Preparing for CPRE Certification? Here are some tips!

Planning to take CPRE certification and grow your business analysis career further? This article may help you with some of the starting questions and their answers.

First and foremost any certification exam requires a huge level of determination and commitment from within yourself (self motivation). The drive could also be the encouragement/backing from your organization as part of your professional development goals. In any case, congratulations on start of this journey, now that you are thinking of studying something afresh and are ready to learn further about it.

WHAT IS CPRE CERTIFICATION

So, what is CPRE® certification and why it is important? CPRE® is Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering by IREB (International Requirements Engineering Board), a non-profit organization, is the provider of the CPRE® (Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering) certification scheme. More Info at below mentioned links

EXAM MINDSET- ARE YOU READY?

You have perhaps taken many professional certification exams already. Still, every time you decide to take a new exam, and the thought does bring up some kind of unrest in your mind and heart. Does it happens with you? If yes, I can imagine and relate to it too.

It is indeed a mindset change you need here. It is about just simply deciding to prepare for the exam, treating it like a project, making a plan and schedule for it. Study from theory standpoint as well as making it a win from the exam standpoint. So, do wear your learning hat irrespective of whether you are taking a professional certification for the first time or you are a veteran having already obtained many such certifications.

Attend Preparation Workshop

CPRE preparation workshop is CPRE trainer led workshop and is typically 3 days. In it, you will know the overall big picture of requirements engineering, key terms and definitions from the CPRE book. You will get to cover the course content in detail. You will also get the opportunity to learn through various team (participants’) interactions and project specific case studies, Q/As.

Once the preparation workshop is done, you will need to read the entire syllabus book (CPRE® foundation book) very meticulously, first to understand each and every chapter/topic and then to re-go through it to strengthen your understanding. There is no exact number of reads I can recommend here since every person’s learning curve would be different. From my experience though, I think 2–3 reads are good enough.

You will certainly need to take a few different mock tests and learn through where you are doing well and where you need a re-take. Repeat this process iteratively until you are confident of taking the final exam. Your trainer/CPRE® training provider will be able to help with it. Also make sure you are timing the mock tests AS IF it is real (live), especially as you approach the scheduled date of the exam.

Giving Actual Exam- Tips

Well here you are. Finally you have scheduled the exam, marked the date, time and everything on your calendar. On the day of exam especially, make sure you have slept, rested well and are relaxed (this is the first and important one of course, in my view :-)). At the time of exam, make sure have set up your camera and the ambience around is well lit.

Once you start the exam, keep track of time really well. Every minute and even second counts. Generally the time is sufficient but if you find yourself taking a longer time in answering some questions, you can skip or mark those and come back to those later. In the end review all questions/answers. Once you hit the ‘GO’, you will see the result right away (that you have passed ?!) and your score as well).

I know these are some very basic things (that we all knew during school times too), but basics are important too.

IS THIS WORTH TAKING? HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM CBAP®?

Is the CPRE® exam worth taking? Is it having weightage in the job market? How is it different from the CBAP® exam? I get such questions often from professionals of varied experience in the requirements industry. From those who are aspiring to do some certifications. Well, the answer is Yes. It has weightage and CPRE® is recognized in many organizations as well as with their clients.

Regarding the differences and similarities between CPRE® and CBAP®, maybe I will write a separate article on this. At the same time, me having done both of these certifications, I can say that the exam preparation steps and mindset is just the same. The coverage, content and level of difficulty are different. Nevertheless, at the fundamental level, the range of key topics in requirements engineering (/business analysis) is the same. I loved the content and coverage for both of these for different reasons. Both of these certifications are very valued in the industry; different organizations may prefer one over the other though.

This is really a vast topic in itself when it comes to which certification to take, when to take, which one is good or even whether one should take all of the best ones to keep up with the knowledge and the best practices. The key is learning should never never stop.

Thoughts, questions, ideas?

Swati Pitre, CPRE®, CBAP®, is Sr. Business Analyst, Consultant and Trainer with 25+ years of industry experience across various domains and geographies. Her specialties include Process Improvement, BPM, Predictive Analytics, Product Development, Quality, and Governance. She undertakes various training courses such as CPRE®/CBAP®/CCBA®/ECBA® Prep Courses, Comprehensive BA Job oriented Course, BPMN, Agile BA Course, and several other customized courses. She is also a public speaker and has the entire Effective Coaching Pathway at Toastmasters International.

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