Knapp I.T. » Exam Tips

Need a copy of your ITIL Certification?

Jill Knapp — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 04:05:00 +0000

I get calls and emails all the time from former students who have lost their ITIL Foundation certificate, and need a copy quickly. I wish I could get it for you, but I can’t!

Regardless of what training company you used when you took training from me (TEK Systems, New Horizons, ProTech, BridgeView, Knowledge Peak, Pultorak and Associates, NETD, etc.), your exam itself was purchased from (and graded by) one of four Exam Institutes (“EI”s): EXIN, Loyalist Certification Services (LCS), PeopleCert, and APM Group (APMG).

One of those companies has your grade and your certificate… not me.

So let’s say your company hired TEK Systems to deliver an ITIL Foundation class at your workplace with me as your teacher. TEK Systems was your training company. I was just a contractor hired by them to teach the class. TEK Systems purchased exams from one of those four Exam Institutes I listed above (and to save you some trouble, TEK Systems happens to use EXIN as their Exam Institute.)

During class, I made you sign into the website of the Exam Institute (either EXIN, Loyalist Certification Services (LCS), PeopleCert, and APM Group (APMG)) that TEK Systems bought the exams from (again, TEK happens to use EXIN), and you created a username and password for the EXIN website, and also you gave EXIN your email and snail-mail address, plus a bunch of other information. Once you were done with your exam, I sent your exam paper to the Exam Institute to be graded. The EI then graded your exam and gave you your results via email. I was completely out of the picture by that point.

So, your grades are completely between you and your Exam Institute. Because I teach for so many companies, I can’t easily list out what training companies use which Exam Institute, especially because training companies can change EIs at any time– so maintaining an accurate and updated list here for you would be nigh impossible.

Hopefully that jogs your memory enough to remember which Exam Institute was used during your exam session, and now you can check a few places:

If you still have access to your ITIL Foundation workbook, you can look in the first section of your workbook and there should be a slide that talks about the exam… hopefully there is information about who your exam institute was. Because I have taught for many different training organizations over the years and they all use different workbooks, I can’t tell you where to look in your workbook because I don’t know what workbook you have.

If you still work for the same company you worked for when you took the training and exam, search your email for your certificate. Your certificate and exam results were sent to your email address. Search for “ITIL” first. If you don’t find anything, then try searching for the name of the Exam Institutes, which are EXIN, Loyalist Certification Services (LCS), PeopleCert, and APM Group (APMG).

If you don’t work for the same company anymore and no longer have access to your former job’s work email, then you’ll have to contact the Exam Institute directly. I have no way of knowing what Exam Institute used to take your exam, so you’ll have to check with each of them, which are EXIN, Loyalist Certification Services (LCS), PeopleCert, and APM Group (APMG).

If you checked the “Include my name in the successful candidate register” box when you signed up for the exam (it was in with all the privacy stuff, so many times people don’t check the box), then your name MAY be in the Successful Candidate Register maintained by AXELOS. (AXELOS is the governing body of ITIL– all of those Exam Institutes Report up to them.) Look up your name; maybe it’s there!

Your last resort is to contact the company (not me, your trainer) who performed your training… sometimes their logo is on the cover of your workbook, and with any luck their contact info is also there. They can look you up since you (or your company) paid them for your training.

2018 UPDATE: If you took your exam in 2018, there is only one Exam Institute handling ITIL exams for every student and company worldwide; and that company is PeopleCert. So if you took your exam in 2018, check your email for anything from PeopleCert, or go to the PeopleCert website and simply log in there to grab a copy of your certificate. Easy peasy!

That’s all the information I have, but I hope it helps you out!

If you can’t get a copy of your certification, then I can certainly point you in the direction of a FANTASTIC series of ITIL self-study videos featuring ME! Once you watch the videos, you can go to EXIN or PeopleCert’s website and sign up to take the ITIL Foundation exam online from any computer with a webcam!

Best of luck!

–Jill

Yet more ITIL Foundation Exam Tips

Jill Knapp — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:46:39 +0000

Continuing our series on ITIL V3 Foundation Exam Tips, here are a few more things to keep in mind.

You’ll need to know the difference between processes and functions.
Incident Management or Service Desk?
- Incident Management = the process
- Service Desk = the function
[] Which process is responsible for taking calls from end users and restoring their service ASAP? Incident Management, because it is the process.

[] Which function is responsible for taking calls from end users and restoring their service ASAP? Service Desk, because it is the function.

How can you tell the difference between the activities of Change Management vs. Release and Deployment Management?
- Change Management = Paper-pushing verbs (e.g., manage, coordinate, monitor)
- Release/Deployment Management = Action / heavy-lifting verbs (e.g., build, test, install, execute, do, implement
[] Which process ensures that all authorized changes have been successfully implemented? Change Management
() Rationale: You’re being asked who ensures that the changes have been successfully implemented. “Ensures” is a paper-pushing word, not a heavy-lifting word.
[] Which process installs changes? Release and Deployment Management
() Rationale: Even though the question has the word “changes” in it, don’t rush to the wrong answer! You are being asked who installs changes. “Installs” is a heavy-lifting word, so it’s Release & Deployment Management.

If you’d like more tips and tricks, check out my posts that fall under the “Exam Tips” category in the right-hand column.

More ITIL V3 Foundation Exam tips

Jill Knapp — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 03:41:14 +0000

Continuing in the series of Exam Tips and Tricks, here are a few ways to help my American students navigate the British English often found on the exams.

Since ITIL was created in the UK, the ITIL books are written in UK English. If you speak American English, you should expect to see some differences in both language and spelling.

“Register” = To record; to type into a tool/database
“Register an incident” means “Open an incident ticket”
“Register an RFC” means “Fill out an RFC form”

“Agree the content”
Brits leave off the word “to” after the word “agree”
“Which process agrees the content of a Capacity Plan?” should parse as “Which process agrees to the content of a Capacity Plan?”

British spelling: S instead of Z
Organise = Organize
Utilise = Utilize
Optimisation = Optimization

These aren’t typos! I once had a student tell me that they didn’t choose a certain answer on an exam because they thought it was spelled wrong, and therefore a trick. Aaagh! It’s just the British English spelling; it’s not a trick. (Typos do happen on the real exams, however. If you’re unsure how to answer a question because of a typo, always ask your exam proctor.

If you’d like more tips and tricks, check out my posts that fall under the “Exam Tips” category in the right-hand column.

ITIL Foundation Exam Test-taking Tips

Jill Knapp — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 03:32:44 +0000

Many of my students haven’t taken an exam since high school or college, so they’re naturally a bit nervous about it. Here are a few tips and tricks for passing the exam.

First off, get a good night’s sleep the night before. This will help you more than the extra hour of cramming.

Take your time. You have an hour.

If you’re taking a paper-based exam in a classroom, you can write on your question packet. Underline keywords (especially words like “not” and “incorrect.”)
If you’re taking a computer-based exam, you’ll automatically have an extra five minutes added to your exam session to account for network latency, etc.
Read each question carefully. Even if you see a keyword, read the question and all answers completely to make sure there isn’t a better answer
Acronyms will be spelled out for you, so don’t have to memorize what ITIL’s acronym alphabet soup stands for
Expect there to be about three super-hard questions on every exam; don’t get psyched out. Just skip and go back if you can’t answer a question, and don’t forget to use the process of elimination!
Be suspicious of absolutes, e.g, “always,” “guarantees,” “never,” etc.
Read questions carefully: Don’t miss the word “not.” It may not always be capitalized or emphasized.
For testing purposes, always take the pure ITIL approach; do not think about how you’d approach the question in your own organization.

If you’d like more tips and tricks, check out my posts that fall under the “Exam Tips” category in the right-hand column.

Ranty Tips for Passing your ITIL V3 Intermediate Exam

Jill Knapp — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:58:41 +0000

Two things happened this week that inspired me to write a little rant.

First: APMG just released the average pass rates for ITIL V3 Foundation and Intermediate-level classes. You can check it out here. They’re lower than you’d probably think. (Thanks to ITILNews for the link.)

Second: The other day I received a phone call from a training company sales person looking to hire me to teach an ITIL V3 Intermediate course. Apparently someone else taught an Intermediate course for one of his clients, and “only half of the students passed,” he said. The client was very unhappy of course, since the training was obviously bad if only half the students passed.

The sales guy asked me what I would do differently to “make sure all the students passed.” I told him blankly, “Any instructor who says they can guarantee a pass rate, especially for an intermediate exam, is either full of hooey or is doing something they shouldn’t be doing.”

Folks, we instructors can lead the ol’ horses to water, but we cannot make ’em drink. We can give students the tools they need to be successful, but only the students can actually use the tools, put the Blackberrys down and fully participate in class, make the time to study appropriately each evening, remain calm during the difficult exam, carefully read each question and answer, and pass it. What makes the best instructors so great is that they inspire students to focus and work hard. That’s it.

Every instructor teaching Intermediate classes has to be a Certified ITIL Expert who is also accredited to teach that specific class; plus they have to use accredited materials which cover the exam syllabus thoroughly. Unless you’re dealing with unusual circumstances, students are taught the same topics no matter who is doing the teaching. Granted, one teacher’s style might be Death by PowerPoint, and someone else’s might be mostly facilitated discussions and exercises; so students should shop around for an instructor whose teaching style matches their learning style. So I’ll say it again: What makes the best instructors so great is that they inspire students to put their Blackberrys down, focus and participate in class, study after class, get their heads in the game, study hard, and take responsibility for their own success.

Remember “Paper MCSEs?”

Intermediate exams are meant to be challenging; if they weren’t, every doofus on the corner would have an ITIL certification and then the certifications would become worthless.

Remember back in the late 90s when every guy on the corner had their MCSE? They’d pay a few thousand bucks to attend a boot camp where they memorized the Transcender exam answers and hey whaddaya know: they’d pass. But if you got ’em in an interview and asked them what their favorite login script tool was, they’d get the deer in the headlights look. (I was a huge fan of Kixtart, myself.) We called these people “Paper MCSEs” because they had the certification on paper, but no actual skills or experience to back it up… and these folks were a dime a dozen.

Compare that to the PMP program. If someone has their PMP certification, chances are they’ve really earned it. I don’t know many Paper PMPs. It’s supposed to be hard, because it’s an honor to hold the cert.

Set Yourself Up for Success

Do you know how many students show up to an Intermediate class without owning the actual ITIL books? Folks: ITIL is a set of books. You’re spending around $3,000 to take a week-long class to learn how to implement what’s in one or more of these books. Shouldn’t you be interested enough in the topic to um, have purchased the book(s) for yourself at some point?

An analogy: If you want to be an authority on all of the geeky goodness in The DaVinci Code, shouldn’t you own a copy of the book? Just sayin’. :-)

Five Tips for Passing your ITIL V3 Intermediate Exam:

Buy the ITIL Book(s) that your class is based on, and read them. Don’t skim them, read them before class. Heck, after you read them, you might not even need the class.

Shop around for a training company with an instructor who teaches in a style that you like. Do you prefer lectures? Do you prefer exercises to apply what you’ve learned so it sticks better? Do you like taking a zillion practice exams? Ask yourself these questions first, and then ask your training provider. If you sense BS coming from the sales person, ask to talk to the instructor. You’re not being a pain, you’re being smart.

If your class is scheduled during a week where you happen to have a lot of production issues, reschedule the class. You need to be focused in class, not fighting fires via your Blackberry.

Shut off the WiFi. Bring your laptop to class if that’s your preferred way of taking notes, but stay off the internet. No work email, no personal email, no Google Chat, no Twitter, no Facebook, nada. Immerse yourself.

Get a copy of the course/exam syllabus (either download it from APMG, or ask your instructor) so you know which topics from the ITIL books you’re expected to know. Highlight those sections in your book (the actual ITIL book, not your student workbook), and study those each night, outside of class. This might mean you need to get a babysitter.

This may be hard for some of you to hear, but I’ll say it anyway:
Not everyone is going to pass. Not everyone deserves a gold medal. You get a gold medal for winning, not for just showing up.
But if you study hard and really know your stuff, you’ll have no trouble earning that certification.

Good luck!

ITIL Foundation Exam Tips 2 – Electric Booglaoo

Jill Knapp — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:16:39 +0000

Continuing our ITIL V3 Foundation test-taking tips and tricks, here’s some information about your certification:

Once you pass the exam, you will have earned your ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management
There is no handy set of letters you can put after your name, like PMP or MCSE, though ome people choose to write “ITIL Foundation Certified” under their name.
Your certification never expires. You don’t need to take additional classes to maintain your certification; it’s good for life, even if new versions of ITIL come out years from now
Don’t misplace your certificate! You’ll need to provide it to your instructor on the first day of class if you wish to take advanced ITIL courses. (Your instructor does not have a way to look up whether or not you’re certified; you’ll be expected to prove it.)

If you’d like more tips and tricks, check out my posts that fall under the “Exam Tips” category in the right-hand column.