How to prepare for an ITIL Foundation Certification

Want to get certified in first attempt in ITIL Foundation certification exam? Well then, how do you prepare for the exam? This article will walk you through some insights considered critical and vital to successfully crack the exam.

ITIL is considered as the best-practice service management framework across the industry, especially for IT service and governance.  If your field of interest and area of expertise happens to center around IT services management, and serious about shaping a career, then we strongly recommend you to take up ITIL® certification. The certification will accelerate your career path and professional advancement.  

Now that you are sure of your interest and inclination, the stepping stone towards the ITIL® certification is the ITIL Foundation.

Start your research
Before enrolling to ITIL Foundation course, do a bit of research to gain a basic understanding about ITIL Foundation. This will help you to assess and analyze the knowledge gap as some topics might be familiar, which is a shot in the arm and makes you more confident.  It presents an idea of your own appetite as well.

Scout for a good learning providerExtend your research to check the available learning academies in and around your place. Alternatively, check and confirm if other modes of learning like instructor-led online class or e-learning can take the place of physical classroom. If your employment comes in the way of attending regular classroom training, other options should be open for consideration. So factor these aspects in your search ad don’t prioritize based on just proximity hoping to catch up on shortfall later. It should be well searched and informed decision before you can make your move.

Sign up

Once you screen and settle on a service provider, sign up after checking your calendar to ensure there are no planned events that might impact or interfere with your training dates. A dedicated effort always calls for a detailed plan. A systematic approach and meticulous plan and good balance bring in the much desired discipline.  Make sure everything in its place before the course begins. There are tons of literatures available in the public domain. Read and upgrade.

Study

The relentless pursuit of learning leaves you rich and rewarding. So scratching the surface won’t suffice, instead dig deep and deeper and find roots. Study every chapter and summarize your learning. The Foundation course will be more about terminology, core concepts, process, lifecycles stages and links within. The course summary for every chapter will help you in identifying the learned and missed. If required, start all over again until you are satisfied and confident to close. Always question and seek greater clarity through illustration and examples. Try to reinforce learning through workplace experience and scenarios. After the completion of every chapter, attempt without fail the chapter test as this exercise will help you close the gaps that may exist and provide you the opportunity to assess your own standing based on the test outcome.

Self-study

Classroom study must be supplemented with self-study. The chapter tests taken in classroom can be replicated through tests available online. Today, the internet presents a wealth of information and poses hundreds of questions to test your skills and strength and as part of self-study, attempt as many as you can in the time available – that’s why the need for the systematic study and meticulous plan to apportion time accordingly. Usually, candidates are provided some time after the course completion to schedule the exam. Use this time effectively.

Self-assessment

The mock-exam or final test will be a comprehensive question papers simulating the severity of the Certification exam. You must endeavor to take as many as possible. Further, the official site hosts mock exam for participants to prepare themselves. Become conversant with course by scoring more than 90% in your mock exam. The ITIL Foundation is an objective-type 40 questions, and its possible to get all 40 correct. Your score above 90 must become a pattern from the series of mock exam attended. The score is a clear indicator of your learning and in case the score dips below 90, then restart by revisiting the chapters where the marks went missing. It’s plugging the holes and closing gaps that one scales. It’s very much possible and, with effort, achievable.

Sit for the examination

With the kind of strenuous preparation, just keep your cool and calmly appear for the exam. Make sure you read all the answers and most importantly understand the answers from the perspective of the question, and not misunderstand with your professional experience. Often candidates confuse the questions with scenarios experience in their professional front and as a result get sidetracked and struggle to find our way back. 

The percentage of pass is 65% which is answering 26 question correctly  out of 40. The insistence in scoring 90 and above  successively in a series of mock exam is to make oneself fluent and assure a safe passage to the subsequent level of certification exam, namely ITIL Intermediate.  Wish you well in your endeavors. As the next step in your professional ITIL certification, you can either opt for Intermediate-Lifecycle modules for those wanting to pursue managerial openings or Intermediate-Capability modules for those who wish to involve with process or mix of both Lifecycle and Capability.

About ITIL®

ITIL^®, an acronym of Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a collection of best practice in IT service management. ITIL is considered as the best-practice service management framework across the industry, especially for IT service and governance.  If your area field of interest and area of expertise happens to center around IT services management, then we strongly recommend you to take up ITIL certification. 

There are currently six levels for the ITIL^® Qualification Scheme (ITIL® Certification):

§  ITIL® Foundation Level

§  ITIL® Practitioner (newly added in 2016)

§  ITIL® Intermediate Level (Lifecycle Stream / Capability Stream)

§  ITIL® Managing Across the Lifecycle

§  ITIL® Expert

§  ITIL® Master

The ITIL certification is a platform independent, vendor neutral and non-prescriptive credential, that’s widely accepted and recognized across the industry with regard to IT management and service advancement initiatives.