Wednesday 27 August 2014

TOGAF Certified Architect in two weeks

In April 2013, I happened to meet an interviewer who looked at all my qualifications and experience (17 years - all in Software Industry) then as part of the bargaining process, he said I do not fit as an architect because I do not have any certification to prove my expertise or experience. I felt really dumped. I took the offer to join the company but decided that I would have an architect certification before I joined the company and the joining date was just 3 weeks away from the day I took the interview. I decided to go for the TOGAF certification and I decided that I will do it in 2 weeks' time. In the two weeks of preparation, all I did was, make myself thorough with the concepts in the Foundation Guide. There were not many sources to test my knowledge in the TOGAF guide. So, I challenged myself by asking my son to randomly ask questions from the foundation guide. The questions he asked were sometimes too low-a-level or call it silly but then, I decided to take it as a challenge and answer as much. It also taught me another lesson in the sidelines - never underestimate the power of a little one! This was the time when I also decided that there could be a website or app that could have section-wise questions of the TOGAF chapters and it can be helpful to the aspirants. I decided to keep it aside and concentrate on  the exam preparation process - one week to get thorough with TOGAF ADM and another one week to attempt advanced level questions - my only testing tool was the mock exams (around 50-60 questions) - part of the package that comes as soon as you register for the TOGAF exam. In the process, i realized that the advance level is easy if you are good with the basic concepts. Although the exam  fees was also high, the driving factor was to prove myself that I can pick up any concept at any time albeit TOGAF or rocket science - provided if you have the interest! I just didn't think too much about the after-effects, took the exam on the scheduled date. Once i completed the foundation level exam, i was fairly confident about my performance, because the questions weren't as tough as what my son had asked! The advanced level was a bit tougher than foundation but my concepts helped me. I never referred the guide while taking the exam although that is allowed for the advanced level. Once i finished my exam, I was fairly confident I would pass but slightly a bit jittery. I was surprised to see the result since my foundation scores weren't as good as the advanced level scores but I was happy i passed with just 2 weeks of preparation and I'm now TOGAF certified!
The thought of a site was still lingering in my mind. One year later, here I'm - building a site - www.togafexamprep.com - providing section-based tests for each of the chapters. I'm sure this will be a big repository of TOGAF questions very soon. Register and use it and check the personalized dashboards. Will be glad if it helps all the aspirants. Cheers!!!!

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