ITIL V3 Intermediate

[rickstevens]

Hi

I've only just found this forum, and wondered if any of you could offer any advice.

I passed my foundation in March, and my manager has come to me today and told me he wants me to complete the intermediate level this year. I suspect this will be via the lifecycle route (5 courses) and just wondered if anyone could share their experiences of this training?

I understand that a certain amount of pre-study is required prior to attending the course is this true?

Are there any sources of pre course material you can get to give you a bit of a head start?

As regards the actual exams, I understand there are 8 scenario questions. Are they looking for key words/concepts to be documented for these answers?

If you dont pass the exam, can you retake it without having to do the whole course again?

sorry for so many questions, but information sources for anything above the foundation level seem to be a little hard to come by

Thanks in advance

Rick

[UKVIKING]

Rick

You need to ask a training company that provides the intermediate training

in fact ask the same questions of three or 4 of them in your area
_________________
John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter

[rickstevens]

Just thought I'd post an update for any one else going down the same route as me

I finished the Service Strategy course yesterday, and it was certainly nothing like I expected it to be. It is fair to say, I wasn't completely prepared for the course due to a heavy work schedule immediately prior to starting the course (11 x 12 hour shifts on the trot), but this is the first exam I can remember taking, where I honestly don't have the slightest clue whether I did well or not.

Only 20% of our group actually got 28 or more in the 2nd mock, and coupled with the fact, that in 1 question, the difference between 5 marks and 3 marks was one word in the answer, a lot of us were very apprehensive about the exam itself.

I am scheduled for the Service Design course on 3rd September - rest assured I will be far better prepared for that!

Does anyone know how long it takes for you to get your results?

many thanks

Rick

[rickstevens]

Well after a tense few weeks of waiting, I finally rung ISEB yesterday to find out when my results would be through, they said they were still waiting for proof of my passing the Foundation exam (I gave them this when I took the exam), still I emailed them a further copy yesterday, and my results have just come through, and I got a Pass 34/40

Service Design next week....gulp!!

[ClaireAgutter]

Congratulations Rick, that's a great result!

Service Design is tough (like SS) but many delegates I've worked with found it easier because it's based around individual processes that they have some familiarity with - Service Level Mgt, Capacity Mgt etc.

If you've got access to the core volumes and can do some pre-reading before the course it will help, but of course life does get in the way sometimes

Good luck!

Claire

[rickstevens]

Hi Claire

Unfortunately I failed SD badly I really dont know what went wrong, I have my resit booked for the end of November

[rickstevens]

Well, I took the Service Transition exam last week, and after a disasterous 2nd mock, and an exam that gave me a banging headache, I had convinced myself that I had failed yet another course.

However, much to my suprise and joy, I have actually passed 32/40

I must admit, this is the course that I have enjoyed the most so far, its very relevant to the situation at work presently.

I'm scheduled for SO in November, and I hear that it has the worst pass rate of all of the Intermediate exams. Is this because the exam is genuinely harder than the others, or do people become a little complacent as its the area that most of us work in?

Rick

[LizGallacher]

The pass rates are:
SS - 83
SD - 78
ST - 77
SO - 77
CSI - 82
_________________
Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance

[rickstevens]

Thanks for that Liz. I must have been having a really bad day when I took SD. 9 marks difference in my results between SD and ST, yet the pass mark is very similar. I hope the resit goes better

[LizGallacher]

The exams are tricky, however well you know the material. You get better as you get used to them.
_________________
Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance

[rickstevens]

I think you develop your strategy better as you go through the exams. I've tried numerous techniques on all of the mocks I've taken, some with very erratic results. With any luck, by the time I hit the MALC exam, I will have found one that works for me lol

[SteveGriff]

Very encouraging reading and congratulations Ric. Gives me some comfort as I start my journey into my first ITIL Intermediate course - Release, Control & Validation.

[rickstevens]

Well, I did my SD resit on Friday (along with a couple of other people) and the paper was completely different from the original ( I had been prewarned that there was a good chance that i may get the same exam as there are only a couple of them in circulation at the moment)

I had to keep going back and rechecking my answers as some of them seemed far too obvious to me (compared with the other intermediate exams), so I think I should either pass this with a good mark, or i've completely misunderstood the questions and monumentally failed.

Im always very suspicious when the answers seem to jump out at you - anyone else feel the same??

SO Course tomorrow

Rick

[rickstevens]

Latest Update:

I found the SO course really interesting, but since I spend most of my life in the Operations environment, I also found it quite difficult to ignore how things happen in the real world and concentrate on how they happen in the utopia of ITIL. Thankfully when the exam came, I managed to to do this and have passed.....Im a little disappointed that I only got 29/40, but as they say, a pass is a pass.

Incidentally, I also passed my SD resit with 38/40

A couple more weeks and then onto the CSI course

[rickstevens]

I completed the CSI course and sat the exam today. The course and content didnt seem anywhere near as intensive as some of the others which was quite a relief to be honest.

The exam itself didnt seem too bad - a couple of questions that stopped me in my tracks for a while, but on the whole it was OK.

I guess I'll have a tense wait over Christmas for my results, until BCS return to work.