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

In the first part of our ISTQB certification article, we tried to answer the questions: To whom? and why? need this certificate. Small spoiler : cooperation with ISTQB opens more doors to the employing company rather than to the new owner of the certificate.

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

How to get certified abroad?

Pavel Tolokonin,
Leading Testing Specialist at the Quality Laboratory

I work remotely and travel a lot of time, when the question arose about passing the exam for a certificate, I was not in Russia.

Next, I’ll talk about how to find an authorized certification authority in the right country, what organizational questions should be asked, what pitfalls can be before and after passing the exam, and I will share my personal experience in passing.

I was in Southeast Asia and looked at several countries: Thailand (where I lived), Vietnam (where I traveled) and Malaysia (where you can easily get there). Each ISTQB member country on the official page provides brief information: a site , which, in turn, contains information about:

• specific organizations where you can sign up for a preparatory course or get certified;
• certification levels;
• language in which certification is carried out;
• contacts of responsible persons.

Already at this stage, I deleted Vietnam from the list: for him, an exam is supposed to be in Vietnamese only.

In most cases, after studying the 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 an organization is certified for training, then it is also certified for an exam.

You can also study 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 main site of ISTQB, but no one answered me.

So, having studied the Thai and Malay exam schedule, I settled on the only Thai center in Bangkok. The next step was correspondence, and here 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 in the country on a tourist visa, pass the exam?
• What documents , in what form and in what terms should be provided?
• what syllabus (the textbook on which the exam is built, at the time of writing, 2 options are possible - 2011 and 2018) can I pass the exam and how to specify a specific one?
• How can I get extra time for an exam if English is not your native language?
• how many days and how do I pay ?
• where and for how much time you need to come on the day of the exam.

If we talk about my specific experience, then I had to provide information about:

• name;
• address of current residence;
• phone
• and:
• send a copy of the spread of the passport (it is also a confirmation that English is not my native language);
• indicate the date and time of the exam offered;
• indicate syllabus.

Payment had to be transferred to a bank account so that the money appeared 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 Russia the cost of the ISTQB FL exam is 150 €, then in Thailand it is 10700 THB, or about 300 €.

In general, most of the foreign sites that I 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 public holidays.

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

• in what form is the exam conducted? (you must admit, there is a difference - to solve problems with a paper sheet or mark options on the tablet, with the possibility of reselecting the answer and quick sorting of unanswered / tagged questions);
• How soon will the results be processed?
• in what terms and in what form is the certificate provided?
• Where will the certificate information be posted?

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

An important point! Three days before the exam, I received an official letter with confirmation 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 were limping (the questions from the dumps didn’t coincide with the actual exam).

I made a Google tablet, wrote out my answers in it, compared it with the correct ones, noted which section it was, and carefully reread it. Looking ahead, I’ll say that I ended up passing 100% the most difficult topics for me - because I worked on them constantly.

The exam itself was held on 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 getting from another city. I clarified at the reception whether the office I needed was located, but, trying to get through, I received a standard Thai turnover: “No can, madam. Today is Saturday, offices are closed, come on Monday. ” AAAAAAaaaaaaa !!! “So it cannot be,” I thought, “this is the correct address, here is the office plate, here is the letter confirming my exam, I will try again.”


Hall of the company

Secretaries honestly called the internal phone to the office and again repeated that everything is closed and no one is answering. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!! And here on the stage came the mobile number of the company representative. I phoned him and found out that as many as two people were passing the exam on this day, including me, so the office would open half an hour before the start of my exam, and now it's empty. When I waited for the right time, I was all alone, although the office was large, with tons of classes for classes and rooms for exams.


Premises for the exam and classes

Because there was no one else to wait, 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 of a deer, I had a tablet.

They showed me the interface of the program, and the countdown went 75 minutes. Submission in electronic form is very convenient, and another huge plus - you will know the results immediately.

What happens after the change?

First, 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, issues the certificate itself. In my case, it was GASQ. They also sent a letter with a link to register me as a certified specialist on their website and then register on src.istqb.org . In this place you need to be careful with the data: my name and surname were mixed up, which required additional correspondence for correction. A few days after all the formalities, if you passed the exam after 2017, you should appear here:

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

They will also send you a certificate in electronic form.

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

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

How did I prepare for certification in Belarus

Anna Paley,
test manager at the Quality Laboratory

I first thought about passing the ISTQB certificate exam like this: “An international certificate that confirms the competence in testing? It's great, you must definitely take it! ”

Then there was a period of critical reflection:

1. Will this certificate give me any advantage in the labor market and in my company?
2. Test format in the form of a test and choosing the right answer? Will it 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 the effort?

There were a lot of doubts and I decided to test the way by signing up for the course "Integrated System for Preparing for ISTQB FL (KSP)" from Natalia Rukol. Why not on your own? I am a procrastinator, I do a lot of things at the same time, often I can’t concentrate in order to learn a book from cover to cover, so the presentation in the form of laid out syllabus material seemed the most optimal. Plus bribed practical exercises that are definitely useful in the work.

Not for nothing, I decided, and set about studying the course. In addition, I used the glossary and syllabus when I felt that the knowledge of the webinar was not enough (for example, on the topic of testing types).

In addition, I received:

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

After completing the course and still some time of reflection, I still decided to take the exam. I myself am from the small town of Mozyr, in the Republic of Belarus. Now we can only be rented in two cities: Minsk and Gomel, which is not very convenient for other residents. Personally, I had to get up at 4 in the morning to get to Minsk and catch an exam.

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

Having thoroughly prepared, I registered without any problems, passed, received a certificate and sent it on the site. The effort paid off, now I am a certified specialist in software testing.


Was certification needed?

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

That's all the stories for today.

I hope this information helps you somehow on the way to the coveted certificate. But these are all our stories, and how did you prepare, give and receive your ISTQBs? Who has the most exotic country of delivery? What impressions and maybe adventures do you have with certification. Share your stories in the comments, discuss!