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if you have only just done the foundation...get some expereience first before you even attempt the managers certificate its very hard and involves a lot of work.
Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 10:51 pm Post subject: Managers course
Just to add a comment regarding the Managers (Masters) certificate
Undertaking this qualification is not for the feint hearted, and really requires a 3 month commitment. It is primarily aimed at those with a significant exposure to Service Management, and typically more than 5 years IT experience. Working at Supervisory / Team Leader level or IT Managerial experience will also be advantageous. It is commonly known as the Red Badge course.
It should not be undertaken by those with limited study time on their hands or who have either:
• Just taken on a new role or moved employer
• Just married
• Just moved house
• Or just had an addition to the family
………as you will probably not have sufficient private study time available.
The course usually comprises of a 5 day Service Support Course, a 5 day Service Delivery course and a revision day prior to the two exams.
Ideally the course should be approached in the following way.
Month 1 Service Support course and additional study
Month 2 Service Delivery course and additional study
Month 3 Revision Day, and Exams (preferably two weeks before exams)
Some training organisations offer this course as a two week ‘back to back course’ or a 10 or 12 day ‘Boot Camp’. This approach is not recommended, unless you have a photographic memory and boundless energy and enthusiasm for the subject.
Typically the course is a mixture of lecture, discussion, syndicate exercises and test questions. Typically a mock exam is taken on the 5th day of each course.
The exams consist of two 3 hour written papers (Paper 1 equating to Service Support and Paper 2 equating to Service Delivery). They are normally taken on the last Wednesday afternoon (1pm – 4pm) and Thursday morning (10am – 1pm) in the months of January, April, July or October.
The public exam venues in the UK are normally Swindon, London, Manchester and Edinburgh. Private exams can be arranged if sufficient numbers are available and a suitable venue, and Invigilator can be arranged.
The exams cannot be taken individually, unless it is a re-sit following a failure.
A case study on which the exam will be based will be issued about two weeks prior to the exams, and 60% of the questions in each paper will relate to this case study.
Results usually take 10 weeks, due to each exam paper being photocopied twice and sent to two independent examiners for marking. Marks are checked, correlated and accessed before any results are issued to the candidates.
The pass rate is currently around the 50% mark. Some limited feedback is available should you fail one or both papers. The usual feedback for failure is that the delegate has either, not answered the question, not identified sufficient factors, or not supplied sufficient detail.
To obtain a pass you need to achieve at least 50% in both papers, and to achieve a distinction you need to achieve at least 65% in both papers a the same sitting.
If you fail one paper you can retake just that paper.
The Managers certificate is currently only available in English, due to a lack of qualified examiners with the required language skills. Foreign language students and those with certain qualifying disabilities can by prior arrangement obtain an additional 30 minute extension for each exam, and have access to a dictionary, however not the ‘ITIL Dictionary’….
Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:45 pm Post subject: ehm...
Hi Steve,
Your post was very helpful and scary. I have already registered for the ITIL Manager course in Dubai. The training is as you have described, followed by a 3 week gap and then the exam.
I have taken leave for this entire duration except the week of the exam. So, after the training I will have 2 weeks to prepare + some time during the 3rd week. Is that enough in your opinion?
I am a senior advisor at a big 4 and quite used to exceptional workload and do pick things up fast. I can easily commit to 10-15 hr study days during the 2 weeks I am on leave. Will that do?
There are no guarantees, of course, but you certainly have the correct serious approach to the amount of work required. You need to know the books. I would approach the manager's courses by being sure that you have revised all the Foundation material. Too often, students look blank when you ask simple questions about the Foundation concepts - types of release, purpose of the DSL etc., so time is wasted re-teaching them. So have the Foundation material fully absorbed beforehand. Practice exam ansers during and after the course. The tutors should give feedback, and contacts through this forum could perhaps comment as well, if need be. Try answering some mock questions with the books open, and others closed-book. That can be helpful. Know the problems, benefits, costs, implementation steps and interaction with other processes for every process. (Try doing a brain dump of these ffor 1 process in a spare 10 minutes, then check the book.) KNOW THE CASE STUDY!!!!! Marks can be capped at 50% (ie 10 out of 20) if the case study is not referenced where it has been asked for. Don't just say "in xxxx Configuration would give....."followe by the generic list. Pick out specific issues, use the departmental and system names. Refer to the case study at least once per paragraph.
Most importantly, once you have learnt the theory, apply it in your answers. We are not looking for a brain dump in an exam paper, but something which shows understanding and the abiloty to applythat understanding.
Good Luck! _________________ Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance
My class was a bit more mixed than the traditional 1 week SD and 1 week SS; and to me it's made far more sense.
However, they were only a week apart.
Next week I go back for the Revision, then the two exams.
With EXIN there is only the ability to pass the exam, no Distinction possible.
As for advice, I have two pieces
1 - Read the red and blue books, and be prepared to read them again when you're done with the class, I found lots of thing I hadn't fully grasped in the first reading.
2 - Determine what form you want your notes in for studying. It took me a full week to determine what I wanted and what was best for me to study.
Joined: Nov 11, 2006 Posts: 1 Location: San Jose, CA
Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 2:57 am Post subject: Exam essay format? Hand written or typed in?
I apologize if this has been answered somewhere else, but I am wondering if the exam essay is handwritten or if there are computers to type in the essay.
The ISEB exam is hand-written, and I believe the EXIN one is also. The logistics of setting up hundreds of "clean" PCs for exams has so far made it impossible to organise anything other than hand-written. So - another piece of advice - start practising writing legibly - most of us have not done this since school/college. Get those muscles used to writing again - and use several pens, of different thicknesses, so that your hand does not cramp. _________________ Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance
Cyrix, good luck with your exam, just one idea which might be fairly obvious: ask the instructor as much as you can, there is no such question, as a stupid question.
One more thing: I don't know your background in ITIL, but if you haven't worked with it for the last couple of years, read the books as many times as you can. If you had considerable exposure to it, still read the parts you think are your strong areas as they want to know the theory as well as how do you apply it in practice.
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