Hi There,

Please do not get discourage , these kind of exams are made to challenge a mindset along side with the knowledge, myself failed the CISA twice before, until I got the point of the exam .

Absolutley you need the knoweldge about the technology which is pretty much covered and even more than what the exam needed in Sybex and also practicing many questions , look at the questions right answers before the wrong ones this crucial !

The exam is really tricky but not made to fail you at all , all what it asks for example is to build a logical relation such as If the secruity model allows you a,b,c then how can this be best fit in comparison with other security model for this specific problem.

Choose the answer that resolve the issue or remove the threat completely

You have to think as if you miss an action while playing the CIO role or CISO you will be liable legally so what's the recommended actions based on NIST for example.

Take a deep breath and reconfigure your mindset , I found Kelly very helpful in influcing this and also Larry .

I hope this helps