Today I did my exam for the combined TOGAF 9.1 Foundation and Certified course. This is the first time in about 20 years that I've done an exam, so I wasn't sure what to expect, either of the experience or of myself.

There were lots of details on the internet about what would happen during my test. Things, such as:

• You won't be allowed in the test room until we've metal detected you
• Arrive half an hour early because it takes five minutes to book you in
• You'll have to leave all your stuff in a locker

The first one wasn't true. I was asked to empty my pockets of everything and put them in a locker, but I had to keep my ID (driving licence) with me and the key for the locker. The test room held about eight PCs with dividers between them, and was fairly quiet to work in. I had to stop myself from talking to myself as I did during revision, there were other people in there taking other exams.

I arrived 30 minutes early as requested, and the receptionist told me to go sit in the break room and come back five minutes before my allotted time. Bah!

I then read and signed lots of paper, was given two wipe clean boards and a pen to write on if I wanted to make notes (I never did) and was taken into the testing room.

The receptionist suggested I did the sample test to understand the testing system. It did help a little, but once I got into the TOGAF test the format and colour scheme was completely different. The functions were the same, thankfully! The sample test also introduced me to different kinds of answer, ones I didn't have in my test, like marking multiple answers or typing text to answer.

I was hoping I'd have a gap between the two exams so I could stretch my legs and use the facilities, but that didn't happen. I completed the first test in about 40 minutes, which left 20 mins on the clock. I was expecting the mark for the first section to be displayed, but the system just launched straight into the Certified test, with a new timer countdown of 90 minutes. I think I had 20 mins left on this one too, at the end.

I spent time going back through my answers on the first exam, and making sure I was happy with them. The second exam was more wordy, and I quickly decided it wasn't worth reviewing my answers here. It made sense just to answer them as best I could then move on.

The second exam was open book, and so I could refer to the TOGAF spec. This was provided as a PDF, in a normal PDF reader, so I could search it and use links to navigate as expected.

At the end, the system shows you the mark you got for the two parts of the test, and thankfully I passed! I then left the room and was presented with a piece of paper with my marks printed on it.