I passed the combined TOGAF® 9.1 Part I and Part II exams on May
24th. I did it
through self study and wanted to share my experience so that it
would be
useful for others. Timeline wise, I spent around 2 weeks - started
studying on May 11th by purchasing official TOGAF® self-study package
from the Open Group and gave exams on May 24th here in Toronto
with satisfactory
results - i.e. I passed Part I with 87% and Part II with 85%.
In terms of preparation almost 60% of my time, I spent on foundation (Part I) study as I realized early that in order to really crack the Part II exam, I had to have the good knowledge of TOGAF® foundation. Having said so, however, I did not wait until the end to prepare for the Part II exam. After few days of Part I study, I kind of accommodated Part II as well, after every iteration of part I, which actually helped me to better understand the TOGAF® concept as Part II is based on knowledge, TOGAF® way of thinking, analysing and also some related experience as well. Below some details:
Note: the combined exam costs 495 USD. Also, note that total cost for combined exams is little bit less than giving them separately. Here is Prometric site for registration: https://www.prometric.com/en-us/clients/opengroup/Pages/landing.aspx
In summary (based on my experience), Part I exam, requires well versed TOGAF® knowledge, so, make sure you know all the TOGAF® terminologies, and methodologies. TOGAF® Part II, however in addition to TOGAF® knowledge, also requires very TOGAF® way of thinking and analysing each scenario.By the way, scenarios in the Part II exams are fairly long and it is easy to loose the track, so, make sure to note (in memory or on provided pad) what' the ask and concerns are. Most of the choices for each scenario are equally long and pretty close to each other (in terms of meaning), so try to think in TOGAF® way to select the right one and avoid the distractor. Even though, Part II is an open book exam, avoid using attached reference document in the beginning. If you are not confident with your selection, mark it and move forward. Once you answer all your questions, then you can go back to marked questions and open the PDF document provided as reference to fine tune your answer. This way, you'll save time and also won't leave behind any question unanswered because of lack of time.
In terms of preparation almost 60% of my time, I spent on foundation (Part I) study as I realized early that in order to really crack the Part II exam, I had to have the good knowledge of TOGAF® foundation. Having said so, however, I did not wait until the end to prepare for the Part II exam. After few days of Part I study, I kind of accommodated Part II as well, after every iteration of part I, which actually helped me to better understand the TOGAF® concept as Part II is based on knowledge, TOGAF® way of thinking, analysing and also some related experience as well. Below some details:
Registration:
I registered for TOGAF® 9 Combined Part I and II (Exam Number: OG0093; Exam details: http://certification.opengroup.org/examinations/TOGAF/TOGAF9-combined) through Prometric on May 11.Note: the combined exam costs 495 USD. Also, note that total cost for combined exams is little bit less than giving them separately. Here is Prometric site for registration: https://www.prometric.com/en-us/clients/opengroup/Pages/landing.aspx
Preparation:
- Purchased TOGAF® 9 CERTIFICATION SELF-STUDY PACK, 3RD EDITION (SKU: B097; cost 59.90 USD) PDF version from the Open Group web site.
- Started studying with Pocket guide (G117p.pdf) included in the self-study package. It provided general understanding of TOGAF®. If you start with official TOGAF® 9.1 documentation or detailed study guide, you may easily get lost or be bored. So, my suggestion is "start light" and for that purpose pocket guide seems to be the best.
- Reviewed the Reference Cards included in the self-study package. Reference cards really helped me to understand the TOGAF® concept and methodology visually. Once I reviewed all 4 reference cards, I created my own versions of reference cards to make sure that I understood them well. Note: There are 4 reference cards N111, N112, N113, and N114 included in the self-study package.
- Once I completed the Pocket book and Reference cards, I did first iteration of Part I practice test consisting 40 questions and remembered doing fairly well. I reviewed the explanation for those questions which I answered incorrectly. That's when I also started looking into the official TOGAF® 9.1 documentation and reviewed the materials in detail related to each question.
- After doing Part I practice test and also taking notes from official TOGAF® 9.1 documentation, I tried the first 8 questions from Part II practice test. Again reviewed all answers and referred back to either official TOGAF® 9.1 documentation or study guides included in the package.
- Following YouTube tutorials also helped me to shape my TOGAF® concept:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF5FCBA1AF9B8FA (10 parts tutorial). Very well explained in detail.
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM9BDLm3rDjf3sU_Uq_hmSltM7jj1dII0 (9 parts tutorial). Also very well explained in high level.
- Before doing the 2nd set of 40 questions included in the self-study package for Part I test question, I did some tests from public sites. especially 3 set of 40 questions from http://theopenarch.com/81-tests/72-TOGAF®-9-exam-tests.html . I found, these questions relatively harder than the questions included in the official self-study package. I remembered doing not very well, so I had to refer back to official document, and study guide and go deep and detail and take notes.
- On/Around the 6th day, I felt somehow comfortable with the overall TOGAF® document structure, and had clear high level TOGAF® concept so I decided to proceed with the Part I and Part II preparations kind of in parallel, i.e. at any point in time I could be doing Part I or Part II tests and referring back to TOGAF® 9.1 documentation for detail.
- Self-Study package contains bonus questions for both Part I and Part II exams. I also did tests from the following sites:
- http://theopenarch.com/81-tests/72-TOGAF®-9-exam-tests.html (has both Part I and Part II test questions)
- https://setandbma.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/TOGAF-preparation-aid-for-part-2/ helpful questions to understand the TOGAF® artifacts and viewpoints.
- http://wenku.baidu.com/view/c9d8c7b0f524ccbff12184d2.html for Part II test questions.
- I did two iterations of practice tests and reviewed the answers. I did detail study from official TOGAF® 9.1 document for any questions that I answered wrong during each iteration. I did 3rd iteration only to those questions that were marked wrong in the 2nd iteration.
- My study style:
- Each day I started with the review of previous day's learning and any important notes.
- On the last day before the test, I reviewed all my personal notes.
In summary (based on my experience), Part I exam, requires well versed TOGAF® knowledge, so, make sure you know all the TOGAF® terminologies, and methodologies. TOGAF® Part II, however in addition to TOGAF® knowledge, also requires very TOGAF® way of thinking and analysing each scenario.By the way, scenarios in the Part II exams are fairly long and it is easy to loose the track, so, make sure to note (in memory or on provided pad) what' the ask and concerns are. Most of the choices for each scenario are equally long and pretty close to each other (in terms of meaning), so try to think in TOGAF® way to select the right one and avoid the distractor. Even though, Part II is an open book exam, avoid using attached reference document in the beginning. If you are not confident with your selection, mark it and move forward. Once you answer all your questions, then you can go back to marked questions and open the PDF document provided as reference to fine tune your answer. This way, you'll save time and also won't leave behind any question unanswered because of lack of time.
