9 Tips for passing ArchiMate Practitioner exam

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ITIL v3 Foundation - Preparation advices & exam tips

ITIL framework has emerged over the years, latest version is v3 since year 2011. I consider it best suited for IT departments in big enterprises (Having IT staff 100+).

I'm not recommending this certification for fresh graduates. I think it is best suited for IT staff with at least 1 year experience working in IT department in an enterprise in-order to understand why you need all of this. Coming from small Software or vendor is not recommended.

Following is sharing my experience in certifying ITIL v3 foundation (Just passed the exam today), it might not be the best, but it achieved the target :)

Preparation advices:

• I recommend taking a course with good instructor. If you don't want to pay money for the course especially the exam doesn't require this, you can watch Youtube introductory training material; I recommend this ITIL playlist. There is also very good online free course for ITIL foundation here.
• Schedule the exam after 3 - 7 days maximum of finishing your training course.
• Knowing the definition & terminology is very important in ITIL (Represents 15 - 20% of the questions).
• Exam is easy in general & passing score is 65%, but require knowing the syllabus, topics, terminology used in ITIL, and how they interrelate.
• Don't enter exam without answering as much questions you can.
• Answer questions based on ITIL concepts not based on your work experience.

Exam advices:

• Time is enough for answering having in mind that only 1 answer is valid (1.5 mins per question), rule of elimination incorrect answer is best used practice.
• Answer straight forward questions first, and don't waste time for hard questions just mark them for review.

Free exams:

• ITIL Foundation Practice Test (99 questions).
• Android ITIL free exam preparation.
• Test King Exin ITIL foundation (106 questions).

How to schedule exam:

You should have Prometric login or register for a new one.

1. After sign in; in the "Client and program selection", select "EXIN" in "Client" section, and "EXIN (EX0, EX1)" in "Program" section. Click "Next".
2. Read important information from EXIN, and click "Next".
3. In "Exam" section, select "EX0-001 - ITIL Foundation (syllabus 2011)", in "Language" section, select "U.S. ENGLISH", in the currencies, select "USD", you will find the net price updated to 215 USD. Click "Next".
4. In "AVAILABLE TEST SITES", click "Schedule Appointment" next to the exam center you would like to take your test in, and select date and time for exam, click "Next".
5. In "PAYMENT INFORMATION" screen, type your email, birthday, training provider if any, complete billing information, and click "Commit Registration".
6. You will get "THANK YOU FOR REGISTERING WITH PROMETRIC", and you will receive email confirming the date.

Getting your certificate:

After 1 business day, you will receive an email asking for confirming your details in EXIN candidate portal, and another business day for receiving your portal credentials where you can download a softcopy of the certificate; hard copy of your certificate will be issues and emails using standard mail after 2 days of confirming your credentials.

Hope this help someone.

TOGAF 9 certification preparation advices & exam tips

I have passed TOGAF 9 level 1 foundation, and level 2 certification on Mar-2013 and would like to share the experience with everyone. The following is the recommended steps from my perspective to prepare and pass the exam:

1- Watch tutorial video
You need to know what is Enterprise Architect? What is TOGAF? Overview of the framework so you can decide if you will benefit from this certification. A good introduction is offered here.

2- Get a quick look to TOGAF 9.1 specs
The specification is shared online here, please have a look at the content; no need to get into deep details in this stage. 

3- Attend TOGAF course
TOGAF doesn't necessitate that you get a course to attend the exam, but I think you will benefit from the course very much for the following reasons:
    a- Course takes 5 days, you will find the first two days, you just need to switch your mind to think the TOGAF way, even if you have previous architecture experience. Having someone answering your question will be of great help.
    b- Course offers TOGAF slides, exam material, template that you will really benefit from.
    c- You will benefit from instructor if he has past experience in implementing TOGAF.
    d- Most people attending such course have considerable long experience in IT in general, seeking excellence in their work, you will really enjoy the talk and you will benefit from expanding your professional network as well.
TOGAF has accredited course calendar listed here. I prefer if you select 5 days course for level 1 & 2 as course is already long and 4 days won't be sufficient.

4- Stick to a study schedule
I have prepared a study schedule using Microsoft Project 2010 shared here (For Microsoft Project 2007 shared here). It has specific study calendar “TOGAF Study Calendar” of 4hrs/day, 5 days/week. I encourage using it and modifying the project calendar to suite your availability. This link provides a detailed explanation of how to change the calendar in Microsoft Project 2010. I think 2 weeks after the course will be enough to take level 1 exam.

5- Solving exam questions
You need to solve exam questions before showing for the exam. If you attended a course, usually you will get exam material for your preparation. Others are available as below:
•    The Open Arch.
•    Technology trend analysis practice test.
•    TOGAF free quiz.
•    TOGAF 9 class.
The above are just samples, you can search and find lots more.

6- Exam level 1 foundation advices

a- ESL: You can have extended time for the exam by selecting English as Second Language (ESL).

b- After tutorial and before starting the exam: Draw ADM, as you will get questions asking you with phase letter.

c- Method of elimination is best used for exam, for tough questions, pick any answer from what you think are probably correct before marking the question for review; i.e. never leave a question without an answer.

d- Level 1 is not covering all topics, it is highlighted in study schedule with yellow color, and also indicated as (Level 1).


7- Exam level 2 certified advices (Specs open book)

a- ESL: You can have extended time for the exam by selecting English as Second Language (ESL).

b- A MUST topics for exam (ADM processes & guidelines & techniques - Transition planning techniques - Architecture Capability Framework - Iteration to ADM - Example set of architecture principals specs section 23.6 - Architectural artifacts ch 35).

c- I recommend reading the scenario twice to determine (State of EA office, Management direction, stakeholders concerns, current phase you are dealing with).

d- When you know the phase you are in, you can check the process guidelines, approach, or steps to guide your answer.

e- In answering questions that you should address concerns, or select best architecture artifacts for stakeholders, I recommend using below table as follows:
    i- While reading the statement of the question, write the concerns from multiple stakeholders in the columns.
    ii- Write multiple options in rows.
    iii- For each option, check if it satisfies the concern raised or not and add a mark X or √.
    iv- Select choice that best suites the question & have √ on all columns.

	Concern / stakeholder 1	Concern / stakeholder 2	Concern / stakeholder 3	Concern / stakeholder 4
Option A	X	√	X	√
Option B	√	√	√	√
Option C	X	√	√	√
Option D	X	X	X	X

I hope this will help someone there.

PMP Preparation advices & exam tips

Last updated 15-Mar-2019

I have passed PMP 4th exam on Dec-2012 and would like to share the experience with everyone. The following is the recommended steps from my prospective to prepare and pass the exam:

1- Download PMP handbook pdf
This is a free download from PMI, the link might change for the book; anyway you should find it in PMP certification main page. This book is a MUST read. Always check for newer version as this document changes frequently.

2- Attend PMP course
When you read PMP Handbook, it is a must to have “35 contact hours of formal education”, there are mainly two ways for this:
    a- Attend formal course for PMP in your area, but usually it costs you too much, unless it is included within your company training schedule.
    b- Distance learning by purchasing an online course, and at the end you get your certificate by passing an exam.

I have searched the Internet for quite some time and found the cheapest and really good deal The PMP Exam Simulator. It is around 100 USD (Currently, 139 USD as of Mar-2019), and has great value; lots of people will recommend it to you, other courses I found online was above 250 USD. You can easily watch the video on your computer or other portable devices.

3- Purchase good preparation PMP
Reading a preparation book is very important to clearly understand the idea of PMP and its related tasks, PMBOK is considered tenser and towards exam objectives, I find myself try to understand or seeking more declaration about a subject in preparation book if I can’t understand from PMBOK.

You will find most PMP holders refer to two books for certification:
1.    Head First PMP 2nd edition.
2.    PMP Exam Prep, 6th Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam.

You will find lots of comparison between two books, I prefer that your read those comparisons before purchasing, but most of them mention that Rita is more directed to exam and teaches you as classic text book, while Head first uses its great way for teaching, but it sometimes miss some minor information.
At the end I picked Head first, and I purchased e-book copy for 50% discount from Oreilly using a coupon, so, I suggest before purchasing from whatever website always try to get a coupon from Internet.

4- Becoming PMI.org member
When you read PMP Handbook, fees section, you will find fees differ if you are PMI member or not. All people will tell you better become a member as you will receive discounts on exams, re-examination and renewals plus some more extra stuff. Please create a new account in PMI before applying for individual membership that will cost you 129 USD.

5- Download PMBOK Guide 4th edition
As per your PMI subscription you are eligible to download free electronic water marked copy of PMBOK guide 4th edition (A guide to the project management body of knowledge), it is found in this link. There are other good documents in the same link, but not mandatory for PMP exam.

6- Stick to a study schedule
One of the biggest mistakes that you will do is that you get the certification in relax mode, this may take months or even years. My advice will be making a schedule for the preparation till the day of the exam including solving exams. I have prepared a study schedule using Microsoft Project 2010 shared here (For Microsoft Project 2007 shared here). It has specific study calendar “PMP Study Calendar” of 4hrs/day, 5 days/week. I encourage using it and modifying the project calendar to suite your availability. This link provides a detailed explanation of how to change the calendar in Microsoft Project 2010. You will find that most PMP holder mention that you can have the certification in 3-4 months which matches the project schedule mentioned before.

7- Solving exam questions
You need to solve lots of exam questions before showing for the exam. Following is list of available free:
•    PMP Exam Self-Assessment Test (75 questions).
•    About.com Tech certification (20 questions).
•    BestSampleQuestions.com PMP Sample (160 questions).
•    Test prep review (15 questions).
The above are just samples, you can search and find lots more.

8- Real Exam advices

a- Language aid: If English is not your mother tongue language, apply for free language aid in the exam, this sometimes help in some types of questions.

b- Exam time is limited, you need to be fast: You have 4 hours to answer 200 questions, i.e. you have only 72 secs per question (1st hr --> you should have reached 50 questions, 2nd hr --> 100 questions, 3rd hr --> 150 questions) you should check these milestone in the exam in-order to keep moving as fast as you can.

c- Exam duration is 15 mins tutorial, 4 hours exam, 15 mins survey. The first 15 mins you will have complete tutorial on how to mark and review exam, and use of calculator before you finish this tutorial (As exam will start after this) take the remaining time for writing down all equations you know in a clear paper the testing center have provided you. This is really helpful as you might get distracted from long time in exam and will consume time trying to remember them.

d- Method of elimination is best used for exam, for tough questions, pick any answer from what you think are probably correct before marking the question for review; i.e. never leave a question without an answer.

c- Sometimes for long questions, it is better to start reading the last part sentence to know what it require, before reading a whole paragraph as it is giving stoo much unneeded information.

d- When a question is asking what you will use for a process, it is asking you to pick up input, tool, technique that’s part of the process.

e- Take your time answering “Which is not” question. I think the best way to eliminate confusion is to remove the word “NOT” in the phrase and write down your answers then convert it x --> √ & vise versa. This worked for me very well.

I hope this will help someone there.