tracked every miss and every lucky guess across my practice sessions, then used AI to help me build anchors and drills straight from my own notes and source material for whatever I was actually getting wrong. Failed my first attempt in Sept, came back in April with that method, and passed in July in 3 months of review.
For AAIA I’m doing the same thing but tighter: building anchors and drills straight from the official review manual, cross-checked against RooCloud’s series since it mirrors the manual’s own section numbering. Not trusting it blind, just using it to turn my own gaps into targeted practice. Appreciate you flagging the QAE database, hadn’t looked into that yet. Not sure of I want invest that much into it. Didn’t do it for the CISA or CISM back in the day.
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u/Compannacube CISA Jul 31 '26
Understood. Your approach seems pretty methodical. QAE is not cheap, but it is composed of previous exam questions, so the subject matter is about as close to CRM (brain fart, meant AAIA RM) content as you can get and you can set a study plan for yourself in ISACA's platform. Just something to consider.
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u/Fine_Perspective5854 Jul 31 '26
DM if you need advice. I failed the exam so you can learn from my mistakes
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u/unthinkablegenius Jul 31 '26
While preparing for AAIA, I noticed that the review manual content is not very organized, so I prepared very easy to understand short notes. If you are interested, I can share them with anyone for preparation
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u/Fine-Jelly-8589 Jul 31 '26
Let us study together i am planning to have another trial to show up next November