ISTQB? Check. ITIL? Check

I am now ISTQB and ITIL foundation certified, and got an observation about these certifications. In both cases I studied and took the exam with people that are new to the field of IT and software testing. I saw that for the experienced pros, the study was focused on agreeing on words and terms to describe processes and objects they work with daily. These falks had a rather easy time when preparing and in the exam itself.

The other part of the crowd were inexperienced and tried to learn the glossaries by-heart, to memorize them the best they can for the exam. Some of them didn't manage to do so. I believe that learning glossaries by-heart, without an experience base to tie the concepts to is futile.

The test itself was hard for non-English speakers. It is a time-limited multiple-choice test, filled with semi-tricky questions. I happen to be quite good at this sort of tests, but others were dissapointed and said the ITIL test was "nasty".

Bottom-line: in the future, I will recommend 2 things to my team members and collegues:
1) go do the certification when you have enough experience to make it valuable
2) arrange study groups - this way you can share experience with others and enjoy the company while learning for the exams

P.S.
The ISTQB certification comes framed in a nice glass frame, looking very professional - a lot more "impressive" than the academic degree that took me years to complete. Feels more like PR than a certificate of acheivement...