When I teach the ISACA Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) course, one of the things I walk candidates through is how the test is structured and how much each domain is weighted for the overall exam. By understanding the weighting and comparing how you’re doing based on that, you should have a reasonable idea of whether or not you can pass the test. As time gets short, if you focus on the areas that have more weight, you increase the likelihood of passing the test. For the CISA, this type of strategy is absolutely necessary because the CISA is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Other tests like this include ISC2‘s CISSP. The TOGAF 9 standard is quite large and even though the foundation exam narrows the focus, it’s still a test you have to strategize for. So with that said, let’s look at the testing parameters.
The TOGAF 9 Foundation exam is a 40 question, multiple choice exam. It is closed book and one has 60 minutes to complete the exam. A passing score is 55% (or 22 questions answered correctly out of the 40). It’s a bit on the expensive side ($360 in the US at the time of this post) and if you fail you have to wait a month before you can take it again.
There are 13 units that are applicable for the TOGAF 9 Foundation exam. I’ve seen a couple of places that assigns weights to the units, however, I’ve not seen any official documentation as to how many questions are asked for each unit. As a result, by taking a practice exam I can determine what units I’m weakest at, but there’s no “gaming” the test like one could for the CISA based on weight of each domain. That’s important to know especially given the one month waiting period if I should fail the first time.
Speaking of the 13 units, Unit #13 is the TOGAF certification program which has the following learning outcome: “Explain the TOGAF Certification program, and distinguish between the levels for certification.” This post and the previous one cover unit 13.