Studying for the exam, what group do you fall into?

Taking certification exams is simply part of the fun of being a Microsoft technical instructor, but it doesn’t mean that it has in any way became an enjoyable process. As an instructor and a mentor I come in contact with a number of students that are preparing to take their exams; some of these students study very hard for a week or two and others study the same material for a month or so. I was wondering what the ‘optimal’ time to study for a test is. Is there some magical formula that can be used to determine when someone is ready to take the plunge, or conversely, can the same formula tell someone when more study time is in order?

I can’t tell you about any divine epiphany that will tell you when you are ready, but I can tell you about some observations that I have made over the years. First let me describe the person that takes a lot of time before they take the test. Some students (and instructors too for that matter) will study endlessly for a particular exam; they will want to know every nuance possible about the product they are certifying on. Now I am not saying that this is particularly a bad thing, but I have never seen a test that is going to ask, “How many milliamps are generated when the ‘Enter’ button is pressed?” not even on the most rabid A+ exam would you get anything like that. What generally happens with people that try to absorb everything is that their brains get full of all of the trivial stuff and they lose sight of how the big picture is supposed to work. They tend to second guess themselves a lot when they are taking the exam because they actually know too much.

The next group of studiers that I have run across are those the study a little here, take a break for a week or two, do a little more studying, take a break and so on. I am fully aware that studying is absolutely no fun, but like learning a new language, I think that you have to stay at it so that the concepts start to sink in. I think that this is most prevalent in programming (talk about learning a new language). I see students come into the intro to programming class and learn the basics of a language pretty well. Then they don’t come back for the second class for about a month or two and in the mean time, they don’t get a chance to practice what they already have learned. Not a good recipe for the retention of knowledge. The same sort of idea also applies to taking an exam; if you are not immersed in the technology on a day to day basis then it is very easy to forget what you have already learned.

The final group of test takers contains those who have the luxury of being able to devote a few days to doing nothing but studying for the exam. Most of the people that fall into this group are those that have taken a few testes before and know just what they need to pass an exam. Many times the people in this group will use some kind of practice test as their main form of study. They are looking for the concepts that the practice test vendor thinks is important for them to know and hammers them on the practice test.

I have seen people from all of these groups do both well and poorly on the actual exam, but for the most part, those that study hard for a few days and then immediately take the exam tend to do the best and get passing scores. However you approach your studying just remember; when you sit down at the exam computer, take a deep breath and just relax…exams can sense fear.