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 TOGAF 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 a “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 corresponds to 22 correct answers. You have 60 minutes for this part. Level 1 questions would typically require knowing specific lists, overviews, illustrations, or terms from the TOGAF Standard. If you pass, will depend on whether you learned the content by heart and whether you did a sufficient amount of realistic test questions upfront.

Level 2 consists of 8 complex multiple-choice answers, from which the best answer is worth 5 points, the second-best is worth 3 points, the third-best answer is worth 1 point, and the worst answer is worth 0 points. For this part, you need at least 60% to pass, which corresponds to 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 have provided some additional tips on level 2.

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 of 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 going through the full TOGAF Standard (600+ pages) at this point. The study guide is sold by TOGAF for 59.90$, but I found it quite useful as the content is well summarized on 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. Afterward, 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 the 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. 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 for 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, check whether you can get a sponsor, as course fees roughly amount to 2,000$ +/- 300$ for a 4-days training.

I Want to Study TOGAF for Free

If you do not want to invest money into a TOGAF course or expensive books, I can warmly recommend the following:

1) You can get a free 30-days trial of Kindle Unlimited on Amazon.de (You might need to change the language setting, but you need to stay on Amazon.de. If you like the idea, please use this link so that I will get a small compensation from Amazon)

2) Search for the book series “TOGAF 9.2 Level 1 Certification Preparation Wonder Guide”. It is a book series of three guides that provides you with great introductions and explanations to both TOGAF levels and most importantly, it provides you with a wide range of test questions – which is the most important aspect of studying for TOGAF!

3) Do not forget to cancel your 30-days free trial before the end of the period. Otherwise, it will be converted into a subscription costing 9.99€ per month!

Summarizing the Most Useful Content…

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

1. Free Certification Wonder Guide on Kindle Unlimited (sponsored link)
2. A large number 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 the TOGAF website (0.99$)
5. TOGAF Study Guide (59.99$)
6. And finally…revise this top 10 list for optimizing your TOGAF studies as well as your test-taking!

Join the Conversation

7 Comments

  1. Hi,
    Thanks for sharing this info. It’s very useful.
    one question I have. It seems there are very less questions to prepare part 2
    1. official test question pack (12 questions)2
    2. Simplilearn site has 8 questions
    3. OpenArch has 16 but quality is not so great and few questions are duplicate.
    do you think that is enough for the part 2 preparation ?

    Thanks,
    Manoj

    1. Hi Manoj,
      Thanks a lot for your appreciation and your comment! I personally think that it is sufficient to get the sense of the part 2 questions and how they are structured – as they are all structured very similarly. Therefore, the official test questions should be the most valuable ones. (I agree, that – due to their quality – the value of the OpenArch questions is limited and should be rather taken as "cherry on top" for your studies.

      I found it easy to pass the exam with just the test question sets mentioned by you. What is important is that you identify the answers that are for sure completely wrong, as the answers that give 0 or 1 point can be identified by contradicting to hard facts that you studied for part 1 (search for key words / key principles violated). After ruling out the worst 1 or 2 answers, it is a rather easy decision to choose one of the remaining, which will provide you with some points for sure. I wrote about this here in some more detail: https://www.digitalroadmap.management/blog/2019/1/18/how-can-i-pass-the-togaf-level-2-exam

      Does this help you? If you like it, feel free to like, share, or comment further. Every interaction is highly appreciated!

      Best,
      Markus

      1. Hi Markus,
        Thanks for your response. Yes, this is helpful. I will add some more comments after my test very soon. 🙂

        Thanks,
        Manoj

  2. Hi Markus,
    Thanks for such a nice content. Your post at Quora helped me a lot to prepare for Togaf for last one month. I took the self paced video course from simplilearn and completed it before going through the entire C182.

    I’ve taken the practice tests from both simplilearn and the ones by the open group. In all the instances I’m able to secure more than 80% on the first try(except one for Part 2 at Simplilearn; it was 70%.). But, I’m not able to be confident enough to go for the exam. On the other hand, I’m thinking if I’m not over reading things. I’ve taken the practice tests from few other sites as well (examtopic & briefmenow) and able to answer most of the questions successfully. Please suggest if it’s the right time to book the exam. Thanks a lot.

    1. Hi Anupam,

      Thanks a lot for your feedback. I am very happy to hear that I could help you prepare for the exam. If you did not already do it, I suggest that you go through the questions you did not have correct and check the corresponding chapters in the TOGAF Standard (C182). As many questions are quite similar to the actual test, there will be a set of questions in the exam for which you will already know the right answer for sure.

      If you passed and revised all the mockups, it should be the right time for you to go for the real exam. Do not worry too much before the exam. Many people do not feel confident before taking such an exam, but most of them will pass anyways.

      Good luck with the exam and looking forward to hear from you that you have passed!

      1. Hi Markus,
        I booked the exam for today morning and passed. Thanks a lot. 🙂

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