Improving Assessment Performance and Design: Part 5

This post continues our series on the common flaws we've found in assessment tests (and how to exploit those as a test-taker). After we finish describing the common flaws, we'll talk about how to avoid those flaws through better assessment design.

Putting the Pieces Together

Here's the exam-taking approach I'm suggesting, from beginning to end:

1. Get a conceptual understanding of how the software works

2. Learn what features and capabilities are new to the current version of the software

3. Learn best practices for using the software

4. Learn the limits of the software

5. Learn any other details you can about the software

6. Get plenty of rest before the exam. Make sure you are not hungry, thirsty, or unwell during the exam.

7. Read questions backwards. Identify the problem to be solved, then evaluate potential answers and the scenario in light of the problem to be solved.

8. Use the techniques above to identify Distractors and wrong answers.

9. From the remaining answers, choose a best answer using your domain knowledge.

In the next installment of this series, we'll start discussing how to mitigate common assessment design flaws in order to create more effective assessments.

Improving Assessment Performance and Design: Part 4

This post continues our series on the common flaws we've found in assessment tests (and how to exploit those as a test-taker). After we finish describing the common flaws, we'll talk about how to avoid those flaws through better assessment design.

Targeting Your Domain Knowledge Study

Just like you can intelligently analyze test question structure during the exam, you can intelligently target your domain knowledge study while preparing for the exam. Here are my tips for maximizing the effectiveness of your exam preparation:

Tip 1: Focus on Concepts First, Trivia Last

Think of your mind like a closet. Details are like the items in the closet. Concepts are like the hooks and hangars that you hang the details on. Without a conceptual understanding of how a piece of software works, you will lack hooks to support the details about that software. For example, how can you make sense of the details about how a network packet is handled if you don't understand the big picture (the concept) of how packets flow between computers on a network? How can you make sense of the differences between two VPN encrption algorithms if you don't understand the overall VPN setup and data transfer process on a high level?

So make sure you understand the concepts of how a piece of software works first before you focus on details you might be tested on in the certification exam.

Tip 2: Identify Software Deltas

Find out what has changed (the deltas) between the current and previous version of the software you are studying. Exam writers want to make sure that you have current domain knowledge, so they tend to focus a significant percentage (maybe 20% on some exams) of exam questions on new features, procedures, and functionality for the current version of the software. So identify the deltas to the most recent version of the software, and expand your domain knowledge of how to use these new features, procedures, and capabilities.

Tip 3: Identify Software Best Practices

Many test questions test your understanding of software best practices, rather than details about the software itself. Knowing software best practices will help you with questions that have several correct answers, but only one best answer. The best answer will be identified because it adheres to software best practices.

Tip 4: Learn Interfaces and Procedures

Make sure you have seen and used every interface the software offers, and you have configured, used, and re-configured every function it can perform. Make sure you can identify and understand:

• Every feature described on the software's website

• Every menu option

• Every configuration setting

Make sure you get plenty hands-on usage of the software. Setting the software up in a Virtual Machine is often a great way to do this.

Tip 5: Identify Software Limits

Sometimes exam writers run out of good questions to ask, so they resort to trivial questions about the limits of the software in question. "How many widgets can this software support?" "If you install parts A, B, and D of the software, will it make coffee for you or not?" These types of questions focus on:

• What the software can not do

• Built-in limits to what the software can do

As you are preparing for an exam, pay particular attention to details of this nature.

Improving Assessment Performance and Design: Part 3

This post continues our series on the common flaws we've found in assessment tests (and how to exploit those as a test-taker). After we finish describing the common flaws, we'll talk about how to avoid those flaws through better assessment design.

Tip 3: Look for Wrong Answers First

Identifying wrong answers using the techniques I've outlined above is more mechanistic (uses the pattern-matching capabilities of your brain) than choosing the best answer from among 2 or 3 correct answers (which taps the critical-thinking , associative capabilities of your brain). Using critical thought to analyze 4 or 5 answers is more taxing than using critical thought to analyze 2 or 3 answers. So rule out the wrong answers (the Distractors) first, and free up your mental bandwidth for the possible answers that you can't mechanisticaly rule out.

Tip 4: Stay organized.

When you start reverse engineering test questions rather than answering them strictly based on your domain knowledge, you run the risk of losing track of which answers have been ruled out. So take notes if it helps and if note-taking is allowed in the exam format. Often you will be provided with a dry-erase tablet for use during certification exams, and this can be a place to take notes.

Tip 5: Mark Iffy Questions

If the exam format allows you to, mark questions you are uncertain about and come back to review your answer later. It is possible that a later question in the exam will jog your memory and help you answer a previous question you marked. Again, use any note-taking capabilities you are allowed to during the exam to stay organized by jotting down a note about the previous question so that when you review your marked questions, you can utilize that note to revise your previous answer to the marked question.

It's a good idea to allocate about 10% of the total exam time limit to question review.