Study plan and Tips

Purpose of creating this site is to share the study plan and tips which helped me in clearing ISTQB foundation exam without any formal coaching(2-3 weeks preparation). I assume you know what ISTQB is. If not, please refer to http://www.istqb.org/ for more details.

Step-by-step study plan

1. Walkover ISTQB exam syllabus, and don’t spend too much time if you are stucked on any topic. We would come back to syllabus again later. Go-over official glossary as well.
2. You should have one reference book apart from official syllabus to provide you enough illustrations and examples so you could digest the content better. I searched on the internet to get a recommendation for the book, and finalized on “Foundations of Software Testing ISTQB certification”. It’s a fantastic book and if you have some background in development/testing then I am sure you would enjoy the reading.
3. Although I have shared my cheat sheets on this site, but its better that you create your notes while reading the course content/book.
4. After reading the book mentioned in (2), revisit the syllabus, and read it more thoroughly this time.
5. Official sample paper is provided on ISTQB website so go over it to measure your current level. If you score above thirty then you would be unstoppable in the exam…:)
6. Make a note of answers which were incorrect and list down the areas where you are weak. Focus more on filling up the gaps in these areas before giving any further sample exams.
7. Once you think you have filled in all the gaps then you should focus on giving more sample exams. Online sample exams have in-accurate answers so I suggest you to go through sample tests mentioned in “Sample Exam Questions: ISTQB certified tester foundation level”. I found a e-copy of this book and it was really very handy.
8. By completing the sample exams  mentioned in (7), you would again find some areas for improvement. Go over them, and then revise foundation syllabus, look at the book mentioned in (2), go-over official sample exam again to see if you have improved.
9. Have a good night sleep before exam, and have a blast on next day…:)

Tips

• Exam questions are all-together different from what you see in sample exams, so its important that your fundamentals are good.
• If you are a non-native English speaker, you can ask for additional 15 minutes in the exam. Take advantage of this rule. You may finish up sample exams in less than 60 minutes, but exam environment has a different pressure all-together.
• Since its a multiple choice exam, so eliminating the provided options could be a good strategy in ambiguous questions.
• Always directly mark the answers on the answer sheet in the first go. These would be marked with a pencil so even if you change your mind later, you can erase and change your answer.