TOGAF foundation passed

I passed my TOGAF 9.1 foundation exam on 06th May 2018.
In this article i am going to talk about my experience of the exam and how anyone looking to clear the TOGAF foundation exam should plan their study.

Preparation time and style:-
It took me about 2 months to prepare for TOGAF foundation exam.
I read the TOGAF Foundation study guide cover to cover (its about 200 pages), the first time to slowly digest the information and the second time to quickly write down and memorize the key terminology.
After the first reading i was not having any confidence at all and it all seemed like a deep blue sea.
Thankfully after second reading and writing down the key concepts and terminolgy in my notes, it all started to sink in.
Then i took the 2 practice exams which are part of the official study guide and consistently started scroing within range of 32-35 out of 40.
Honestly the content seemed boring during the first read but it got interesting after that and i started to visualize the Architecture development method.
Also my work experience as a technical product owner helped in visualizing all this.
Moreover, i am a visual learner so i guess that kicked in once i became familiar with the terms of EA.

Exam pattern
The exam is a MCQ based with 40 questions in total and duration of the exam is 1 hour.
I got 31 out of 40 in the exam. Questions are not very lengthy and it took me about 25 minutes to complete the exam.
The sentence and wording of the exam is quite simple and easy to understand even if you are not a native english speaker.
I found it helpful to quickly scan through the questions at the same time answering those which i was 100% sure of.
You can visit the questions later so that is not a problem.

Resources for practice
I found the TOGAF Foundation study guide to be more than enough for preparation.
There was nothing out of this book and if you read it cover to cover you are likely to pass.
There is no need to spend humongous amount of money on training or any other preparatory material apart from the official study guide.

Real exam experience
I found the questions on the real exam just a little bit more tricky than those in the study guide.
Also there were 2 or 3 tricky questions where i was confused.
All in all, it is easy to pass if you have the ADM phases fully digested into your head.
Do not try for rote learning, rather try to understand logically why you should do a particular activity in a given phase of ADM.
Ironically, it helps if you do not have much experience into EA as you come with little baggage of your own.
That way, you follow TOGAF recommendation almost as a religion and because the exam expects you to answer the questions based on exactly how things will be handled in TOGAF.

Results
Exams are conducted by Pearson VUE and the results are not immediately available , unlike other Computer based tests (CBT)
The test administrator told me it is due to security reasons and score card is shared by Pearson VUE with Open group and they validate the results , process it and then will trigger a mail to your registered email id.
I got the final results within a day so no worries there.

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Comments

coffeeluvr

Congrats on the pass!

averageguy72

Congrats!

UnixGuy

This is an excellent review, and I find it interesting that a 200 pages book is enough...

Can you please help me with this, where can I buy this book from? I prefer an eBook/Kindle version with the practice exams, any idea where I can get it from? (I'm going to do my own research shortly)

UnixGuy

There seem to be more than one guide, which one were you referring to?

https://shop.opengroup.org/b097

the foundation or the 'certified study guide' ?

roxer

Great job! Congratulations!!

roxer

UnixGuy wrote: »

This is an excellent review, and I find it interesting that a 200 pages book is enough...

Can you please help me with this, where can I buy this book from? I prefer an eBook/Kindle version with the practice exams, any idea where I can get it from? (I'm going to do my own research shortly)

There are two books for this as there are two separate exams/parts. I would do both exams together as you save some coin. Use the offical The Open Group manuals like abhisheksenator stated.

Part 1 - https://shop.opengroup.org/b133

Part 2 - https://shop.opengroup.org/b134

DatabaseHead

Great job on the pass.

UnixGuy

Did you guys used a soft copy or a hard copy?

I'm thinking of powering through this within a month or so if it's easy

roxer

UnixGuy wrote: »

Did you guys used a soft copy or a hard copy?

I'm thinking of powering through this within a month or so if it's easy

Foundation was harder, although I think that you have to understand foundation's principles before you take test two. I used the hard copies to study, but either works. Pay specific attention to the thought process for test two, so you know when what step comes before another. You can do this.

UnixGuy

Thanks Roxer, the books from the links above seems cheap enough (less than 100$), and I will learn something from reading the books so it's not a waste.

Seems like one of 2-3 options available to get architecture knowledge so might as well

abhisheksenator

Hi UnixGuy,

For the TOGAF level 1 exam it is the foundation study guide. Its also available at amazon.
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/9087537417/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

abhisheksenator

UnixGuy wrote: »

Did you guys used a soft copy or a hard copy?

I'm thinking of powering through this within a month or so if it's easy

I prefer reading through hard copy especially for an exam so i purchased the hard copy.