Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) Certification Training FAQs in Hawthorne, CA
What is the cost of attaining an IIBA® certification?
The application fee is $125 USD and is not refundable (i.e. regardless of whether your application is approved or declined). The exam fee is $325 USD for IIBA members and $450 USD for non-members.
Do I need to be a member of IIBA to apply for certification and recertification?
No, you do not need to be an IIBA member, although there are many benefits to being an IIBA member including, but not limited to, discounts off of the certification exam fee and the recertification fee.
Is the CCBA® exam the same as the CBAP® exam?
No, the exams are different. The blueprints for both are in the individual Handbooks.
Here is the link to Download CBAP® Handbook
The CCBA® exam consists primarily of recall questions with some “application” questions whereas, the CBAP® exam has a much higher number of “application” questions.
Can you tell me if a course qualifies towards the 21 hours of Professional Development application requirement?
If you would like to know if a course qualifies towards the 21 hours of professional development, you can review the CCBA® Handbook or the CBAP® Handbook criteria for Professional Development. The specific criteria that refers to the BABOK® Guide includes the Underlying Competencies in the BABOK® Guide.
Application Process:
How much time is needed to complete the application process and prepare for the exam once approved?
It really depends on the individual however, some feedback we've received
includes:
* Ideally allow three to four months for studying, at least eight hours per
week split between reading the BABOK® Guide and other support information, and completing practice tests. Everyone's study habits are different, but this is a suggested minimum in combination with other work and home life commitments.
*Participate in study groups. Study groups can help with your
understanding by leveraging everyone's experience to provide context. This will ensure a more thorough understanding, rather than trying to memorize information.
*Know your job well: the practical application of the BABOK® Guide
information is a great asset.
Contacts for many of the projects I have worked on over the past 7 or 10 years are no longer available. How do I document this in such a way that I can still get credit for the hours performed?
Please indicate the situation in the description field for the specific project in question (i.e., that you are not able to provide contact information for the person you reported to) and minimally, provide the name and contact information of a person who can verify your employment with that organization. However, this cannot be the case with all projects submitted as we need some projects for which we can validate the tasks, hours and dates with the appropriate contact for audit purposes.
Have you considered having a reduced total hour requirement for the applicants who possess post-secondary education such as a University degree or a College diploma?
While we do agree that this education/training is valuable to any business analysis practitioner, this is the reason we have the requirement for Professional Development when applying for the CCBA® and CBAP® designations.
Having said that, the focus is on the skills, experience and expertise gained from real-world BA work experience. The requirements were developed based on the fact that working as a BA offers experience that cannot be gained in an educational setting, no matter what the area of study. In addition, the exams have been developed in such a way as to require BA work experience, not taking advanced education into account.
What are the criteria used to validate experience?
Work experience must be related to business analysis, performing tasks as per A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide).
My work experience includes tasks other than those meeting the certification requirements. Should I include all my experience from the present back to my first business analysis (BA) experiences within the last 7 (for CCBA®) or 10 (for CBAP®) years?
As per the instructions in the application, only business analysis specific work experience aligned with the BABOK® Guide is considered. Documenting more hours than the minimum required is recommended. In addition, gaps in work experience years are not considered as long as the requirement is met.
Overlaps in work experience and/or extra hours are reviewed to ensure the number of hours is appropriately documented and feasible.
How can I provide experience in the application that involve sensitive or company proprietary information?
Indicate in the Description field for the project that it involves sensitive company information and then provide only as much information as possible without breaching the privacy.
I can provide the details or certificate for Professional Development courses but am unable to enter details online such contact name, phone number and email, etc. How should I proceed with that? Shall I put my information?
No, contact information must be entered for someone else other than the applicant. It must be someone who can validate that they took the course in the event the application is audited by IIBA. If it's an online course then you may have registered through your company's HR system or such so you can provide us with the HR person's contact information.
What kinds of requirements are needed for trainers of courses I submit as Professional Development? Can they be outside vendors or internal to our organization?
There are no requirements for a trainer. Trainers can be external vendors or internal to an organization. You will need to provide proof of completion (if audited) and may be asked to provide a course overview if we have questions about the Professional Development submitted.
After I submit my application how long will I have to wait to find out if I'm approved to sit for the exam?
Applications are assessed immediately upon submission and payment of the application fee. You will not be able to submit your application unless you have met all of the eligibility requirements. Once your online application shows that all requirements have been met (i.e. there is a green check mark in each of the requirements sections), you will be able to submit your application and pay the application fee. Once payment is processed by IIBA, you will immediately receive an email saying either you are approved OR you are approved pending audit.
Exam Registration
How do I sign up for the exam?
The exam is the final requirement to achieving an IIBA designation.
Individuals interested in taking either the CCBA® or CBAP® exam must first complete and submit the respective application with payment and be approved
- this is the initial screening process for IIBA designations. Once an application is approved and the applicant has paid the exam fee to IIBA, the applicant is eligible to take the exam. The eligible exam candidate will then receive an email notification to register online for the exam.
If I'm not able to write the exam within the specified timeframe, do I have to reapply and pay again?
Exam candidates have one year from the time their results email is sent by IIBA to take the exam. It is the candidate's responsibility to ensure their application does not lapse. If an application lapses, the candidate must reapply and repay the non-refundable application fee.
Exam Preparation
How can I prepare for the exam?
To prepare for the exam please refer to the BABOK® Guide and the references identified. The exam is also based on experience.
Can you tell me what material I need to review or course I should take to prepare for the exam?
There is no exam syllabus and we do not require you to take a prep course to qualify for the exam. As long as your application is approved, you are eligible to take the exam. We strongly recommend that you review the BABOK® Guide which is also posted on the website.
How many sample tests do you provide?
We provide 2 full-length simulation tests with 150 practice questions in each practice test.
Examination
How many questions are on the exam?
The CBAP® exam has 150 questions.
What kind of questions are they?
All the questions are multiple choice with four possible answers from which to select. Some questions are based on "comprehension" (e.g., definition, recall, etc.) and others are based on "situational analysis" (e.g. given a scenario, which is the best course of action) where the applicant must perform analysis to arrive at the answer. It is neither all of one type or the other but covers a range of Blooms taxonomy.
What is the exam based on?
The exam is currently alighed with version 2 of the BABOK® Guide; however, it is not the sole source of questions on the exam. In addition to the BABOK® Guide itself, the exam also tests candidates' knowledge of sources referenced by the BABOK® Guide and candidates' business analysis experience.
How long will I have to complete the exam?
Candidates will be given three and a half hours to complete the exam.
What is the minimum score necessary to pass the exam?
Cut scores are developed using psychometric procedures led by our exam administrators. The process for creating the certification exams is as
follows:
1. An item writing session is facilitated with CBAP® volunteers who
develop the exam questions or 'items'.
2. Another group of CBAP® volunteers review and rate the level of
difficulty of each question.
3. The exam is launched.
4. After a number of exam candidates take the exam, the cut score is
calculated based on the cumulative performance of test items. Once set, the cut score does not change throughout the life of the exam, although it is monitored to ensure the effectiveness of the exam.
The IIBA Certification Body will not publicly reveal the cut score or the pass rate for any exam. Raw scores are normalized to a standard scale. 500 is the minimum score needed to pass, not the maximum possible score and is mentioned in the failed exam result.
Do you need to pass in each knowledge area or is it a cumulative total?
The exam score is based on a cumulative total.
Is a test taker better off skipping questions or answering them all, whether they are right or wrong?
Questions that are answered wrong or are skipped entirely are not treated differently from one another - both actions will impact the score. In addition, 'marking' and 'unmarking' will not have an effect on the score.
How will I know if I passed the exam?
Exam candidates will be notified immediately on screen once they have submitted their computer based exam. For those who fail the exam, they will be provided with additional information, specifically the Knowledge Areas that require their attention. (Please note that with the launch of a new exam, immediate scoring is not available until the Cut Score study is complete, about two months after the launch of the exam.)
How many times can I take the exam?
Upon receiving notice that your application has been approved, you have one
(1) year to successfully pass the exam. If you fail the exam on the first attempt, you may retake the exam once, after paying the rewrite fee and waiting three (3) months from the date of your initial attempt.
If you do not successfully pass the exam within one year of your application approval (either because you did not pass the exam after one or two attempts, or because you did not sit for it), you must reapply and pay the full fee.
If I don't sit for the exam until more than nine months after receiving my approval email and I fail, am I out of luck for retaking the exam?
Yes. You must pass the exam within one year of the approval of your application or two exam attempts, whichever comes first. After this, you must once again complete the application process (including paying the non-refundable application fee and exam fee) and, be approved to be eligible to take the exam.
If during the exam, the computer stops working and locks up, will this affect my score?
No, it won't change the score. The candidate responses to each question are stored automatically on the test administrator’s server as soon as the response is entered. There is nothing stored on the testing computer itself because we are receiving the test as the tester is answering each question.
A lockup or even a log out will not affect responses that the tester has already entered, nor will it change the tester's examination time used (i.e.
extra time will be added to the end for any time lost due to system problems).
Recertification
Will training provider's Professional Development Units (PDUs) count towards maintaining CBAP® status? Will attending chapter meetings count towards the recertification requirements?
Details on the requirements for recertification can be found in the CBAP® Recertification Handbook .
What are the Recertification Fees?
The current renewal fee for IIBA members is $85 USD and $120 USD for non-members (plus GST/HST for Canadian residents) and is non-refundable.
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Prepare for the Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) certification examination with our 2/3-day intensive CBAP® classroom training session in Hawthorne, CA. Our exam-oriented and certification-focused training based on the six knowledge areas of the BABOK® Guide v3 will prepare you for success in the CBAP certification exam.
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