Exam Time: Strategies for Success
Video Activity
Join over 3 million cybersecurity professionals advancing their career
Sign up with
Required fields are marked with an *
or
Already have an account? Sign In »
Video Transcription
00:00
>> Exam time. Strategies for success.
00:00
The learning objectives for this lesson
00:00
are choosing the best exam location for
00:00
you and also night before
00:00
an exam day strategies to better help you prepare.
00:00
Let's get started. The best testing location for you.
00:00
It seems pretty straightforward.
00:00
You go online, you purchase your voucher,
00:00
and then you choose a test location.
00:00
But it didn't really work out that way for me,
00:00
when I had my test location for the Cast Plus.
00:00
The place that I took it out ended up being
00:00
a very old place with very old computers.
00:00
They had folding metal chairs
00:00
that were very uncomfortable,
00:00
especially for a three hour exam.
00:00
The problem started as soon as I got there,
00:00
because I couldn't log into the testing software.
00:00
This delayed me for over an hour.
00:00
Even after the test was completed,
00:00
they lost my results.
00:00
I had to contact CompTIA
00:00
directly to make sure that they received
00:00
the results and for
00:00
a while I didn't even know if I had passed.
00:00
It was unnecessary situation
00:00
that had nothing to do with me.
00:00
It was just with the testing location
00:00
that this wasn't even really their main business.
00:00
This is something they had add-on to
00:00
their business to try to generate some income.
00:00
If I were you, try to research
00:00
the testing location that you're hoping to go to
00:00
beforehand and make sure that it's going to be
00:00
a place that you're going to feel
00:00
comfortable taking the exam in.
00:00
This is your exam, find out what works best for you.
00:00
It's your money that you paid for the voucher
00:00
unless your employer took care of that for you.
00:00
But regardless, you want to make
00:00
sure that you put the best foot
00:00
forward for yourself and to
00:00
find a good place that you're going to be comfortable in.
00:00
You don't need that location,
00:00
making things worse for you.
00:00
Just so that you're aware testing at home is now
00:00
an option or even at your office.
00:00
But there are some issues
00:00
with that as well and we'll discuss that next.
00:00
Here's some considerations for
00:00
taking your test at home or at work.
00:00
You're going to want to make sure you have a quiet place
00:00
and that you're free of distractions,
00:00
including your pets, your children,
00:00
your spouses that type of thing.
00:00
You want to make sure that you are
00:00
able to focus on the test itself,
00:00
because that is at least one advantage
00:00
of a testing location is that,
00:00
it's quiet and they usually make you put on
00:00
some headphones so that you
00:00
can't hear anything from the distractions that way.
00:00
You're often sitting in little cubicle areas,
00:00
so at least you're zoned in on
00:00
just the test-taking computer itself.
00:00
But you're going to want to make
00:00
sure that you can at least
00:00
create some of that in
00:00
your location if you're going to be testing at home.
00:00
Because of the way this works,
00:00
they are going to want to use your webcam to scan around
00:00
the room and make sure that
00:00
there's no one there in the room with you.
00:00
There are no study materials anywhere,
00:00
that you don't have a whiteboard somewhere
00:00
with information written on it.
00:00
They're going to have you take your webcam and scan
00:00
across the room and show everything
00:00
before the test starts.
00:00
On that note, you're going to want to make sure that
00:00
your webcam is working before the test.
00:00
You don't want that to cause you
00:00
a delay when it's time to get
00:00
started and now your webcam doesn't work.
00:00
Make sure your webcam and your
00:00
Internet connection are solid,
00:00
and just be ready that they're going to want to
00:00
see the room and everything and they're also
00:00
going to watch you during the entire test.
00:00
If that has a creepy feeling to you,
00:00
maybe you want to go to a testing center.
00:00
But we've seen great success with this,
00:00
especially during the recent pandemic
00:00
with people being able to take tests at home.
00:00
If this works better for you,
00:00
then by all means go after it.
00:00
The idea of a last review,
00:00
in my opinion, and from my experience,
00:00
there are two schools of thought on this.
00:00
Is that you cram all the way up until the night before.
00:00
Everyone's a little different about this.
00:00
Everyone learns in a different way.
00:00
Sometimes too much information
00:00
is actually not beneficial for you.
00:00
If you find yourself cramming up to the very last minute,
00:00
maybe you don't feel you're ready for
00:00
the test and maybe you might want to reschedule it.
00:00
But I do think flashcard reviews
00:00
up until the test is started is good,
00:00
because those terms are going
00:00
to show up over and over on the test,
00:00
especially as acronyms.
00:00
A lot of questions, will have acronyms
00:00
in there and expect you to
00:00
know what they are before you
00:00
can even answer the rest of the question.
00:00
So flashcards are a good way of
00:00
cramming in that information especially again,
00:00
for the areas that you don't feel so comfortable with.
00:00
But there's no shame in rescheduling.
00:00
If you don't feel you're prepared,
00:00
then just go ahead
00:00
and get it done because you don't want to make
00:00
sure that you're not
00:00
going into test as prepared as you could be.
00:00
But at the same time, you don't
00:00
want to let that ability to
00:00
reschedule allow you an excuse to put the test off.
00:00
You've come this far,
00:00
go ahead and get your tests taken.
00:00
If you feel that you're prepared.
00:00
Now, good night sleep and nutrition are critical.
00:00
During that time is when all of
00:00
the things that we reviewed through the day,
00:00
everything we learn is written to our long-term memory.
00:00
It's very important that
00:00
we get a good night sleep before.
00:00
I know I sound like your mom here,
00:00
but I really can't stress this
00:00
enough that you don't want to
00:00
study through the night and not be ready the next day.
00:00
I really recommend getting
00:00
a really good night's sleep ahead of time.
00:00
But also nutrition and this is a critical item
00:00
and I'm not going to lecture you about this
00:00
here on what to eat, what not to eat.
00:00
I'm just going to say make sure that
00:00
you eat before you go in.
00:00
Because testing centers don't
00:00
allow you to eat anything and there's
00:00
nothing worse than being in
00:00
an already high pressure situation,
00:00
and then you start getting hungry.
00:00
Now your focus is on the test,
00:00
no I'm hungry, you run back to the test.
00:00
You don't need that. Make sure that
00:00
you eat something before you go.
00:00
I usually eat a protein bar because that's enough
00:00
to help me get through
00:00
for the next couple of three hours.
00:00
The other thing you're going to do is stay hydrated,
00:00
because the testing center that I mentioned earlier,
00:00
it was really hot in there
00:00
and surprisingly that made things even worse.
00:00
Because of that, I needed to
00:00
make sure that I had enough water to drink.
00:00
I always make sure that I try not to drink too much.
00:00
Because you don't want to go to
00:00
the bathroom too many times,
00:00
but drink enough that you feel comfortable and hydrated,
00:00
because you really don't know what you're going
00:00
into with some of these testing situations.
00:00
Let's summarize. We went over how
00:00
to find the best testing location for you.
00:00
Whether that's a testing center or if you
00:00
should choose to test at home or at work.
00:00
Then if did you make that decision,
00:00
we went over some considerations for testing at home.
00:00
Then we went over final reviews and how to help you use
00:00
techniques to retain the most knowledge before test time.
00:00
Then we ended the lesson with sleep and nutrition.
00:00
That brings us to the end of this lesson,
00:00
but it's also the end of the course.
00:00
I hope this course was helpful for you and I wish you the
00:00
best of luck in your pursuit of a cast plus. Thank you.
Instructed By
