TOGAF offers two levels of certification. The first level is called TOGAF Foundation and the second level is called TOGAF Certified. The foundation level focuses on the theory of TOGAF, such as knowledge about the Architecture Development Method, the Content Framework, and the TOGAF definitions. The certified level has a practical focus and has the objective to test whether a person can apply TOGAF in specific situations as they might occur in daily business. While level 1 (foundation) has a passing grade of 55% (which is 22 correct answers out of 40), level 2 (certified) has a passing grade of 60% (which is 24 points out of 40). However, I think that the level 2 exam is the much easier if you take the following approach:
How to answer TOGAF level 2 exam questions?
As the TOGAF level 2 exam has only 8 questions, answering only a few with the worst possible answer will make you fail the exam. However, there is only one answer that corresponds to 0 exam points, while the other three answers will provide you with at least some points. The distribution of points is the following:
- Correct answer: 5 points
- 2nd best answer: 3 points
- 3rd best answer: 1 point
- Worst answer: 0 points
Imagine the following situation: Instead of yourself, you ask a monkey to answer the questions for you. As the monkey has no idea about enterprise architecture, he would simply choose one of the four answers randomly. According to statistics, this would lead to an expected score of 18 points already!
The good news is that we – unlike the monkey – do not decide randomly on the answers. We analyze the questions and try to identify the best one. For this, it is important to understand the nature of the TOGAF answers. Two or even three of the answers will look great and you are tempted to choose them. However, as only one can be the best option, you might lose lots of time trying to decide which one to choose. As time is often a critical factor during the level 2 exam, this is not the wisest approach.
A smarter way would be to search for the worst answer instead – which you then can rule out! Just imagine that you successfully rule out every worst answer in the exam. As there is always one distracting answer that has at least some ideas in it that are completely wrong, it is quite easy to separate those from the rest.
Doing so successfully, imagine that you again let the monkey choose one of the remaining answers randomly. As the remaining answers provide on average 3 points, the expected average score increases to 24 points – and this is the number of points that you need to pass the exam. Having done so, every further decision that you take that is not completely random will bring you a huge step closer to passing the exam.
Applying this approach successfully, the TOGAF Level 2 exam is very easy. Instead of finding the best correct answer, first, make sure that you identify the answer that is for sure completely wrong. Those answers include statements or ideas that contradict TOGAF concepts. Doing so, you are already set to pass the exam! Make sure to use the rest of your time to identify the best or second-best option for the easier questions you have and you will soon be TOGAF certified.