Softpanorama Exam Preparation Strategy

1. Find the  best books. The quality of books can make the difference between success and failure. Good books can really increase your chances of passing.
   • If exam includes problem solving skills use  "How To solve it"
   • Use several books, not the only one that is recommended for the course. different books have different strengths and weaknesses and what is well explained on one book can be horribly messed in another. Usage of several book almost guarantee better score just because the difference between explanations of the same topics. A poor recommended book can cost you many frustrating hours spend on figuring out things that are  clearly explained in other books.
   • Look carefully at the content before purchasing either books or courses. See Softpanorama Bookshelf  for some recommendations, but you need to be critical and check books yourself.
   • Do not rely on somebody's else reviews. 
   • If the exam includes programming questions, you might want to review your programming skills. It is essential that you present your answers clearly and logically. And that also require having a good textbook for the language, for example Korn shell.
   • Always use a problem solver supplement to the textbook if such is available.
     
2. Find out as many details about exam in advance as possible. Among simple stupid question that are often missed and negatively influence result one can mention:  
   • How long is it (one hour in not that same exam as six hours ;-) ?
   • What types of questions are on the exam (multiple-choice,  programming problems, etc.)?
   • How many questions?
   • How is the exam scored, and what is the minimum passing score?
   • Can you bring reference materials?
   • Can you bring a programming calculator and are there any limitations on type ?

   Knowing details in advance can help to optimize your behaviors during the exam, and thus improve your chances of success. If calculator is allowed you should pay special attention to maximizing its utility. Search the WEB and find all possible uses for particular problem area.
    

3. Plan to work hard. There is not royal way to mastery. Usually the subject is a pretty difficult and demanding beast.  Always (repeat after me always) try to solve old problems after each chapter in the textbook. Often they are more important that the text of the chapter. Get a second computer or second hard drive and practice installation and other tasks on it.  Even if you have job experience, it may not cover all the test topics adequately.
   
4. Last but not least: read each question carefully! People often lose points simply because they read the question too quickly and misunderstand what is being asked. It seems simple, but people who have sufficient knowledge do sometimes fail examinations for this reason alone.
    
5. Find out what is the procedure used and try to adapt to it in advance. Take trial tests, if possible.
   • Many organizations will provide either practice examinations or copies of older examinations for you to study. Get them whatever it cost. You may choose to take a practice examination even before you begin to prepare for the test. It does not matter whether you pass the practice exam or not, it will give you a "feel" for the type of questions that will appear on the real exam that will dramatically improve your efficiently in preparing for the exam. You will know some of your blind spots.  It can also help you plan your study time more effectively. Try to simulate the conditions of the real examination (such as time limits) when you take the practice exam.
   • It can be extremely valuable to find somebody who already took the test and discuss what was the most difficult part of the test. Please note that you test can be different, especially if you have different professor in the college. But still such information is extremely valuable.
      
6. Develop a simple strategy of  taking the test.  That should not be something too elaborate. But for written tests you usually can take advantage of the order of the questions by not answering them sequentially but using two passes instead.
   • During the first pass you can just mark difficult questions by one of two stars (with most difficult questions getting two stars) and answer as many easy question correctly as possible.
   • During the second pass try to answer difficult questions starting to easier until you run out of time.
   • Don't forget to bring your watch and calculate an estimate how much time you want to spend on each of the remaining questions.
   • Check your progress and how much time left for other questions. May be you underestimated the difficulty of a particular question. 
     
7. Don't exhaust yourself the day before the exam. A good night's rest before the exam will improve your problem solving ability. If you will spend it preparing you can slow yourself down and fail the exam that otherwise you would pass. 
   
8. Join a group.  Finally, if others in your organization are also planning to take a certification exam, start a study group. \
   • A well-organized study group is an excellent way to stay motivated and to make the most of your limited study time.
   • However, it can be frustrating to find yourself in a group of students who need specific technical information that you already have.
   • On the other hand, some preparation courses assume that you have the technical background, and focus on test-taking strategies.
      
9. This short list of suggestions should help you approach your certification examination with confidence.

Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

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Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

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Last modified: March 12, 2019