I recently finished the TOGAF 9 Part 2 exam. Believe it or not, this exam is the follow-up to the TOGAF 9 Part 1 exam. Having completed the Part 1 exam and certification process already, completing this exam upgrades my certification from TOGAF 9 Foundation to TOGAF 9 Certified.
If you don’t know what TOGAF is, or are unfimilar with the Foundation certification see my post on the Part 1 exam.
About the Exam
There are a couple things to be aware of with Part 2. First off, it is an upgrade to Part 1. This means that all the concepts are the same. The big difference is that Part 1 focuses on knowing the TOGAF Standard, and its components. Part 2 focuses on how it is used. It’s also worth noting that the TOGAF 9 Certified certification replaces the TOGAF 9 Foundation certification.
The exam, on paper, looks deceivingly easy. It is all of eight questions long. No, these aren’t 8 questions with 14 sub-parts. Nor are they simulations or other types of questions. Just eight questions, with four answer choices each. To pass you need to score at least 60%. Also, each answer is weighted with the most correct answer being worth 5 points, the second best is 3 points, the next is only 1 point, and the worst answer will get you 0 points. If you do the math, you can pass by getting the best answer five times, and completely missing the rest. You could also get the second best answer for all eight questions and still pass. The test is also open book.
Sounds easy, right? Well, here’s where that takes a bit of a turn. The questions are scenario based, which means there’s a lot of reading during the exam. Also, because the answers are weighted it means it can be difficult to pick which of the four choices really is the best.
How I prepared
I took the Part 2 exam a week after I did the Part 1, so all of that studying was still fresh.
I picked up the Official TOGAF ® 9 Certified Study Guide
For this exam I decided to try one of the practice tests in the back of the book first, and use that to guide my studies. I found that with the knowledge I had after my Part 1 training, combined with some critical thinking and I was able to pass the practice test with flying colors.
I then went through the questions a second time and I ranked the answers from what I thought was best to worst. I had about 85% accuracy with that, so I felt confident enough in my understanding that I went ahead and scheduled the test.
The Exam
As usual, this is a proctored exam from a Pearson VUE test site. The exam experience was uneventful. I’ve taken plenty of tests at this site, so getting in and out was a breeze.
The one thing about the exam that I will say is that critical thinking is important. You need to be able to evaluate four different answers to a scenario, and at times it can be difficult to really decide which one is best.