Just got my results back and scored 68% on the CSX Fundamentals. The passing score is 75% so I came up 7 points short. I've registered for a retake in 6 weeks and I want to figure out where my weakest areas were so I can fix them this time rather than just re-covering the same ground.
Looking at my score breakdown, Incident Response and Threat Intelligence were both well below my overall — probably around 55–60% on those subsections by my estimate. Network Defense and Cryptography felt solid during the exam, those sections I'm not worried about.
I studied for about 5 weeks the first time at roughly 1 hour a day and I think I spread myself too thin trying to cover everything evenly. For the retake I'm planning 90 minutes a day with the majority going toward IR frameworks and threat modeling. Anyone who's gone through a similar retake situation and come out on the other side?
Make sure you know the specific distinctions between containment, eradication, and recovery phases — those came up multiple times in my exam and are easy to blur when you're under pressure and second-guessing yourself.
Threat Intelligence was brutal for me too. I spent 2 full weeks on threat actor frameworks and IOC analysis the second time around and bumped that subsection from an estimated 58% to what felt like high 70s on the retake.
I passed on my second attempt after failing at 71%. I zeroed in on the NIST IR lifecycle and memorized the phases cold — it came up in about 5 questions on my retake alone. Focused study on weak areas beats broad review every time.
90 minutes a day for 6 weeks should be plenty given you're not starting from scratch. Don't ignore the scenario-based questions — I found the ISACA practice scenarios closer to the real exam format than flashcard-style materials.
Quick update since I'm in a similar boat — I retook a practice exam last night and hit 79%, which felt pretty good considering I was scoring around 65% two weeks ago. The thing that helped me most was drilling down on the threat identification domain specifically. I actually found some free csx identify and assess cybersecurity threats practice questions that really hammered home how ISACA expects you to think about threat actors and their motivations, not just the technical controls.
I'm sitting the real exam in about two weeks so fingers crossed. For your retake, I'd say don't just re-read the materials — the wording on the actual questions is tricky and you need reps on practice questions that match that style. Six weeks is honestly plenty of time if you focus on your weak domains instead of reviewing everything equally.
I almost didn't retake it after I failed at 71%. Felt like I'd studied everything and still missed the mark, so what was even the point of going again? But here's what changed my approach: I stopped trying to memorize definitions and started actually understanding the why behind security controls. The ISACA questions aren't testing whether you know what a firewall is -- they're testing whether you can apply the concept in a scenario. That shift made a huge difference for me.
With 68% you're genuinely close, so don't let that score discourage you. If your scorecard shows you're weakest in security operations or incident response, lean into practice questions for those specifically rather than rereading the same study material. I drilled maybe 200 practice questions in the last two weeks before my retake and it's what finally pushed me over. You've already done the hard part of understanding what you don't know -- use that.
I was in almost the exact same spot about four months ago, failed at 69% and genuinely considered just dropping the cert entirely. What turned it around for me was stopping the broad review and going deep on the two or three domains where I knew I was weakest -- for me that was security program management and incident response. I'd been spreading my study time too thin and it wasn't working.
Honestly the retake felt completely different once I committed to really understanding the "why" behind each concept instead of just memorizing definitions. Six weeks is plenty of time if you're focused. You've already done the hard part once, so you know what the exam feels like -- use that. Don't give up when you're this close.
I was in almost the exact same spot last year -- hit 69% and honestly almost didn't bother retaking it. What changed things for me was stopping the "study everything" approach and actually drilling the domains I kept getting wrong. For CSX Fundamentals that meant spending way more time on incident response and threat intelligence concepts, because those questions are worded in a way that trips you up even when you know the material.
Six weeks is actually plenty of time if you're focused. Don't just re-read the same material you used before -- practice questions are where it clicks, because the exam loves to test whether you can apply a concept, not just recognize it. I passed on my second attempt with an 81% and it wasn't because I studied harder, it was because I studied smarter. You're closer than you think.