Can I clear ISTQB foundation level exam in first attempt?

Most of QA engineers or testers, whatever you would like to call them needs some recognition in the Software quality industry(which is huge by the way) to get a reputed position, role or even a job sometimes.

Hence they seek for a certification that lays the foundation of getting into the mix of elite Test engineers. ISTQB or International Software Testing Qualifications Board is the savior.

ISTQB foundation level certification is a must have certification for anyone who is getting started or has already owns a good amount of experience with testing.

Regardless of being an automation expert or a manual tester, this certification will help you excel in the realm of testing and simultaneously your overall career goals.

Enough with the back and forth of ISTQB applications. What I am going to tell you now is something that I have experimented with myself and was able to clear out the exam in first attempt with only spending 18 hours of studying.

18 hours seems so less if you break them down into number of hours per day however this is how much you require to crack the code.

Let me break down the way I did it:

1. Solve all the mocks present on https://istqb.patshala.com/ Take all question papers. Take tests multiple times.

2. Write down the words that don't look familiar in the mocks say Test harness, Inspection, Oracle assumption etc. and google their meanings and definition.

3. Thoroughly understand the types of both black-box(Boundary value analysis, Equivalence partitioning etc) and white-box testing types(Path, statement and branch coverage).

Mostly all the calculative questions will be covered in point 3.

4. Find answers in questions. Ability to understand a question completely and removing the odd ones out is the most probable and effective trick no one ever will tell you.

5. Finally, the amount of dump papers you will solve, the more you will be confident in your approach.

Above points will somewhat get you to 75% marks which is 30 out of 40 and believe me it is not bad at all.

Also, you can go to ISTQB offical website https://www.istqb.org/ and can get yourself enrolled in an exam by selecting the permissible exam center.