General Discussion - Test Taking Skills

Author

Test Taking Skills

Psydefx

2002-01-26, 2:34 pm

I was asked a question, and typed a lot to answer it. I thought it may help some people, so... here it is:
Test Taking 101

I have been training for about 5 years, and taking tests during same. I have found the following methods to be helpful:

MS, Oracle, CompTIA (NON-ADAPTIVE)

These tests are maybe where you should start, as they will allow you to accomplish the objective more easily if you feel you aren’t a “super” test taker.

There are three “Rounds” to these tests:

Round 1:
Have brief notes when you start that you can write to yourself right after the test starts. Don’t go crazy, this eats time.
Once started, time for your first pass. On this pass or “round”, you will answer questions that you are 100% sure that your answer is correct. All other questions you will hit the “next” button and move on leaving the question unanswered and unmarked.
When you reach the end, you reach a screen entitled “Item Review”. This screen should have two types of entries, the regular numbers (answered questions) and questions with a red bar that says “Incomplete”. If the red bar questions far outnumber the normal ones, there might be a challenge. This is a quick glance at how you are doing with the test (generally speaking, there is a ratio +/- 15% for items misread, etc.)
Choose the “Review Incomplete” button on the bottom right hand corner of the screen to move to Round 2.
**The fact that you are only answering questions that you know should make this round fairly quick. You should not burn more than 30% or your total test time on this round.

Round 2:
This round you will answer all incomplete questions. ALL QUESTIONS MUST BE ANSWERED, guesses are okay at this point, time is now an apparent factor. Being that you only used 30% of your time for round one, you have engineered it so that you can chew on the more difficult questions. Still, don’t dawdle. If you are still not sure of your answers, there is a “Mark Item” check box in the upper left hand corner for you to choose. Marking an item is NOT answering an item, pick your best guess.

Round 3:
This is a dangerous round, it can make or break you. There is a rule to remember: DON’T CHANGE ANY OF YOUR ANSWERS UNLESS YOU’RE WILLING TO BET A MONTHS PAY THAT THE CHANGE IS CORRECT. This is a very important thing, most of the time people who know the information pick the right answer because their intuition is kicking in… once you second guess yourself… (I had a student for Oracle that missed their test by the one question that he changed – Oracle has a minimum of 30 days between tests for those who fail.) It is also a good habit to get into because of the way some other tests are, see below.
When you’ve made a pass through, click “end test”.
Using all of your time isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Use the time you need, the test time limits us on the “more time”, govern yourself on the “less time”.

Cisco, ADAPTIVE

Prepare well, maybe get some of the others in the above category first to help feel more comfortable. These tests don’t let you go back, answered is answered. When I take them, I don’t expect to pass the first take, and have made it 1st time about 50%. The other thing to know about Cisco is they don’t limit it to multiple choice, there are a great many “fill in the blank” – which have to be exact: “sh run” is not acceptable (as on a real router), you must type, “show running-config”. Lesson, typos kill.

Overall
Stress management and relaxation techniques help in testing, and believing that you can pass is not optional. If you tell yourself that you won’t pass, you may just start believing it.

Hope this helps.

traley

2002-01-26, 4:09 pm

Thanks.
I do appreciate your replying and promptly at that!!!

huntert

2002-01-27, 5:11 am

sh run was a choice when i wrote the exam.
Cisco does whatever it can to trick you, so have all corners covered.

For each exams try to make notes of very important concepts/charts as soon as you sit at the computer and begin your exam.
The process of elimination is such a good deal, stare at each questions and try to reason it out and then make the final choice.
Cisco exams will throw hard questions, but they do sometimes give real lame choices and knowing your technologies will help you out.

The ccda and ccnp,ccdp--ccie are not caring exams and love to fail anyone.

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