The ITIL 3 MALC Certification is only accessible once you get 17 points minimum, meaning that you already got the ITIL Foundation Certification and some modules of the ITIL 3 Service Lifecycle and/or ITIL 3 Service Capability. Since 2019, this certification is not available for ITIL 4, only if you are coursing the ITIL V3.

It is the last step to be ITIL Expert which will open you the door to become an ITIL Master in IT Service Management. The ITIL MALC Certification concentrates on the management side of ITIL, from the perspective of planning, implementation, strategic change and risk management.

To pass the exam, you will also need to be accredited to a certified training center meaning that you can’t study by yourself. The certification price is around 274 euros + the cost of a certified training center. Normally, most of centers include in their price the certification so you only pay a full package (course + certification).

The exam is made of 10 questions with multiple choice answers based on a scenario (1 question with 4 answersbased on a scenario) and you have only 2h. The best answer gives you 5 points, the second 3 points, the third 1 point and the bad answer 0 point. You need to have 35 points (70%) to be certified.

Following the exam content:

• Key concepts of the service lifecycle
• Communication and stakeholder management
• Integrating service management processes across the service lifecycle
• Managing services across the service lifecycle
• Governance and organization
• Measurement
• Implementing and improving service management capability

Once you get the certification, you will get automatically the ITIL Expert Certification, meaning that you are ITIL Expert but for the ITIL 4, the ITIL Expert disappears so to have the equivalent, you need to pass a transition module to get the ITIL Managing Professional Certification.

For my study, I also bought the book “Passing your ITIL Managing Across the Lifecycle Exam Book” (about 40 euros) at the Axelos website.

First of all, before to start to study, what I did was to download some free exam samples at the Axelos website or just clicking ITIL V3 MALC sample exam and I did them, just to know how would be my score with only my experience and my knowledge, by this way, getting the minimum points or higher, it made me more confident but it didn’t mean that I was ready to pass the real exam.

After that, I started my course with the training center. It was an online video course so I was able to study it everywhere and whenever I wanted. Once I finished the course, I made the sample exams provided by the center. It took me something like 2 half days.

Then I read the book, once finished, I made the sample exams and others that I was able to find for free on internet. It took me something like 1 day.

Then I rested until the next Monday and I restarted again my routine. I was doing that until I felt ready for the real exam. The exam I did it at home with APMG International (in partnership with my training center). It was through a video surveillance, I mean there was a guy watching me during the full exam via my laptop camera so no way to cheat but before, the guy took control of my computer checking if all are OK, asking my passport to make sure that I was me, asking me to use a mirror (because my camera is integrated to my laptop) in order to show him that there were nothing on my keyboard and on the screen borders and to show him 360º my room. Currently, there is only 1 official exam center for all ITIL certifications who is PeopleCert.

Once all are OK, I started my exam, I finished before the limited time, with enough time left to re-read everything and to check again my answers. Unfortunately, I didn’t get it and since the ITIL 4 Managing Professional Certification is coming soon at the middle of 2019, I will wait because, as said earlier, it is the new ITIL Expert.

My advices:

• This certification is very focused on the ITIL Continual Service Improvement (ITILCSI) and ITIL Service Strategy (ITILSS) so you can use the sample exams of this ITIL Service Lifecycle module to prepare you
• Doing the sample exams, if you choose the wrong answer, read the explanation of your answer and the one of the right answer, take a time to understand why you are wrong (some free samples don’t explain anything so it will take you a little effort)
• Practicing the sample exams is very important, it will provide you some useful tips to avoid some tricks
• Make sure that you feel ready to take the exam, even if you have to take in 1 year !!! (hope not)
• During the exam, if you are not sure about the answer, skip it, you will have time to come back

The ITIL Managing Across The Lifecycle is only available for the ITIL V3 so if you are coursing for the ITIL 4, this certification doesn’t exist so you will have to take the ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition module, so why get certified ? For that, check my other topic ITIL 4, the new ITIL for 2019.