What is Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT)?

Computerized Adaptive Testing, or CAT, is a testing method which defines a passing metric and asks the candidate questions of various difficulty to gauge a level of competency. CAT tests will have a minimum number of questions (125 for CISSP) and will stop once it has determined you meet the passing grade. Otherwise, the CAT engine will keep asking questions until you have passed or reached the maximum number of questions (175 for CISSP). This allows for a drastic reduction in the testing time as only the minimum number of questions are required to assess a candidates competency level.

The graph below shows one of our users' calculated ability measure, standard error, and question level (difficulty) that was presented. In this case, a passing ability was obtained at question 161, at which point the exam stopped and the user was given their passing ability level.

For more information, see the ISC2 page on Computerized Adaptive Testing.

What is considered a pass?

We've tried to model our testing engine as close to the real exam as possible, however, the underlying details of the ISC2 implementation are unknown. With this in mind, we would consider a passing score to be a final ability estimation of 3.5 or higher. If you can consistently score 4 or higher, you are ready to attempt the real CISSP exam.

How many exams are there?

We have a question bank of over 1000 questions that span the CBK. With your subscription, you can take the practice exam as many times as you'd like. The next time you take the exam, questions will be pulled with recently answered questions being selected last. It's likely you won't see the same questions for many attempts.

How much does cisspsim.com cost?

There is a fixed fee of $14.99 USD which allows you to take the exam as many times as you'd like for one year. There is no auto-renewal charges and you can resubscribe if you feel you need more time.

An exam ended before the 125 question mark, what gives?

This is rare but can happen if you bounce back and forth between correct and incorrect answers at the same difficulty level for a large number of questions. As our question bank increases, this will be less likely to occur. Please start a new attempt if this happens to you.