CISA Information System Auditing Process Practice Question
An IS auditor is testing the effectiveness of a control that involves a manual review of exception reports. The population of exceptions is 5,000 items. The auditor wants to achieve a 95% confidence level with a tolerable error rate of 2%. Which sampling method is MOST appropriate?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Statistical attribute sampling
Statistical sampling (attribute sampling) is appropriate when the auditor wants to draw a conclusion about the population's error rate with a specified confidence level.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Systematic sampling
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect; systematic sampling is a selection method but does not inherently provide statistical confidence without proper statistical evaluation.
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Judgmental sampling
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect; judgmental sampling is non-statistical and does not provide statistical confidence.
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Stratified sampling
Why it's wrong here
Stratified sampling divides the population into subgroups to ensure representation across distinct strata, but the 5,000 exception reports are homogeneous items with no natural grouping relevant to the control’s manual review. It is tempting because stratification reduces variance in heterogeneous populations, such as when exceptions differ by region or severity, where it would correctly isolate high-risk subsets for targeted testing.
- ✓
Statistical attribute sampling
Why this is correct
Correct; attribute sampling is used to estimate the proportion of items with a certain characteristic and provides statistical confidence.
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