Josh More – Starmind Blog

Well, if you got this far, you should have everything that you need to pass your certification with flying colours. Once you have it, take a few weeks to relax (and gloat, if you are so inclined). Then, work on maintaining it and look for your next challenge. Try not to rest on your laurels too much, or someone will pass you up. It's always easier to maintain a lead than to catch up to someone else or a changed industry.

I hope that this helped.

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There are generally two types of tests. Those which you can go back and look at questions once you've answered them (generally paper-based) and those where you cannot (generally practica or "live" tests). Each of these have different strategies to win.

Paper-based
If you are taking a paper test, go through it as fast as you can and answer everything that you KNOW. If you don't know, skip it. You should be done very quickly. Then, go back through the test and look at the ones that you didn't know right away. If it's multiple choice or true/false, find the answers that you KNOW are wrong, and cross those out. You're not actually answering questions at this point, you're just eliminating possibilities. Then, go back through and see if you KNOW any of them now that you've eliminated the ones that were obviously wrong. This also should not take much time.

By this point, most of the test should be answered, and the good news is that these answers are things that you know are correct, and with absolute certainty. Now you get to actually start thinking about the remaining questions. This will be hard, but you have to keep in mind that you have already answered most of the questions right. It's OK if the hard questions are hard, just do the best you can. If you're stuck, try to think of a real-life scenario involving the question and ask what you would do. You can also flip the question around and see what you would do if the situation were reversed. This may make the correct answer more obvious.

If there is an essay component to the test, do NOT just start writing. First, take notes of what you want to say. Then, categorize the notes by putting a letter in front of each key item. Then, within each category, prioritize the importance by putting a number in front of the letter. Then, write an introduction and segue into point 1A. Once you've addressed that, go to 2A, to 3A and all the way until you're done with the As. Then start with 1B. At this point, your essay has become a game of connect the dots, and you can just write until you're done. Don't worry about style, the examiner is looking for correct information, not a brilliant expression of ideas.

Live Tests
As computers advance, these tests are becoming more popular. They allow the test to adjust itself to your level. Sometimes this is used to give you challenging questions, sometimes it's used to drive you into an area that you do not know so well. On tests like this, you have to know the scoring. Keep a mental tally on how you are doing and how much of a penalty you may get by skipping questions. Then, allocate time based on what you need to do the best. It's often better to take more time on each question than on the paper tests, because of how wrong answers can impact the questions that you get later.

Practicum
When taking a practicum, you cannot use strategy to manipulate the test system to your advantage. You either solve the problem or you do not. Luckily, there are often multiple problems to solve, so start with the ones that you know best. However, do NOT assume anything. Do not make any changes that you cannot test. Test before a change and then test after, to make sure that your change did what you think. If you have to restart a service, test after the restart, to make sure that your changes persisted. On many systems, it is easy to forget that some changes only affect the running system and are lost on a reboot. (Cisco is tricky this way.)

Also, use proper diagnostics. Test at the boundaries or interface layers. On modern systems, this is often the TCPIP stack, so use tools like netcat and telnet to ensure that the interfaces are responding properly.

Most systems also come with built-in reference documentation. Whether it is a commented configuration file, the documentation that came with the package, or a man/help page, know where to find the information and verify that you understand what you think you do.

Lastly, at the end of a test or scenario, RETEST everything that you've done. Make SURE that the problem is solved. It's much too easy to break one thing when you're fixing another.

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Once you've prepared, you will do well on the test... unless you do something stupid. Luckily, by this point, you will know that you know enough to pass. You can let the worry go and instead of trying to succeed, you can simply focus on not screwing up. It is much easier just not to screw up. So, let's talk a bit on how to do that:

Dealing With Panic
If you panic, you're likely to do stupid things like skip questions, forget directions and so forth. So, don't panic.

Yeah, like that's going to help.

If you find yourself panicking, take a break and count to 10, slowly. Then, write down on a spare piece of paper what you're panicking about. Odds are that your brain is stuck in a loop, and by getting things down on paper, you can see the loop. Then, find where your thinking is illogical and cross that item out. Go through the loop and eliminate the stupid thoughts. This entire process will feel like it's taking an hour. It's likely taking less than five minutes, so don't worry about the time lost.

If you were panicking, those five minutes wouldn't have been productive anyway.

Protein
If you run out of energy, you'll know. Your thoughts will start to drift and you'll be distracted. You may feel tired. Odds are that you will NOT feel hungry. This is because your body is stupid and doesn't tell you what's going on. Bring protein with you. Peanuts are good, energy bars are good. Candy is BAD. Coffee is BAD. If you start to drift, have a small bite of protein. Keep this up throughout the test. Have a bottle of water to drink too. Keep the cap on (so you don't spill) and take small sips.

After the test, you'll feel weird. That's a sort of protein high, and it'll wear off. The important thing is to keep giving your brain the food and hydration it needs. Your body can be confused for a bit, it's OK.

By the way, the reason to avoid candy (sugar) and coffee (caffeine) is because these give you easy energy. Once the easy energy is used up, your system will crash. Some people try to "ride the high" through a test. However, since crashing affects your thinking, it will impact both the results of the test and your perception as to where you are on the "high". An exam is the wrong time to try to reprogram your brain. Use the protein, it's more stable.

Set Milestones
Every certification test that I know uses time to control the test. Therefore, the clock is your enemy. To win, you must control the clock by figuring out how long you have, and setting milestones. Do not worry about how much time you have until the end of the test, worry about how much time you have for each question, each page, or each task. Then, if you beat time, take a short break (1 minute) to regroup and continue. If you do not beat time, at least you are aware of where you stand.

The milestones that you set will vary by test type.

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Whatever path you are taking towards certification, you will have to study. Many of you probably haven't studied since you were in school (and I suspect that some of you didn't study much then). There are many guides online that teach excellent study habits, so I will just gloss over a few important points.

Test yourself
Test yourself often. Nightly is good, because it fits into a daily review schedule and helps you to focus the next day's studying. If you are on a longer path, weekly testing may work better.

Know what you know
You must be honest with yourself in this process. If you know something cold, stop studying it and stop testing yourself on it. Make a note to test yourself again in a week. If you still know it cold, test again in two weeks (and so on). That way, you know what you know, which leaves you free to focus on what you do not know. It also reduces the "second guessing panic" that can occur on an actual test.

Know what you do not know
Your honesty must extend to what you do not know. The whole point of studying is to learn something, so there is no shame in missing a test question. Just note that you don't know that subject well, and study it more before you test yourself again.

Use T-Notes
Really. They're awesome. Don't remember how to do this? Simply take a piece of paper (preferably lined) and draw a line down the middle. On the left hand side write a topic, and on the right, write notes that relate to the topic. As you go, narrow the topics and notes down to a one to one correspondence. In other words, you want to wind up with something like this:

--------------------------------------------

Why Certify?          | Improve Understanding

Which Certification?  | GIAC

Cost?                 | $3000 / 300 hours

Value?                | High

Study?                | Nightly

Test?                 | Stay Calm

That way, when you are testing yourself, you can cover the right-hand side and run down the column. Every time you get one right, put a mark next to it. Then, after several testing sessions, you will have a good idea what you know and what you do not.

Use Flash-cards
Get index cards, and in one colour, write a question on a side. On the other side, in a different colour, write an answer. Then, when you're testing yourself, you can quickly flip through the deck, putting the ones you got wrong in a separate pile. Once you're done, repeat with the wrong pile. Repeat until the separate pile is gone, then start again with the full deck. Repeat until you can go through the whole deck without missing a single question.

Be sure to shuffle, so you do not get used to a pattern and stop thinking about the actual question. If you get the cards mixed up, use the colours to make sure that they're all oriented correctly.

Break Things
If you are going after a technical certification, break your system (or better yet, have a friend break it for you). NOTHING teaches you how things work like trying to fix them. If you are going for an admin certification, fix a system. If you're going for a programming certification, find an open source project in your language and fix some bugs. That will advance your learning faster than anything else you can do.

Give a Talk
Much like breaking things teaches you how things work, talking about what you know makes you know it better. You can stand in front of people and give a formal talk. You can blog about your learning and have a dialogue with people. You can record yourself and podcast or YouTube yourself. It doesn't matter how, just communicate what you're doing to others and it will very quickly start making more sense to you.

Have a Plan, Do The Plan
Before you start studying, figure out what "success" looks like. For me, it's having 100% accuracy on my flash-cards, problem solving sessions, and T-note tests. Others accept lower success rates. Others prefer to learn X new things. Whatever your "success" is, make sure that you have a plan to get there by the time you take your test. Then, once you have a plan, follow it.

A lot of people have trouble following plans because "life gets in the way". They may play mental games like "I'll skip tonight's session and just do two tomorrow" or "I know this stuff, I don't really have to test myself on it." I'm going to be blunt here. People are lazy. ALL people are lazy. When you find yourself thinking this way, recognize that your lazy self is trying to take over. DON'T LET IT. Every time you think this way, it is a battle, and every time you cave, you lose the battle. Once you have a pattern of losing the battle, you've lost the war.

Know what that makes you? A loser.

Don't be a loser.

Do NOT Cram
Cramming doesn't work. All it does is make it less likely that you will sleep well before you take a test. Have a good dinner. Set several alarm clocks, and go to bed early. If you can't sleep, get up and go for a quick run, then go back to bed. That way, you'll be rested, energized, and alert before you take your test.

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The act of maintain a certification also has associated costs.

Re-testing
Some certifications require you to re-test every so many years (often four). That means that you have to budget for both the test itself and either the time to prepare to take the test or a refresh course. Keep in mind that the more technical the certification, the more things will change between tests. This will affect your prep time estimate or drive the need to go to a prep course. In either case, understand that the value of a second test to maintain your certification ensures that you still know and understand the subject sufficiently to be certified in it. Thus, certifications that require re-testing often maintain their value better than the ones that do not.

Dues
Some certifications require yearly dues to maintain your certified status. This practice helps to maintain the financial solvency of the certifying body. However, it does put you in the position to yearly decide whether the certification is giving you a value equivalent to the cost of the dues. If all the organization is doing for you is taking your money, I would suggest that may not be worth it. Consider any other opportunities that may come your way because of your certified status. Some "member" programs that go with the dues will give you discounts on programs or access to a group of experts. If you are availing yourself of such resources, by all means, pay the dues. However, be sure to think about WHY you're paying the dues instead of just paying them.

Continuing Education
Many certifications have a continuing education requirement. In other words, in order to maintain your certified status, you need to dedicate time and money to continuously educating yourself in your field. This can be a pain, as you must, at the end of every cycle (usually one year) demonstrate that you have been learning. If you are not good with time management, it can produce a rush to complete education before you lose your certification.

You can get around this problem by treating the process like the running of a marathon. Every week, you just make a small step towards your CPE goal, and by the end of the cycle, you should be well ahead of where you need to be. This not only fulfills the requirements, but continuously reinforces the thinking that the initial certification helped you to achieve. Of course, it is important to account for this accurately, but like all habits, this will improve with practice.

The costs of continuing education is governed by you. There are usually options for a variety of budgets, ranging from $10,000 training classes to free podcasts and webinars. Just keep your eye on the prize, and you should be fine.

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