About the Exam
I recently passed the TOGAF 9.2 Part 1 exam. This is an Enterprise Architecture exam from The Open Group. The Open Group is an open group (who would have guessed?) that includes a number of big names. You can read more about them at their site: https://www.opengroup.org/
The TOGAF certification actually contains two parts, Foundation and Certified. You can earn the Foundation certification, and then upgrade to the full Certified status by completing an additional exam. You can also sit both exams back to back and go directly to the Certified status. More info on the certification can be found here: https://www.opengroup.org/certifications/togaf
For me, since I’m new to the TOGAF standard, I decided to do the Foundation exam first, and once I’ve finished that then move on to the Certified upgrade.
How I Prepared
For my study materials I bought the TOGAF® 9 Foundation Study Guide – 4th Edition
After reading through the book I think it’s a decent read. It can be repetitive at times, but since some of the concepts are new to me I actually think it’s helpful. There are practice tests included in the book, and they are almost identical to the separate practice tests sold by The Open Group. If you get the book then I wouldn’t bother getting the practice tests.
I also watched Pluralsight video series on TOGAF. The thing I liked about the video series was the use of a fictional enterprise that was going through an Enterprise Architecture process. In the Study Guide I had some trouble really understanding what some parts would look like in practice, so this material helped fill in some gaps.
There’s also the TOGAF library which contains a lot of useful information about the TOGAF standard. However, for this exam that material really isn’t needed.
Taking the Exam
The TOGAF exam was similar to most other Pearson VUE exams. The registration is done through The Open Group’s site, which redirects you to the Pearson VUE site for scheduling. I was able to take the test at the same site I’ve used for Cisco and VMware exams, so the test environment was quite familiar.
The test itself is pretty straightforward. It’s 40 questions, all multiple choice. The passing score is 55% with each question equally weighted. That means if you get at least 22 correct you’ll pass. Since it’s not an adaptive test you are able to go back and review questions prior to completing the exam.
I really didn’t find the exam to be too terribly difficult. There were a few questions that I had to guess on, but I was confident on about 70% of my answers. Since the passing score is 55% I didn’t worry too much about the ones I was unsure of, and I ended up passing.
What’s next
It can take up to 6 business days for the score report to become official. I am planning to start studying for the TOGAF Certified exam, and I hope to sit the exam in 2-3 weeks.
Update: I took the exam after, and wrote another post about it.