people who are working in service management and want to gain a standard knowledge of ITIL. If you are someone who is just starting his career or you already have experience in the field, but you want to demonstrate your knowledge through a globally recognized certification, then the ITIL Foundation exam is for you. Having this certificate will mean that you have a sound knowledge of ITIL terminology, structure, and basic concepts. It also will show that you have understood all the core principles of ITIL practices for management and service.
ITIL stands for IT Infrastructure Library, and it is a library of volumes that describe ss framework of best practices for delivering IT services. Throughout history, ITIL has had several versions, and now in present times, it has a total of 5 books. All of which cover different processes and stages of the IT services lifecycle. The ITIL Foundation exam is an entry-level certificate which assesses your knowledge about different IT concepts. You will be asked about topics like links between IT lifecycle stages, the processes used, and the contribution they make to service management practices. You will get a total of 40 questions and will get an hour to solve them. The passing criteria are for you to get at least 65 percent, and then you will earn the ITIL Foundation Certificate. The exam fees are between $100 to $500, based on where you take the exam. Accredited programs will provide you with courses that include the exam fee in the overall cost of the course.
To pass this certification, you must know the need for the ITIL Certificate, the four levels of ITIL certificate, and how you must be studying for each. Through the following tips, you will get a sound understanding of how you must be preparing well to pass the ITIL certificate exam in the first attempt.
1. Learn About The ITIL Course
Before you head out to take the ITIL 4 Foundation exam, you must first prepare by taking the ITIL course. You can learn it at a training center or do it all by yourself. It will be better to take the course from a training provider so that you will understand the tips and tricks better. An instructor with an in-depth understanding of the subject will help you understand the ITIL life cycle much better; this is why many candidates choose to study under and instructors training. You may find many training centers that provide you with the option to either study in an online course or a physical classroom. If you require the flexibility of time and schedule, then you must go for the online classes. You can also record these classes or can get a monthly or annual subscription with these training providers. You will find online ITIL courses to be cost-effective as well as compared to the physical classroom sessions. If you choose the classroom mode of learning, then you may be able to cover the course faster and get more peer interaction.
2. Refer To The Coursebook
Though you may find many sources from where you can prepare for your ITIL exam online and offline both, you must begin preparing from the official coursebook provided by the officials. You can find it online and purchase it to study. But you must focus on other sources as well. To completely cover your course, you must refer to blogs and different online sources for concepts you don’t understand from the coursebook directly. These blogs will help you clear your concepts that you should not keep unresolved.
3. Create Your Key Points And Notes
While preparing for ITIL, you will go across many topics and terms. To avoid getting jumbled up between them all, you will have to prepare your notes. Handwritten notes are better for keeping anything in your brain for longer times. You should not leave any of the topics in doubt. Whenever something queries, your mind refers to an instructor wither online or physical. You should go through every topic and keep making key points of each. This way, you will be able to study the entire course through those key points in shorter durations of time. These key points will help you retain information later in your career as well. You should make them as readable as possible to take advantage of them in the future.
4. Study From Study Materials
One can gain the most authentic knwoldege and information through course books and guides. You should prepare for your ITIL Foundation exam through study books, guides and your hand written notes.
5. Practice Tests
Performing the practice test is the best way to assess your understanding of ITIL concepts and theories. You should not skip this part as it is suggested that you spend 50% of your time preparing for the ITIL Foundation exam and spend the rest 50% of the time doing practice tests. Practice tests will allow you to estimate your learning and how much you need to prepare more. The questions that you feel least confident about are the ones you must focus most on. And keep appearing in practice tests until you 90% marks in them; otherwise, you will reduce your chances of actually scoring good in real exam. You can buy practice tests and can also get some for free online.
6. Understand 5 Phases Of ITIL Lifecycle
ITIL exam will comprise five stages of the ITIL lifecycle. All the stages are Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operations, and Continual Service Improvement.
- Service Strategy: In the service Strategy, you firm up what services are critical and how to allocate the funds to services, etc.
- Service design: It helps you get a bigger picture of resource utilization and benefits from that keeping the complete ITIL lifecycle in the brain.
- Service transition: the services in this strategy will help you get one step closer to scoring well in the ITIL exam. It allows you to do the management of availability, capacity, security, and suppliers.
- Service Transitions: this strategy allows you to effectively manage transition planning and support, change management, and service asset and configuration management.
- Service Operation: in this phase, the customers or business users will see the value of or the lack of services.
These five stages and their understanding will help you clear your ITIL exam with distinction. These phases are important to give you an in-depth understanding of the questions that will be asked during the ITIL Foundation exam.
7. Know Your Keywords
Certain concepts in ITIL are connected to some keywords, and learning those keywords will help you in pointing you in the right direction when appearing in the practice tests and real exam. You can use keywords to associate concepts like if some question is talking about marketing or setting policies and objectives, then it is Service Strategy. If you see a question referring to a word like negotiate, then it is the Service Level Management process. If you find words like ‘fairness’ or ‘policy’ then directly link it to Governance.
8. Learn The Lifecycle And Capability Modules
The intermediate level of ITIL study goes in-depth to each lifecycle and the capability modules, but all your basic understanding depends on the Foundation level. In this level, you need to have a clear understanding of the ITIL lifecycle and capability modules. You must make sure to have a clear knowledge of every special term in the coursebook. ITIL Foundation exam will provide you with the knowledge that will assist you in the daily tasks of your job. It will also provide you an ability to learn from the IT practices being followed in the IT world. The capability modules contain all the information you need to pass the Foundation level of ITIL.
9. Focus On What Matters
Having a bulk of course material, you might get boggled up what to study and whatnot. ITIL has to offer a lot, and it might also be out of your specialties. But you must not feel lost but instead focus on the key concepts of the framework. Try learning about the facts and also the ‘whys’ behind the key concepts. By doing so, you will remember important information that will not only help you in the exam but also will assist you in your career in IT. You can also use your experience with the ITIL framework you got through your organizational setting.
10. Search For Service Diagrams
You can use service management diagrams while studying for the ITIL certificate, which you can easily find on google. These diagrams will help you relate your material course concepts with everyday work and will help in making sense of the ITIL framework. You can find high-level diagrams on the internet about topics like how the framework is applied to different processes. After that, think about how things are being given to you at work and how you will need them to get your job done. All these processes are carried out by ITIL, and once you understand these, learning all about ITIL will get quite easy for you.
11.Join Online Groups Or Boot Camps
There are several ways to take outside help for preparations for your ITIL exam. It’s up to you to choose online groups or forums to join where there would be ITIL experts and also new earners. You will be able to learn from al of them, and this will aid your learning capacity. Many experts would share their experiences, and you will be able to learn from them without making any mistakes. You can find such groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. For boot camps, you will be able to share your knowledge with fellow ITIL candidates and will also have access to talk about concepts and strategies of ITIL. When a general conversation of some concept happens, everyone learns, and hence chances of scoring better at exam brighten up.
12. Schedule Your Exam While Your Knowledge Is Fresh
Once you follow all these steps and get fully prepared for your ITIL exam, make sure you schedule your exam right away. You don’t want your learning and information to get deluded away with time. This information that you receive in courses is packed into your memory for a very short time. It is volatile and can get erased quickly with time. It is better to take the exam in a few days after you complete the course to make sure you score high in the ITIL Foundation certification exam.
Conclusion
Getting the ITIL Foundation certificate will prove to be of great importance for you in the field of IT. It will enhance your skills and will give you a better understanding of ITIL management. Through this certificate, you will learn the implementation of processes, using the IT infrastructure and its systems. It will give you a distinction among your fellow IT colleagues and will prove to be a certificate of your skills in the field of IT. You will become a key contributor to the organization’s growth. People who acquire ITIL certificates get an improvement in their competence, productivity, and capability that builds better relationships with their customers and also within the organization. Through ITIL techniques and processes, you get to make processes more cost-efficient with the help of optimizing the use of available resources.
It is up to you if you consider yourself able to do the self-study, or you can join training courses that will provide you a complete understanding of the concepts and processes in the ITIL course. With the tips provided above, you will be able to clear the ITIL exam in your first try. The 40 questions you will get in the exam will require you to grasp all the concepts well so that you get away with the certificate with high scores. Your real-world knowledge from the IT organization will help you understand these concepts of the ITIL Foundation exam a lot better. You better apply this knowledge to learn the ITIL Foundation course.
