ISTQB certification. Part 2: How to prepare for ISTQB certification? Practice Stories

In the first part of our article on ISTQB certification, we tried to answer the questions: To whom? and for what? need this certificate. Small spoiler : cooperation with ISTQB opens more doors for the company-employer rather than for the newly-minted certificate holder.

In the second part of the article, our employees will share their stories, impressions and insights on taking an ISTQB test, both within the CIS and abroad.

How to pass certification abroad?

Pavel Tolokonin,
Leading Testing Specialist at Quality Laboratory

I work remotely and spend a lot of time traveling when the question of passing the certificate exam is raised, I was not in Russia.
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Then I will talk about how to find an authorized certification center in the country you need, what organizational questions you should ask, what pitfalls can be before and after passing the exam, and share personal experience of passing.

I was in Southeast Asia and looked at several countries: Thailand (where I lived), Vietnam (where I traveled), and Malaysia (which is easy enough to get to). Each country participating in ISTQB on the official page provides brief information: the site , which, in turn, contains information about:

• specific organizations where you can enroll in a preparatory course or undergo certification;
• certification levels;
• the language of certification;
• contacts of responsible persons.

Already at this stage, I crossed out Vietnam from the list: it is supposed to take an exam in Vietnamese only.

In most cases, after studying a local site, it is enough to choose a specific organization, but it may be that the local site is dead. This is exactly what happened to my Thai www.thstb.org . What can be done here: see the official list of training centers. As a rule, if the organization is certified for training, then it is also certified for the exam.

You can also examine the list of accredited operators in the Find an Exam Provider section and see the contacts of local representatives on the website of these organizations. I still managed to write to the contact address on the ISTQB head site, but no one answered me.

So, after studying the Thai and Malay exam schedules, I stopped at the only Thai center in Bangkok. The next step was correspondence, and this is what I asked (despite the fact that some of this information was on the site):

• The main question is: can I, a foreigner temporarily staying in the country on a tourist visa, take an exam?
• What documents , in what form and in what time it is necessary to provide?
• On which syllabus (the textbook on which the exam is built, at the time of this writing, 2 options are possible - 2011 and 2018) can I take the exam and how can I specify a specific one?
• How can I get extra time for the exam if English is not your native language?
• for how many days and how should I pay ?
• where and for how long you need to come on the day of the exam.

If we talk about my particular experience, then I needed to provide information on the following before the exam and payment:

• name;
• current residence address;
• phone;
• and:
• send a copy of the passport's reversal (it’s also a confirmation that English is not my native language);
• specify the date and time of the exam from the proposed;
• specify the syllabus.

Payment had to be transferred to a bank account so that the money was on it no later than 5 days before the exam. By the way, the cost of passing the exam in different countries is different. If in the Russian Federation ISTQB FL exam costs 150 €, then in Thailand it is 10700 THB, or about 300 €.

In general, most foreign sites that I have studied (Vietnamese, Malay, Thai) provide information quite fully and clearly. And the Thai company TestIT also pleased me with quick answers (within 1-2 hours), including on official state holidays.

What I did not ask, but it is worth asking:

• What is the form of the exam? (You have to agree, there is a difference - to solve questions from a paper list or to mark the options on the tablet, with the possibility of choosing the answer and quickly sorting the unresolved / marked by you questions);
• How long will the results be processed?
• when and in what form is the certificate provided?
• Where will the certificate information be placed?

Total: I chose the 2011 syllabus exam (because there were more preparation materials for it), sent all the information and made a bank transfer to the account, which I immediately wrote to the company. I was confirmed to receive money and enroll me for the exam.

An important point! Three days before the exam, I received an official confirmation letter and all contact information. This question was not on my list, and I was lucky that the information was attached to the letter. My interlocutor indicated his mobile in contacts, and this played a decisive role in my story.

A few words about my preparation

I prepared on my own, according to the syllabus and glossary downloaded on the official website (all the necessary materials are here ), plus I used dumps to understand which sections I’m limping (the questions from dumps I absolutely didn’t match with the real exam).

I made a google tablet, wrote my answers into it, compared it with the correct ones, noted what section it was and reread it thoughtfully. Looking ahead, I will say that the most difficult topics for me, I finally passed on 100% - because I constantly worked on them.

The exam itself was held on a Saturday in Bangkok. The examiner company was located in a large business complex in the city center, where I arrived a few hours before the exam, because traveled from another city. I clarified at the reception whether the office I needed was here, but, trying to get through, I received a standard Thai turn: “No can, madam. Today is Saturday, offices are not working, come on Monday. ” AAAAAAaaaaaa !!! “So, it cannot be,” I thought, “this is the correct address, here is the office sign, here is the letter confirming my exam, I try again.”


Company hall

The secretaries honestly called the internal telephone in the office and again repeated that everything was closed and no one answered. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!! And here came the mobile number of a company representative. I phoned him and found out that already two people, including me, are taking the exam at the center, so the office will open half an hour before the start of my exam, and now it is empty. When I waited for the right time, I was completely alone, although the office is large, with a bunch of classes for classes and rooms for exams.


Exam and Classrooms

Because there was no one else to wait for, I was offered to start "even now." The exam was held in a small room: a table, a chair, a cell for things, a tablet, a sheet, a pen, a pencil.


A similar room, instead of a picture with a deer, I had a tablet

I was shown the program interface, and the countdown of 75 minutes went. Submission in electronic form is very convenient, and a huge plus - you will know the results immediately.

What happens after the change?

First of all, you will most likely receive an official letter with the results from the center where you passed the exam. Secondly, you will receive a letter from an accredited organization, which, in fact, writes out the certificate itself. In my case it was GASQ. They sent a letter with a link to register me as a certified specialist on their website and then register on the website src.istqb.org . In this place, you need to be careful with the data: my name and last name were mixed up, which required additional correspondence to be corrected. A few days after all the formalities, if you passed the exam after 2017, you should appear here:

• on the site of the accredited center;
• on the website scr.istqb.org .

You will also receive a certificate in electronic form.

My experience suggests that in case of questions it is better to correspond with the company where you passed the exam - as the most interested party. For example, I received a certificate, appeared on the GASQ website, but I was added to scr.istqb.org with a delay of a couple of months - I just had to correspond with the operator, who, in turn, decided the issue with GASQ about where they lost my registration on scr.istqb.org .

In general, as it turned out, it is not difficult to pass certification abroad. I hope this description will help you if you decide to repeat my experience.

How I prepared for certification in Belarus

Anna Paley
Test Manager at the Quality Laboratory

For the first time, I thought about taking an ISTQB certificate exam like this: “International certificate confirming competence in testing? It's great, be sure to donate "!

Then there was a period of critical thinking:

1. Will this certificate give me any advantage in the labor market and in my company?
2. The format of the exam in the form of a test and the choice of the correct answer? Will he allow me to correctly assess the level of my knowledge?
3. Why so expensive?
4. And why are there so many certified specialists - is it worth it?

There were a lot of doubts and I decided to test the ground by enrolling in the course “Comprehensive training system for ISTQB FL (PCB)” from Natalia Rukol. Why not independently? I am a procrastinator, I do a lot of things at the same time, I often can’t concentrate to learn a book from cover to cover, so the feed in the form of syllabus arranged in shelves seemed to be the most optimal. Plus bribed practical exercises that will definitely come in handy at work.

Everything was not in vain, I decided, and began to study the course. Additionally, I used the glossary and syllabus when I felt that the webinar did not have enough knowledge (for example, on the topic of testing types).

In addition, I received:

1. Feedback from experts in testing is useful.
2. A practical training simulator after each theoretical lesson (a person remembers only 50-60% of the information on the results of the presentation and up to 90% - if he applies the theory in practice on his own).
3. Analysis of all the complex and narrow topics from the syllabus, like static testing.
4. As the most useful bonus: I still use practical tasks on basic and advanced TD techniques.

After passing the course and for some time thinking, I finally decided to take the exam. I myself am from the small town of Mozyr in the Republic of Belarus. Now we can pass only in two cities: Minsk and Gomel, which is not very convenient for other residents. Personally, I had to get up at 4 am to get to Minsk and have time for the exam.

Otherwise, there were no problems. Belarus has its own ISTQB partner and certification center. I met Natalia Iskortseva, the curator of ISTQB in Belarus, at a training course at the Quality Laboratory, she helped with consultations.

Having thoroughly prepared, I registered without any problems, I passed, I received a certificate and uploaded it to the site. The efforts paid off, now I am a certified software testing specialist.


Was certification needed?

For me personally, yes, but not as a fact of its existence, but as a confirmation of the skills and experience of a certain level. In no case, not as an end point, but rather as a logical conclusion of the passed stage and a certain “control point”.

That's all the stories for today

I hope this information somehow will help you on the way to the coveted certificate. But these are all our stories, and how did you prepare, give and receive your ISTQB? Who is the most exotic country of delivery? What are your impressions and, perhaps, adventures related to certification? Share your stories in the comments, discuss!