Study for your test and you won’t need to guess – Part 3: Practice makes perfect.

Part 2 – Studying outside the MOC

This is the third installment of a three part posting on some of the suggestions that I have on how to prepare for taking a certification test. It is intended for those who are new to the IT environment as well as those that have been in the line of fire for a while and may need to start the certification process or upgrade the certifications that they already have.

In the first couple of installments most of what I wrote was for people who were fairly new to the IT environment, but in this final chapter of the saga I will primarily be talking to those of you who have already taken a few tests and have been in the IT field for a while. That’s not to say that if this is your first exam, what follows is not worth your time, but if you have a deep and varied background on a particular product, this may be all you need to get ready for the exam.
I have taken a number of Microsoft exams since I have been an instructor for New Horizons and have gotten pretty comfortable with the way that the tests are usually laid out. I also feel pretty good about the basics of a Microsoft network and how everything fits together in the network. Because of this when I need to study for a test I usually start by getting one or more practice exams to get my brain back into test taking mode and to find out any of the new features of the product that might be on the test. Just like the classes, practice exams tend to show off the new features of a version change, so they can be very helpful in getting some quick exposure to how things work differently from what you are used to.

Now it is very important to use the practice exams properly to get the most out of them. First off, memorizing the answers of a practice test is not going to help you pass the real exam. Like I keep repeating to you…knowledge of how things work will set you free.

So how does a practice exam show you how things work? Easy, you use the answers that you don’t get right on the practice exam as a starting point to kick start your studies (any answers that I get wrong get plugged into my favorite search engine and I try to find out all that I can about what I got wrong). As you are doing this, make sure that you also get information on any of the other answers that you weren’t familiar with. You never know, the next time you get a similar question, one of the other options may be the correct answer.

Another thing that helps me retain the knowledge that I get from a practice exam is to write down the information that I find. There must be some kind of connection between my brain and my left hand that makes me remember things better if I write them down. Even if this is not true, then at least I have a study guide that I can use to study from whenever I have a few minutes (see part 2 for more clarification).
One more thing before I end this…notice that I haven’t even mentioned braindumps (until now I guess); don’t use them! I am not even going to go into any great detail because Robert Williams' blog does a much better and more complete job than I can…enough said.

So there really isn’t much to getting ready for the exam (yeah, right). Don’t get me wrong there is work involved, but as I hate to fail the exams (and waste the exam fees), a little extra work on my part can lead to all of those certifications that I dream about (I know, I really need to get out more).