My CIS-DF Experience

[AnjalPDijo]

Hello Community,

I know I'm a little late in sharing this, but I thought it might help someone preparing for the exam.

The first time I attempted CIS-DF, the free exam slots were available and the deadline was approaching. I wasn't properly prepared. I went through the learning content just a day before the exam and, as expected, I didn't make it.

I booked the exam again the very next week.

This time, I completed the Now Learning course properly and then referred to the various question dumps available online. One of the resources I used was Quizlet, although I referred to several other sources as well.

One thing I noticed was that it was very easy to find lots of practice questions online. Since I wasn't part of the first batch taking the exam, there was already a good amount of content available. However, the challenge was that different websites often provided different answers to the same question.

That's where many people can get trapped.

My advice is: don't blindly trust the answers you see online. I spent time validating each answer and understanding the reason behind it before learning it.

Another thing I noticed was that this exam had 75 questions, unlike the 60 questions I'd previously seen in CSA and CIS-RC. Time management becomes very important because you don't realize how quickly the time passes.

Also, many of the questions were not straightforward. A large number were scenario-based and required you to think through the situation before selecting an answer. These questions can be confusing if you're only memorizing answers.

Because of that, proper learning and understanding of the concepts are much more important than simply going through dumps.

That's all from my experience. Hopefully this helps anyone preparing for the CIS-DF exam.

Best Regards,
Anjal

[Mark Manders]

There were more questions, but you also had more time. And this was all in the Exam Blueprint. Read that before you start preparing, so you know what is expected (that it was more scenario based is also in there).

With the online questions- part, I fully agree. If you decide to use them to gain some 'exam experience', don't just learn question/answer combinations. Make sure you understand why an answer is the correct one, and don't assume that the answer that is marked as correct, really is the correct one. 

I passed in one try, with years of experience on the topic, many hours of studying and running through multiple sets of questions of which I was sure the answers were correct, because if I didn't answer them correct, I searched for the correct answer, instead of assuming what was said. 
Because of the difference between CIS-DF and other CIS/CSA exams, I think some people will be surprised when taking the exam and fail because of that. But it will absolutely help in preparing for the second time.

Just 2 more months and then anyone that wants to keep the CIS-certificates they have, should finish this one (at least the ones that are subject to this prerequisite). I wonder what ServiceNow will come up with after continuous extending of the deadline for the exam, for it being free, etc.