Getting CBAP certified in the very first attempt
by Ananya P. Co-founderHave you been dreaming
of having CBAP next
to your name from some time now? Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
certification is most sought-after for business analysts to excel in the
corporate world.
CBAP is
a certification for senior business analysts and gives proven results in terms
of salary benefits, career growth and opening up new opportunities in the
global markets.
Though work experience
is one of the requirements of CBAP as
a prerequisite, the CBAP certification examination needs a good amount of
practical knowledge of the business analysis concepts and the ability to relate
the knowledge to a practical scenario/case.
Preparing for the CBAP certification exam can
be a daunting task but following our recommended approach and tips shared by
our expert
faculties will give you sure shot success.
- Commitment to the certification goal. If you are committed to the CBAP certification goal and ready to put in about 200 hours of effort towards the same then this is an achievable target. A practical approach will be to take up a target date between 10 to 12 weeks’ time frame and work backward. Set up a plan towards the target, please take into account your family and work commitments while chalking out the plan.
- Learn from the masters. Consider the value of your time and the consequences of not being successful in the certification while choosing your training partner. The class should give you clarity of concepts related to BABoK in such a way that it not only makes the CBAP certification exam easier for you but also makes you a better BA in your day job also. Hence choosing the right trainer or mentor is very important for this task. You need someone:
·
Who understands BABoK really
well
·
Can relate the concepts to
real-life examples
·
Can break the knowledge area
into smaller tasks
·
Give you examples from real life
·
Create a mind map for you among
the tasks and techniques recommended by BABoK
·
Apply the tasks and techniques
to a real-life case and make it crystal clear to you
- Do not start with BABoK. BABoK is the mandated book and curriculum for CBAP certification, however making one comfortable with BABoK can be quite a steep target given the content, subject, and complexity of the subject. Pick up a CBAP study guide which explains BABoK in a simplified manner. The study guide should break the jargons and terms to simpler words, capture the concepts in a logical manner and at the same time should be concise. Start your preparation with the study guide, understand the concept well and then move to BABoK for preparation. Starting with BABoK may get little challenging.
- CBAP Application Filing, Get it
off your back. Then comes the task of the CBAP
application filing, this can get a bit confusing since one needs to gather
experience across the knowledge areas over the last 10 years. Pick up
a CBAP application
filing template that simulates the IIBA application filing format and
helps you gather the experience throughout the Knowledge areas and guides
you with the expectations of IIBA.
- Learn to correlate tasks and
techniques. Understanding of core concepts is
very vital for clearing the CBAP certification examination
since the questions are case and scenario-based which requires a deep
understanding of the concepts. Hence please make sure you study tasks in
connection with their techniques. Prioritize this as you prepare for CBAP. You need
to understand the techniques, identify the best appropriate technique for
particular situations and tasks at hand. Knowledge of technique
description, advantages, and disadvantages will also help here. Just
understand the techniques well and ensure that you are able to recall
their key areas of application. Understand the tasks and how information
flows through the tasks, that is, inputs and outputs. Be able to identify
the name of a task given its description and also be able to tell what follows
that task.
- Practice a sufficient number of
exam questions. No amount of studying and practice is
enough unless you test your knowledge. Study each chapter thoroughly and
take the chapter-based test of concepts and then gradually move to
case-based questions on the chapter. Each time you make a mistake go back
to concepts, read it again and verify with the answer and try to relate to
the concept. Take a CBAP
question bank which gives you real exam pattern
questions and simulators. The more questions you solve, the better
prepared you are for the real CBAP exam. Once you are comfortable with the
chapter-based questions then move to simulators. The simulators give you
real exam experience with 120 questions (mix of case and scenario based)
to be solved in 3 hours. Monitor your performance in the simulators, go
back to all those questions where you were wrong and then move to the next
simulator, take up simulators till you score around 85% consistently.
- Utilize your travel time to study
BABoK. All of us spend a significant amount of
time traveling to and from work. Utilize this time to brush up your
knowledge by listening to CBAP audio book that helps in refreshing the
memory and concepts. This helps in memorizing the terms and tasks as well
as input, output etc.
- Choose a right date to take the
exam. No amount of study will be enough if you
don’t set a deadline and work backward. Set up the exam date preferably
after a weekend or if not then on Sunday. Don’t go for the exam after a
week of a work, that doesn’t let your brain relax. One needs to stay cool
and have good rest before the exam since the exam is quite exhaustive.
Once you have set up the exam dates then do at least 2 times revision of
the study guide and the question bank. Brush through your notes and tips.
- Stay composed during exam and
time management:
- Visit the exam center once before the
exam
- Take something to eat and drink
- Reach the exam half an hour early
- Carry one government-approved id card
- Relax and read the instructions carefully
- Target to clear 40 questions per hour.
This will give you about 30 minutes to handle those that you may have
marked for review. Pay close attention to the number of questions answered
and remaining, and the countdown of time remaining.
- Don’t spend more than 2 minutes on one
question
- Never leave a question unanswered. Select
the best answer and mark it for review and revisit it at the end.
- Make use of the highlight and
strike-through features of the exam software.
- Attempt the calculation-based questions
first, there is on screen calculator available, make use of that.
- Case-based questions take the maximum
amount of time, glance through the case on the first read and move to the
questions and then come back to the case since there is a lot of extra
information which is not needed to answer the questions. Try to make use
of the highlight feature. It will help you in long cases when you
highlight the important parts of the case
- Take a break if you feel your mind is
tired and blank in the exam
- In CBAP Understanding the situation and
question are very important. Read the question slowly and twice if
required to understand correctly.
- In case of confusion read the question
again, there is a good knowledge of English needed to understand the
question
- Be extra careful with the use of words
like “Always”, “Never”
- Stay focused on your goal. At the end of all this, the most important point is to stay focused all throughout the journey. Keep a target for yourself and work towards it, make some progress every day. Keep some time marked for prep every day and make use of the weekends more effectively.
Tips
Practice enough of CBAP v3 questions (Case-based questions as per BABoK v3 competency-based exam pattern)
Warning
- Do not by heart BABoK
- Do not expect direct questions from BABoK
About Adaptive US (Think
BA. Think Adaptive.)
Adaptive US
provides CBAP, CCBA, ECBA and
other business
analysis certification training online and consulting
needs for Individual or Corporate either online or offline. Adaptive US is
an endorsed education provider of IIBA®
Learn more about this training here: http://www.adaptiveus.com.
For more updates on courses & tips follow us on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Google+
Sponsor Ads
Created on Sep 8th 2018 04:37. Viewed 512 times.