About ISTQB

ISTQB is an international non-profit independent testing certification organization. ISTQB has developed the “ISTQB® Certified Tester” program, which is a leader in certification of test competencies.

Certification is divided into 3 levels: 🔹Basic 🔹Advanced 🔹Expert

A more detailed diagram can be viewed here.

Training

About 2 years ago I became interested in the topic of certification. It was interesting to read, learn something new for yourself. First of all, I read the main document - Syllabus. It contains all the information that may be required for the exam. Then I went over the official terms in detail. There are many of them in the document, but it is enough to learn only those that relate to the Foundation. Since I decided to take it in Russian, I had to pay more attention to this, because. sometimes the meaning of terms differ by one word (for example, tricky validation and verification). I also talked with an experienced person who helped me navigate the preparation, what to focus on, etc. It is important to correlate your experience with the document, because your knowledge does not always correspond to what is written in the document.
Also, a set of tasks from the site https://istqb-training.ru helped me in the preparation (perhaps already old tasks, but in general the tasks are similar to real ones).

Exam

Went remotely in the office. It is better to prepare in advance everything that you are asked in the e-mail sent with explanations. For example, this concerns plugin settings, phone settings. Think in advance of the place where you will rent. The room should not have any equipment from the word at all (you will be asked to clean everything or cover it with something, even just a non-working radio or TV). In 48 hours, you need to pass a system test of a computer and phone, it is passed quickly enough, there should be no problems) At the exam itself, they will ask you to show all open programs, so it’s better to leave one browser, and close everything-everything-everything (all tabs and all programs).
The phone camera should be positioned as allowed in the instructions, that is, at a sufficient distance to see you and the computer was completely visible) I solved this problem right on the exam itself, because I thought everything was fine, but I was asked to set it a little lower camera) Better buy a tripod or a normal phone stand.
In the exam itself, I was strained by the long connection to the exam itself. I was about to write to them in the chat, but everything loaded and I started to solve the exam. 40 questions, 60 minutes for everything, 1.5 minutes per question. In the course of the play, on the page with the exam, I immediately opened a text modal window, which can be used as a draft. You can safely move between tasks, the main thing is to answer everything) Specifically, new and difficult tasks did not appear. As usual, it’s all about the little things and attentiveness, especially to the numbers, because sometimes the score goes to ten thousandths.
It was inconvenient to work with tabs in the modal for the task, there were 2 tables in one modal on two different tabs. That is, you constantly have to switch back and forth.
Well, in the end, after you exit the testing mode, a message immediately appears that you have passed the exam and some statistics.

Afterthought

The experience of taking an exam remotely is interesting and unforgettable. And in general, the knowledge gained during the preparation and delivery is very valuable. Of course, everything is not always achievable in practice, and often unattainable at all. ISTQB does not provide 100% ready-made solutions. But it is always useful and necessary to apply something, for example, some specific approaches to testing. The next Advanced level is also valid for an unlimited amount of time, but the exam is more difficult, more thorough preparation is required.

Original post in Telegram - https://t.me/qa_relia/36