We are back with yet another success story about Business Analysis Professionals clearing the IIBA Certification on their first attempt.
In this success story, we will talk about Chidimma, who is a Business Analysis Professional all the way from Nigeria. She talks about her entire journey of successfully clearing the CBAP Certification. Chidimma will also share some insightful tips and tricks that you can use if you are preparing for the CBAP Certification.
Before we go ahead and read her success story, you can check out our CBAP Certification Training Course, where you will receive training sessions from IIBA-Certified and endorsed education industry experts. You will get access to full-fledged mock tests, mock questions, mindmaps, revision sheets, and much more.
Professional Background
Chidimma lives and works in the financial industry in Nigeria, in the Business Analysis domain. And she also worked as a BAO in a business analysis-oriented role. She is in the financial domain for about 10 years now.
What motivated her to take up the CBAP Certification?
Since last year, in 2021, Chidimma was very much inclined toward the idea of gaining a certification or doing a master’s program. However, she did not know that CBAP existed until she did some research and stumbled across the CBAP certification through IIBA. This is when she decided to register herself as a member of IIBA, which soon led her to apply for the CBAP exam.
How was her preparation journey?
Chidimma’s preparation journey involved taking a lot of simulation exams through the Techcanvass portal. She then read the BABOK guide like a bible and took help from the notes that were accessible by her on the Techcanvass platform. At first, the BABOK Guide did not make sense to her and she was not able to understand it. But when she read it for the second time, she started relating the knowledge areas with her work and that’s when she started grasping the concepts.
While she was giving the simulation exam, she scored around 40% or 55% on her first trial. It was a little challenging for her at first, but she did not give up and decided to keep on taking the simulation exams until she started getting above 80%. Moreover, she also leveraged case studies, which gave her an idea of real-life scenarios and practical situations.
Challenges faced by Chidimma
The most challenging part for Chidimma was managing her work life, personal life, and studying for the exam all at the same time. Typically her day starts around 8 AM and ends at 5 PM, and then she also has children that she has taken care of. However, her determination and consistency did not let her reroute from studying for the exam.
Chidimma used to allocate her time accordingly and would prefer to study in the evening. She would study the BABOK in the evening after taking care of her children and doing other household chores. She used to spend at least two hours studying for the exam.
When did she realize that she was confident to take the exam?
While taking her training sessions with Techcanvass, she remembered that her instructors told her that once an aspirant scores 85% and above, that is the time, you should feel confident in your preparation. So when Chidimma started giving her simulation exams, she initially started with 60-67%, then 75%, and finally 80-85%, and that is the week when she gave the CBAP exam as she felt confident and ready.
How was the exam day like?
Chidimma gave the CBAP exam online from her home as the center was not close to her location. So like any other aspirant sitting for the exam, she was also a little nervous. But she made sure she got enough sleep before the exam day.
On the day of the exam, she rated her experience to be good. She explains how she got connected to a proctor and how she got tired at a moment when the proctor constantly asked her to scan the room and then rescan her ID card. This was a bit frustrating for Chidimma, but regardless, she was able to efficiently complete her CBAP exam within the stipulated time limit.
Changes after successfully completing the CBAP exam
After successfully completing the CBAP exam, Chidimma feels that her confidence level has boosted in many ways while handling tasks and work responsibilities. She is now beginning to put her CBAP knowledge into practice. She says that the CBAP certification has helped her get work done easily and she can now resolve complex problems and find solutions to various issues easily.
Moreover, Chidimma has applied the CBAP training and the skills she has acquired in handling various projects, for instance, she applied the concepts of elicitation and collaboration in a project and was able to see the work getting done more smoothly.
Tips to clear the CBAP exam
Chidimma shares some helpful tips and tricks for CBAP aspirants or anyone who is planning to start their CBAP certification journey.
The first thing that she emphasized is encouraging the aspirants to subscribe to simulation exams as these exams will allow you to self-assess your knowledge and the preparation that you have done so far. Therefore, you can subscribe to or enroll in a training program that offers simulation exams as part of their training program. One such training partner is Techcanvass, where you can access these simulation exams just like Chidimma did.
The second tip that Chidimma mentions is to go for study groups as it will allow you to clear your doubts and stay involved in the CBAP preparation discussion and even gain insights from other people in the study group.
Conclusion
So, this was the success story of Chidimma, now a certified CBAP professional from Nigeria. Regardless of the challenges she faced, Chidimma was determined to gain a business analysis certification, and hence her compassionate personality allowed her to clear the CBAP exam on her first attempt.
Are you looking to crack your CBAP certification on the first attempt too? If so, then explore our CBAP certification training course, where you can deep delve into simulation exams, instructor-led training sessions, and much more.
