How to Pass the TOGAF Exams — Level 1 and Level 2

There are many reasons why becoming certified in TOGAF makes sense. The two most important ones are probably 1) to get or improve the skills that are needed in an (enterprise) architecture role and 2) to benefit from the positive signaling effect that a certification has on potential employers or customers. In this post, I will provide an overview of the certification exams, a concrete study plan, an overview of all material you need, and what it takes to clear the levels.

How Does the Exam Look Like?

There are two levels that you can take: Level 1 “foundation” and level 2 “certified”. According to TOGAF, most people do both levels and I also strongly recommend this, as I personally perceive level 2 to be much easier. The levels can be either taken separately or as “combined” exam. If you are not yet certified in any previous TOGAF version or level, I also recommend taking the combined exam. All options are described here by TOGAF.

Level 1 consists of 40 multiple-choice questions from which one is correct and there are no negative points for wrong answers. The passing grade is 55%, which translates to 22 correct answers. You have 60 minutes for this part. Level 1 questions would typically require to know specific lists, overviews, illustrations, or terms from the TOGAF standard. Passing is very much based on learning by heart and doing many realistic test questions upfront.

Level 2 consists of 8 complex multiple choice answers, from which the best answer gives you 5 points, the second best gives you 3 points, the third best answer gives you 1 point, and the worst answer gives 0 points. For this part, you need at least 60% to pass, which are 24 out of 40 points and you have 90 minutes for this part. Level 2 questions are very different from level 1 questions. A typical question is half a page long and has answers that fill another half a page or more with text. Most of the content is just there to distract you. Typically, it should be enough to just apply common sense to the questions and choose the answer that sounds most sophisticated. If you have practical experience with enterprise architecture projects, you should not have any problems in passing — even without studying explicitly for level 2! To ensure that you pass, I will provide some additional tips on level 2 in my next post.

How Should I Study?

The first question that you should answer is: How many hours per day can I study? I decided to take the exam at the end of my holidays, so I planned for about 8 hours per day for 7 days, which makes a total of 56 hours study time. If you have 2 hours from Monday to Friday and then 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday (i.e. 18 hours per week), you might therefore need about 3–4 weeks before you should attempt the exam.

I recommend three phases for your study plan:

1) Get familiar with the TOGAF study guide or other summarizing material that you think is useful. I do not recommend to go through the full TOGAF Standard (600 pages plus) at this point in time. The study guide is sold by TOGAF for 59.90$, but I found it quite useful as the content is well summarized to about 300 pages. In addition, it includes some first-hand test questions for both levels. If you take a TOGAF training course, these documents might also be included in the price. When you read through the content, do one or two test exams, for example on this website to get a feeling for the level of detail that is required. Afterwards, read again through your study material.

2) In the second phase, you should go through all possible test questions that you can find on the Internet. However, you should also sense whether the questions are realistic or not. There are some websites that state to provide real test questions, but their questions are actually too difficult. I found this website extremely helpful when going through phase 2.

3) In phase 3, you should do all real test exams that you have available. You can get those from sources such as:
- TOGAF Study Pack
- Simply Learn
- Test Questions purchased from TOGAF website (the packs cost 0.99$ and are quite worth the price)

The most important in this phase is the analysis of your test results. Therefore, go through every wrong answer in detail. Write down the topic and look up the chapter in the detailed TOGAF standard. This is necessary, because the Study Guide answers 80–90% of all questions, but some questions can indeed not be answered with the information provided in the study summary. I made “cheat sheets” for every topic that I still got wrong at this point in time. I you feel confident with 90% of the questions behind the links in this article, you are more than prepared for passing the exam.

Should I Take a TOGAF Training Course?

Whether or not to purchase study materials depends on whether you take a training course. Whether or not to take a training course should depend on your personal preference of studying (How good are you at self-studying?) and your previous experiences with TOGAF. If you are new to the world of TOGAF, you are bad at motivating yourself, or if you just feel that you need a kick-start to your studies, you should take a TOGAF training course. If you do so, be sure that you are sponsored by your organization as course fees roughly amount to 2,000$ +/- 300$ for a 4-days training.

Summarizing the Most Useful Content…

Summarizing the links from above, let me provide the top-five websites and documents that will enable you to pass the exam if you go through their content:

1. A large amount of good test questions
2. A set of test exams for both levels (I find them a bit harder than the single test questions)
3. Additional test exam
4. Official test question pack to be purchased from TOGAF website (0.99$)
5. TOGAF Study Guide (59.99$)

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