Studying for SAFe Agilist - how do you actually internalize all the terminology?
I'm two weeks into prep for the SA (Certified SAFe Agilist) and the sheer volume of vocabulary is overwhelming. PI Planning, ART, WSJF, Lean-Agile mindset, the House of Lean - it's a lot to keep straight, especially coming from a traditional Scrum background where the terminology is completely different.
I've done the official 2-day training, which is required before you can sit the exam, and I thought I was keeping up. But when I went back to review the materials the next day a lot had already blurred together. I'm putting in about 2 hours per evening right now with 10 days until my exam date.
For anyone who's passed recently - are the questions mostly recall-based or more application-focused? I've heard it's 45 questions, 90-minute limit, 73% to pass. I just want to know what style of questions to actually expect.
10 days is tight but doable if you already did the training. Focus on PI Planning logistics and the role of the RTE because those are consistently heavy on the exam from what I've seen in study groups.
Passed on my first attempt with a 78%. It's probably 60% application and 40% recall - they want you to understand WHY SAFe does things a certain way, not just memorize definitions. The WSJF prioritization questions caught me off guard because I'd only memorized the formula without practicing with real examples.
Don't just read the Scaled Agile website - draw out the ART diagram and the PI Planning event flow by hand. Physically mapping it helped me remember the sequence of activities way better than rereading the same page three times.
The Lean-Agile mindset section is deceptively heavy. Spend solid time on the House of Lean pillars and the SAFe core values because those show up in subtle ways across multiple question types.
Flashcards worked really well for me - I made about 120 cards covering all key roles and artifacts.