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ITIL Service Operation exam - my thoughts after taking it

benq86benq86 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
in ITIL Certifications
Hi,

Just took the online exam for ITIL Service Operation.

My training provider was Simplilearn and my experience with them was generally good. For an Indian company (no offence) they have amazing customer service. The training itself (online) was mediocre at best (simple flash presentation with a guy reading every other paragraph from the core book). However, it was just $450 (exam included). You get what you pay for I guess.

The exam...
Some people on this forum have expressed an opinion that it is way more difficult than the prep tests. Is it though? Not a single question on the exam really surprised me although some were tricky. The questions revolved mostly around event, application, incident and problem management. Also, I had to evaluate a list of KPIs in one question and decide whether an organization was out of balance (and where) in another (seems easy but that was the longest scenario of all). I was done after 70 minutes and did not review my answers at all.

I scored 38 points. Not bad. And soooo damn close to 100%. Not enough.

How did I study?
1. Read the core book.
2. Sat through 30 hours of online training.
3. Read the core book again.
4. Did sample tests (marked each answer 5,3,1 and 0 to expose any gaps in my knowledge).
5. Went into detail with Organizing for Service Operation, Technical and Application management and all the Roles.

I probably spent around 100 hours studying.


Bottom line.
Study hard and you'll pass.

Thanks and good luck.
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    Claire AgutterClaire Agutter Member Posts: 772 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Congratulations! That's a great result and a very honest review. The Intermediate exams are tough, but if you study hard it will pay off icon_smile.gif

    Claire
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    poppersheeshpoppersheesh Registered Users Posts: 2 ■□□□□□□□□□
    HI nice review. I am going to be doing this soon and I'm in the dark totally. I can not even find a hint of what type of questions qualify for any of the certs.

    I am able to build cpu's and am cpu able. I am trying to figure out how much time I will need to study.

    Thanks for your help
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    benq86benq86 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
    I think I should revisit this thread....

    So.... If you're wondering which training provider to choose - DON'T GO WITH SIMPLILEARN. I take back what I said about their decent customer service. I will spare you the details but the bottom line is I took the exam on 14 December and still haven't got official results. I'm starting to doubt I will ever get them. Seriously. Been calling, chatting, mailing - you name it. Escalation to what they call "higher authority" did exactly nothing.

    Such a frustrating experience.
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    zin1123zin1123 Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Im looking to take ITIL SO as well, may I know which Core Book you use for study?
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    benq86benq86 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
    The official one.
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Service-operation-Best-management-practice/dp/0113313071/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390815997&sr=8-2&keywords=itil+2011+service+operation
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    benq86benq86 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
    look up "ITIL Service Operation 2011 Edition (Best Management Practices) by Randy A. Steinberg (Jul 29, 2011)" on amazon - thats the one.
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    datacombossdatacomboss Member Posts: 304 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Glad this thread was updated. I used them for my 35 contact hours for PMP studies and I planned to go back after passing the PMP exam, but I think Claire's organization may be a better fit for me.
    "If I were to say, 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said, 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life."

    Arthur Ashe

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    benq86benq86 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Finally today (44 days after taking the exam) simplilearn provided the results.....



    Attachment with results (no joke):





    After a month and a half they come back to me with this?? Of course, not a word about the actual certificate.... will they send it? Or is that it?
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    lysjelysje Member Posts: 20 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Wow, I'm glad I didn't take the complete package from them. After reading your story in December I enrolled into their online course, so I could comply with the mandatory training. After completing it, I went into the chat and requested the certificate of completion. It took them 4 tries and a lot of patience from my side to finally send me a non corrupted PDF. I kept having to go back to them explaining the PDF wasn't opening on any of my devices.

    I'm hoping to take the exam at the end of this week, I'm planning to take it online at www.exin.com. This combination resulted cheaper for me. I think EXIN or APMG are the ones who deliver the certificate in the end. On the EXIN site it says that once you pass, you can immediately see your digital certificate on their site.
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    benq86benq86 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
    hey, yeah I took Foundation with EXIN and I could not complain at all. They're great.

    I think Simplilearn is bad but APMG folks are not much better. I called their Service Desk to ask about my results, provided them my candidate number but they were unable to help me because "they couldn't find me in any database"...... Seriously. Maybe I have been really unlucky, I don't know.

    A friend of mine is taking the SO exam with APMG this weekend, I'm curious what his story is going to be like. I'll keep this thread updated.
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    benq86benq86 Member Posts: 9 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Just an update on the above. My buddy still doesn't have his certificate.
    SIMPLILEARN is bad. Very very bad.
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    Aleksandra PfeningAleksandra Pfening Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Hello,

    Can I ask if you finally received your official certification ?
    I am asking as before I read all the forum here I took training and exam from simplilearn and I am wonder when I will got mine results

    I took exam 7th of April - Thank you for your answers

    Regards,
    Aleksandra
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    mikelau13mikelau13 Member Posts: 30 ■■□□□□□□□□
    benq86 wrote: »
    hey, yeah I took Foundation with EXIN and I could not complain at all. They're great.

    I think Simplilearn is bad but APMG folks are not much better. I called their Service Desk to ask about my results, provided them my candidate number but they were unable to help me because "they couldn't find me in any database"...... Seriously. Maybe I have been really unlucky, I don't know.

    A friend of mine is taking the SO exam with APMG this weekend, I'm curious what his story is going to be like. I'll keep this thread updated.


    I have a bit similar scenario at the beginning about "couldn't find in any database", then I realized that because I was using the same email address before to take my ISQTB before, and my guess is that they have separated database to hold accounts on different exam, and the support person that I contacted only searched in one database..

    Not sure if this is the same reason that causing you trouble or not.
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    Cerebro 2.0Cerebro 2.0 Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
    This has me a little worried, I have signed up with Simplilearn for Service Operation...has their service improved?
    ITIL SO [In progress]
    Prince 2 Foundation [In progress]
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    Cerebro 2.0Cerebro 2.0 Member Posts: 24 ■□□□□□□□□□
    I contacted Simplilearn and they said it can take up to 20 days to receive the certificate.
    ITIL SO [In progress]
    Prince 2 Foundation [In progress]
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