While you might remember some exam questions you think are subjective, and maybe a bit ambiguous, today I wanted to talk about the time pressure issue by drilling down on the most obvious bit of feedback you see when taking the exam: the question counter and the down-timer. While both numbers are completely objective, not all questions require the same amount of time – some typically taking 5 to 10 times longer than a straightforward multichoice question. So, today I’ll talk about some strategies, and we’ll introduce a little data behind my suggestion that getting to 90+ seconds on Wednesday’s example question (http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19364). I promise to make some broader suggestions, and drill down on strategies to improve your time on Wednesday’s sample question, next week.
(By the way, the current survey results from Wednesday’s post, regarding the time to complete a particular question, shows about 30% of those who took the time to click the survey used more than 90 seconds to answer the question, and around 50% more than 60 seconds. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s good to keep in mind if you’re interested in the rest of this post.)
So, let’s take the ICND1 exam as an example. Cisco tells us you get 90 minutes, and that you get 55-65 “questions”. But not all questions are equal. In particular, testlets list one scenario with 4 or 5 multiguess questions associated with the scenario. Simlets also have several multiguess questions, but with a simulator, so to find the answers, you have to do some show commands. So, say you get 60 questions on your ICND1 exam, but that includes one testlet with 5 subquestions, and one simlet with 5 subquestions – each counts as “1” in that 60 question count.
Sim questions also take longer than the other types of questions. Cisco suggests taking no more than 10 minutes on a single sim question. (Also, be aware the grading does give partial credit on Sim questions – so do what you can, and don’t just give up if you know you’re missing something.)
So, one way to deal with the fact that your question count on the exam includes an unknown number of these longer questions, which each count as “1”, is to make some assumptions, and to normalize the math.
For example, say you take the exam, and in the first 10 of your 60 “questions”, you get a testlet with 5 subquestions, a simlet with 5 subquestions, and a sim. You’ve completed 10 of 60 questions, and you’ve spent 30 of your 90 minutes (gulp). To temper that a little, let’s predict what will happen on a typical exam, and then we can deal with it a little:
So, let’s say you predict, just to be safe, that you’ll get 2 sims, one 5-question testlet, and one 5-question simlet, in your 60 questions. That’s probably the worst you’d ever get in terms of taking extra time. For those four questions, you’d consider them to count as 24 multichoice questions (5+5+7+7 in case it wasn’t obvious). So, instead of thinking of the test as having 60 questions, now think of it as having 80 questions. So, you’ve normalize the longer questions relative to the multichoice questions, at least in terms of estimated time consumed. So what’s that mean? You’d get 90/80th minutes per “question” (1:07). For 5-subquestion testlets and simlets, you get 5 times that (5:35), and for each sim you’d get an estimated 7 times that (about 8 minutes). You can certainly take more or less time, that’s just the way the math works out for the estimates.
That was worst case – more realistically, you’d maybe get 3 of the longer questions (say, 1 less Sim question that the last example). If you got 60 questions again, you’d consider it to have 74 questions (counting the 3 longer questions as 5, 5, and 7 questions), with 90/74th minutes per question (about 1:11 per question).
Now, back to Earth for a second. You can’t predict how many of these longer questions that you’ll get, and you won’t know how many you did get until you finish the exam. It’s just as bad to rush and finish 10 minutes early as it is to take too much time and not finish. So, a suggested exam-day strategy that can help:
OK, a lot of words, but in practice it takes a few seconds extra. For example, say your exam was listed as 60 questions. Then, like the earlier time-scary scenario, you got 2 Sims, one 5-question testlet, and one 5-question simlet within the first 10 questions. Once you answer question #12, you see the question counter at 13 (the counter shows the current question number), and the downward-counting timer at 60 minutes (30 minutes gone for an ICND1 exam.). At first glance, it’s 12 questions in 30 minutes, and you’re not gonna finish in time. You know you had some long questions, but you worry about how many more you’ll see. However, with this strategy, you’ll also see +4, +4, +6, and +6 over to the side of your note page, and then consider that with 32 questions in 30 minutes, you’re actually doing very well time-wise. It’ll also remind you that you’ve already had 4 of the longer questions, so you’re probably done with those for the rest of the exam – which can really help reduce your blood pressure.
So, anyone have other suggestions with how you eal with the time pressure on exam day? I’ll spend some space ruminating about it next week, and about how to deal with the time pressure on individual questions, like the one we were pondering in the last few blog entries this week. Have a good weekend!
Odom, CCIE No, 1624, splits time between writing books for Cisco Press and teaching classes for Skyline ATS. In his 25-ish years in the networking industry, he has worked as as a pre-sale and post-sale SE for a few networking vendors, as well as a network engineer implementing network technology. Wendell has spent the majority of the last 15 years teaching, consulting, and writing about networking technologies, most of which in some way relate to Cisco products. His books include titles on QoS, CCIE R/S, as well as several titles related to CCNA certification, including the September 2007 book CCNA Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802) (Read a sneak peek of chapter 7). Click for the list of current titles by Wendell.
The Leader in Network Knowledge
Re: Time Issues
If you can't finish the test in the time alloted, then that's a good indicator that you probably don't know the material well enough, or you don't trust that you know the material well enough.
The key to passing timed tests is to know the material, know how to apply the material, and being efficient in answering questions. Outside of the simlet style questions, you should be getting through the multiple choice questions at a pretty good rate. You shouldn't have to debate in your mind between the different choices for 10-20 seconds on a regular basis. As you read through the possible answers, you should be able to eliminate all or most of the wrong answers. If 2 or 3 answers seem plausible, find the one that is most plausible, select it, and move on. Go with your gut if you have to. Knowing the material well will allow you to find the correct answer quickly or narrow down the plausible answers to only a couple options, and make you more successful when you do have to guess.
The biggest help for me in terms of speed is to just hammer through practice tests over and over. You should get a good feel for how long it takes you to answer questions. Time yourself and see what your average is.
When it comes to the simlet questions, you shouldn't have to keep hitting ? to bring up a list of command options. You should know the commands to do what you need to do. It should be second nature to assign IPs to interfaces, setup routing protocols, etc. When I studied for my CCNA, I really put in time practicing the simlet questions. As a result, I was able to get through them without eating up too much time.
I guess lastly, go in with confidence. This will come from knowing the material well and having put in good time with practice tests. Lack of confidence leads to constantly second guessing yourself and agonizing over questions. These are time killers.
Great Post
That about sums it up in every way possible.
Practice, practice, practice.