Tuesday, August 12, 2008

CBIP preparation - my experience

Recently took 2 papers of CBIP. CBIP is Certified Business Intelligence Professional. You can specialize in a number of streams - details here but you have to take 2 main papers - Core exam and Data warehousing.

Core exam is about general IT fundaes - software engineering, hardware, program management, processes, system design etc.
Data warehousing about the basics of data warehousing which any BI professional would be expected to know.

Though I was relatively free and had loads of time for preparation, let me tell you it is extremely hard to prepare. One, because the scope is vast. You are not expected to deep dive, but cover a lot of different areas and topics. There is lot of stuff that you would obviously know, but then there would be some basic terminology that you might have forgotten or never come across due to the nature of your work. eg. RAID (in networking), SDRAM, Gantt chart etc. So, you do have to ensure you cover all those subject areas and atleast get a basic understanding of these terminologies. But again, due to the questions being multiple choice and mostly of the nature, "What is XYZ NOT used for?", you just can't rely on the basic understanding but actually have to go into the details as well. Thats why I am in a major confused state during the preparation - to skim over to cover all the topics or get into the details to ensure you can trick those trick questions.

Overall, I would rate the tests as tough. It will be difficult to pass without ANY preparation, even though you might be top of the class IT and BI professional. With a week's preparation, it is easy to pass, though to get the MASTERY level (70%) in each test, 2 week full time preparation is mandatory.

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24 comments:

Anonymous said...

thank you for sharing
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Anonymous said...

thank you

Anonymous said...

thank you for sharing
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Unknown said...

Congrats Abhi for passing this one!
I would want to know the Industry acceptance or popularity for CBIP certification. Is it as popular of recognized as PMP,CISA,CSQA, etc?

Thanks in advance!

Abhi T said...

Dhananjay,
For CBIP no class-room training is required. Just course ware which contains syllabus, study references and sample tests.

CBIP is conducted together by TDWI (the data warehouse institute) and ICCP - Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals. As you might be aware, both are extremely reputed organizations in their own right.

It is only platform neutral BI/DWH certification that I know of and well recognized within the BI circles. Also, you have the choice of different specializations (I chose data analysis and design); people can choose the specialities acc to their experience.
http://www.tdwi.org/Certification/CBIP/display.aspx?id=7291

I think it can be looked as DWH domain technical equivalent of PMP

Let me know if you need any more info.

Xena said...

hi,

Is this exam available in India. Which are the centers ? do you have to pay only in $ or if in India , INR allowed ?

Bhuvana

Abhi T said...

I don't think there are any exam centers in India. I gave the exam in UK and even here there are no centers. it doesn't matter. If you have internet with decent speed, a webcam and mic, then the exams are remote supervised by the CBIP proctors.

Pay by international credit/debit card - the currency is taken care of. You might be charged a commission by the bank - check on that.

Anonymous said...

Hi Abhi, first of all congrats, a bit late.

I am wondering if you can share the literature list, which you have used to prepare the Core and DWH exams.

Email: william2888@hotmail.com

Thanks

Anonymous said...

thanks.

Yash Badiani said...

Hi Abhi,

I want to give the CBIP exam. Can you share the list of books you referred? Also, if possible can you share whatever you have in electronic form for the two common exams?

Let me know. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Yash

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing. Can you tell me what books did you use to prepare for these exams?

Abhi T said...

The courseware book sent by TDWI is useful. It has references to other books. Buy or hire the books from the library.
the courseware costs about £25 I think

Pedro said...

Very good and informative blog!
Unfortunately I found it after teh exams.

I made and passed in four exams last week. I hope in my blog during the next week to include a post related to all main material that you should read. More detais about my CBIP experience and other BI subjects could be found at http://www.pedrocgd.blogspot.com
Regards,
Pedro

Anonymous said...

Nice brief and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Gratefulness you as your information.

Sriram Iyer said...

Hi Abhi ,

It's been about a month that I am trying to figure out of taking the TDWI CERTIFICATION. I came across a lot of stuff on just the examination patterns but nothing relating to the course-ware.
I'm planning to take the Business Analytics - specialization apart from the other Two Mandatory Exams.
I have few queries relating to it;

1. What would be the total cost that will occur if i want to give it from India.
2. Apart for the TDWI course material do you have any electronic material for the preparation.What would be the general topics related to these test.
3. Will the course material given by TDWI suffice the preparation.
4.I have a few other queries which would be very specific to my area which i would like to ask but not through the public medium; so could you please share me with u mail id so that i can sum it up and send it across.

Thanks.

Abhi T said...

1. What would be the total cost that will occur if i want to give it from India.
Response - Not sure. I gave a while ago and also from UK. You should get the fees info online
2. Apart for the TDWI course material do you have any electronic material for the preparation.What would be the general topics related to these test.
Response - Buy the study guide. Go through references from the guide.
Course is vast, so borrow the top books suggested from the library.

3. Will the course material given by TDWI suffice the preparation.
Response - No, you need to read through the reference book.

4.I have a few other queries which would be very specific to my area which i would like to ask but not through the public medium; so could you please share me with u mail id so that i can sum it up and send it across.

Response - Mail me at atoras@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Hi Abhi,

Congrats on ur certification, can you please email me the reference books for preparation.

Appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Abhinav

Unknown said...

Hi Abhi,

Can you please email me the reference material sources/books that you used for preparation, that will be of a great help.

Thanks,
Abhi

Pedro said...

Dear friends,
I got the the CBIP certification. Some suggestions can be found in my blog:
http://pedrocgd.blogspot.pt/2012/04/bi-certifications-cbip-material-for.html
Regards,
Pedro

Syed Asif Tanveer said...

Hi,

Can you share the courseware or the list of books or material required for the preparation.

Thanks

response mail: syedasiftanveer@gmail.com

Syed Asif Tanveer said...

Hi,

Can you share the courseware or the list of books or material required for the preparation.

Thanks

response mail: syedasiftanveer@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Hi Abhinash Thanks for your valuable information on CBIP. Could you please mention about the reference books which we need to go through for the exam. Kindly email me the details to bimala_mishra@yahoo.com

Satyajeet said...

Hi

I am working as an ETL tester from last 5 yrs. How this certification will help me out?Where can i get this Syllabus?

Satyajeet said...

Hi

I am working as an ETL tester from last 5 yrs. How this certification will help me out?Where can i get this Syllabus?