No '70% to Pass' on CISSP, CISA or CIPP Exams, Free Pass-Mark Table Shows

A free table from Credential Press gives the published pass mark for 18 certification exams, from each board's own documents. Only PECB uses a percentage.

LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM, October 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Exam prep publisher Credential Press has published a free table of the pass mark, or passing score, for 18 security, privacy, audit, risk and AI governance certification exams, each figure read from the board's own documents. The short version: for the CISSP, CISA and CIPP exams, there is no "70% to pass".

"A candidate who studies toward 70% on the CISSP is aiming at a number ISC2 does not publish," said Sotiris Spyrou, founder of Credential Press. "A pass mark is a fact you can check. So we check it at the source, and we print the date we checked it."

How each board scores its exam, from the board's own published candidate material:

- CISSP and CCSP (ISC2): scored out of 1000, and 700 passes. ISC2 does not publish how raw scores convert, so there is no percentage to aim for. Every CISSP exam uses computerized adaptive testing.
- CISA, CISM, CRISC and CDPSE (ISACA): reported on a scale from 200 to 800, and 450 passes.
- CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM, CIPT and AIGP (IAPP): scored from 100 to 500, and 300 or above passes. A board of exam experts sets the cut score for each exam.
- FRM Part I and Part II (GARP): scored pass or fail, and GARP publishes no pass mark.
- ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Implementer and Lead Auditor (PECB): here the percentage is real. 70% passes, which is 56 of 80 questions.

That matters for how candidates read their practice scores. On a scaled exam, a practice percentage shows which domains are weak; it is not a pass line. The IAPP tells candidates not to calculate a passing score by averaging their section percentages, and ISACA says its domain-level results are for information only.

The full table for 18 exams, with the source and review date for every figure and a free download of the data, is at credentialpress.com/pass-marks.

A format change for ISO 27001 candidates

PECB's English-language ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Implementer and Lead Auditor exams are now 80 multiple-choice questions, each with three options. The Lead Implementer exam runs three hours. Both are open book, and candidates may bring a hard copy of the standard.

PECB's earlier handbooks set an essay exam of 12 questions worth 75 points, and said the board would move to multiple choice in stages. Study material written for the essay paper no longer matches the English exam.

"Boards change their formats, and a study guide written for the old one teaches the wrong test," said Spyrou. "That is why every one of our books names the handbook version it covers on the copyright page."

Credential Press has rebuilt its ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Implementer and Lead Auditor exam guides for the multiple-choice exam, along with its Lead Implementer practice exams. The practice book now holds three full papers of 80 questions, 240 in all, and each paper draws from PECB's seven domains in the counts PECB publishes. Each answer explains why the right option is right and why each wrong one fails.

Credential Press has 40 titles on sale, covering credentials from five boards: the IAPP, ISACA, ISC2, PECB and GARP. Its titles include the CISSP Exam Guide, the CISA Exam Guide, the CIPP/E Exam Guide and the ISO 27001 Lead Implementer Exam Guide, each paired with a practice book that tests the blueprint in the exam's own format. The books are sold on Amazon. Trainers, librarians and reviewers can request a review copy at credentialpress.com/free.

About Credential Press

Credential Press publishes exam guides and practice books for professional certifications in privacy, information security, audit, risk, AI governance and quality management. Every title is written from the exam board's own published documents, scoped to the published blueprint, and dated to the edition it covers. Credential Press is an imprint of Verity AI Ltd (verityai.co) and is independent of every exam board it covers. CISSP, CCSP, CISA, CISM, CRISC, CDPSE, CIPP, CIPM, CIPT, AIGP, FRM and the PECB credential names are trademarks of their owners.

Sotiris Spyrou
Credential Press
hello@credentialpress.com