This is a memo about passing the Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination at lightning speed as a high school student. This article was originally posted on Qiita.

More Precisely: 25h for Applied + 2h for Fundamental

Originally, I was taking the Applied Information Technology Engineer Examination, but I completely underestimated it, and my self-scored morning section was 55%, so I hurriedly switched to the Fundamental exam. About 25 hours for Applied and 2 hours for Fundamental, totaling 27 hours.

The Afternoon B Section is Manageable If You’ve Done Algorithms

I’m a high school senior, not a programmer, but I’ve been making games for about two years using Blueprints (a node-based version of C++) in Unreal Engine. So I had decent exposure to algorithms. And I got cocky thinking “I can do this without studying”, but I barely managed with 635 points.

The Morning A Section Doesn’t Overlap Much with Applied

This might have been coincidental, but there wasn’t much overlap. The Applied exam had quite a few problems at the end that you could solve with just calculation and reasoning without specific knowledge, but the Fundamental exam felt more knowledge-heavy. Conversely, if you study properly with enough time, you should pass normally. Also, Applied has more humanities-oriented content, while Fundamental is more IT-focused. Score: 605/1000 points Phew, that was close!

Study Method the Day Before

I only studied for the Fundamental exam the day before. I watched YouTube videos in a playlist at double speed while reading manga. This was enough for the A section.

Conclusion: Study Well in Advance

I didn’t know CBT shows your score immediately after finishing, and when I pressed the end button, my score suddenly appeared and my heart skipped a beat. Study and prepare with plenty of time. By the way, you can normally skip the breaks.