WEBVTT

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 Hi, I'm gonna take a few minutes to
 go through the way that I prepare

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 for Microsoft exams.

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 If you've gone through any of my other
 exam prep videos, then you can

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 probably skip this one because by and
 large it's very similar to what

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 I've done with others.

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 If you have a process you go through
 already, then really you don't need

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 to worry about this one too much.

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 But if you're new to this and you want
 some guidance on ways that work

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 very effectively for me when it comes
 to taking exams, then let's take

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 a look. Really there's only two
 areas, two topics within here.

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 We're gonna talk about study tips and
 I also want to talk about exam tips.

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 So let's go ahead and let's go
 through this a little bit.

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 I'm gonna start out
 with our study tips.

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 Now, the first thing I'm gonna do is
 say you want to have a process when

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 you study. It doesn't really
 matter what the process is.

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 This is my process.

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 First of all, I will track progress
 at the topic detail level.

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 So I'm gonna go into my exam objectives
 and I'm going to actually map

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 out my exam objectives.

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 First thing I do, whether I'm studying
 for a course or if I'm building

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 a learning path for an exam, not a
 course, an exam, I'm gonna take the

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 objectives from Microsoft and
 I'm gonna map them out.

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 I'll just put them in a spreadsheet
 and I break it out so that each of

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 the details, so the kind of lowest
 level of details on a separate line

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 and I use that to
 track my progress.

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 I just put in an X in a column by the
 ones I know, any other kind of notes

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 I need and that's always a guideline
 for me and I recommend that you do

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 the same because it's pretty easy with
 so many different topics to kind

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 of lose where you are and this is just
 a really easy way of making sure

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 that you don't lose where you are.


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 I would also recommend, since you're here,
 using some of our content there,

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 obviously I-NE videos as a primary
 source of study material.

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 Also practice with our I-NE quiz questions
 that are associated with each

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 video. If you want more practice as far
 as taking exam questions and just

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 another source of information, I'd
 suggest taking a look at measure up

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 practice exams. They are the official
 practice exam providers for Microsoft

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 and while they're not what I would consider
 perfect, there is some usefulness

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 to their product.

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 I wouldn't say it's an absolute endorsement
 but if you are going to use

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 that type of tool for preparation and
 you want to buy it, then that's

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 not a bad purchase.

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 Alright, now one of the things I would
 absolutely recommend is when you

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 are doing your own searches for material,
 going beyond just say what we've

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 got in our I-NE videos, try to get all
 your material when you do searches

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 from under docs.marshoff.com.

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 There's really two
 reasons for this.

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 One reason is that they document pretty
 much everything and oftentimes

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 docs.marshoff.com is the source
 of other things on the internet.

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 If you go and do a search and you go
 to a blog post, there's a good chance

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 that blog post is actually just summarizing
 what's already in docs.marshoff

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.com. But more importantly, the source
 material for docs.marshoff.com is

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 the source material for the exams.


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 So you know that you're studying is
 going to be aligned with what's on

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 the exam and that's pretty useful.


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 Next two things with Microsoft, use
 the pricing pages, which sounds a

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 little weird if you're preparing
 for a technical exam.

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 What the pricing pages do really well,
 kind of in coordination with that

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 next item, is they go through particularly
 for services for resources

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 that have pricing tiers, they'll go
 through what the capabilities are

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 for each tier. So for example, if you
 have an app service, you have a

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 web app, right, and that can go anywhere
 from free tier to shared to basic

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 to standard to premium
 to isolated.

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 And it's a good idea to have an idea
 of what's provided each one of those

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 tiers because Microsoft loves asking
 questions that are, you know, how

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 can you provide X, Y, and Z and
 still minimize costs, right?

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 So you'd want to find the lowest price pricing
 tier that has that functionality.

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 And the pricing pages tend to be a great
 place to see a really succinct

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 and efficient display
 of that information.

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 I also definitely encourage you, strongly
 encourage you while you're preparing,

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 while you're studying take notes.

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 This is one of the
 things that I do.

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 I used to fill out spiral bound notebooks
 or frankly anything I could

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 get my hands on.

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 Now I do it pretty much digitally,
 but I do hand write it.

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 I've got a tablet I use and
 I hand write on that.

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 And the reason I tried typing for a
 while, but I didn't seem to really

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 have the same, if you will, mental stickiness
 that right handwriting does.

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 And there's been studies that show
 you that are that show that if you

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 write things down, they tend to be filed
 into your memory more efficiently.

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 And I find that to be the case.

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 I usually don't even have to
 go back and look at my notes.

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 Just the fact that I took
 them is extremely helpful.

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 And I cannot say enough that
 you need to practice.

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 You need to get your hands on.

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 You need to go through, perform tasks
 that are associated with the videos,

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 with the courses that
 you're taking at IME.

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 Go out, find other ways to
 get your hands on this.

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 There are lots of
 sources out there.

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 But you know, and
 go beyond, right?

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 So if you're going through one of the
 tasks associated with the course

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 in IME, finish up the task,
 do something else with it.

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 Go beyond it. Get your hands on.

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 Become familiar with really the operations
 of whatever it is that you

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 want to do. All right, or that you're
 studying would probably be a little

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 less vague. All right,
 now exam tips.

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 What are some things that I recommend
 as far as what you should do while

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 taking the exam?

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 First and foremost, I recommend
 that you manage your time.

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 All right, as I said, personally, I was
 not rushed on this exam, but what

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 you never want to do is end up spending
 15 minutes on one question.

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 Right, what I always do at the outset
 of the exam, it'll tell you exactly

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 how many questions there are, and it'll
 tell you how much time you have.

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 Do a quick little bit of math and figure
 out roughly how much time you

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 could spend on each question.

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 And it doesn't mean that, you know, let's
 say I said I spent four minutes

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 on each question.

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 Once I have a four minutes,
 I just skip and go ahead.

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 But you know, again, if you're spending,
 if you know you can spend about

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 four minutes and you're routinely spending
 about six minutes on a question,

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 then you need to adjust
 your timing strategy.

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 Also read the questions and
 the answers carefully.

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 Microsoft exams tend to
 try to trip you up.

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 They tend to be a
 little bit tricky.

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 And that's just a way to make sure
 that, you know, you are not missing

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 any key words, things like least administrative
 effort, things like most

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 cost effective or lowest cost, things
 like the word not, right, which

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 sounds kind of silly, but, you know,
 definitely could change your answer

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 there. Also, now when you get down
 to that, so this is, those are kind

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 of my general, how do you
 go about the process?

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 Now let's say you go to a question
 and you're not 100% sure.

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 One of the things that I always do, actually,
 even for the questions where

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 I know the answer, I always want
 to eliminate the wrong answers.

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 And the reason for this, and this has
 saved me more than one time, I'll

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 read the question, I'll like just hone
 in on one answer and say, okay,

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 that's the right answer.

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 Now, I'll take a step back and say, well,
 let me make sure I can eliminate

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 all the other ones, right.

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 And let's say there's five possibilities,
 I need to choose one, I eliminate

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 three of them, but then there's two
 of them that are pretty close.

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 Maybe it is the one that I chose, but
 then I get, I have to look back

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 at the question to, oh, wait a minute,
 here's the detail because I didn't

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 read it carefully enough to
 actually this other answer.

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 Okay. So that's something
 to be aware of.

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 Now, if you do not know the answer to
 a question, if you've gone through,

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 you've read the question carefully,
 you've eliminated the wrong answers

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 and you still don't
 have a right answer.

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 A trick that I use is I choose answer
 that makes Microsoft look the best.

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 Okay. Now that's not always
 going to work, right.

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 But again, you know, you remember who's
 creating the exams, these are

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 people that like myself make their livelihood
 off, Microsoft are probably

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 pretty favorable towards it.

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 So just, you know, get yourself in the
 head of the person that's creating

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 the exam and think about,
 okay, how would I do this?

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 You know, if I were the person writing
 this exam, and again, I'm not sure

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 what the answer is, let me pick the
 one that they're most likely to have

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 as the answer. All right.

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 And finally, don't freak out.

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 I have, I do not believe ever gotten
 a perfect score on a Microsoft exam.

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 So you don't need to.

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 I've gotten good scores, gotten close,
 but I don't think I've ever gotten

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 a perfect one. And, you know, anyone
 who gets perfect scores on Microsoft

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 exams either has just studied way
 too much or got very lucky.

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 Okay. You're going to
 miss some questions.

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 And that's fine.

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 I've had questions where our exams were
 the first three questions honestly

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 came completely out
 of left field on me.

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 And meaning that's an idiom that basically
 means I had no idea where the

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 question came from.

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 And so it was pretty, that can be pretty
 disheartening, but you have to

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 just go past that, get to the first
 question that you know, and just go

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 from there. I know people that have,
 you know, gone and had the same thing

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 happen, and they felt
 the exam, right?

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 They just gave up at three, you know,
 first few questions they didn't

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 know the answer to weren't sure completely
 shattered their confidence.

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 And they just absolutely gave up.

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 You're not going to get
 all the questions right.

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 That means you're going
 to get some wrong.

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 That means there's
 going to be some.

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 You don't have any idea where
 that question came from.

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 And that's okay.

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 You're also going to get some questions
 that are exceedingly easy for

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 you to answer. Awesome.

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 It balances out.

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 But again, you know, a couple
 things with that.

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 Don't freak out.

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 Don't take forever.

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 Don't let it shatter
 your confidence.

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 And there is no penalty
 for guessing, right?

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 So you know, look, if you're on a question,
 don't spend 15 minutes trying

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 to noodle out a question.

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 Guess it. Move on.

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 If there's time within a section, usually
 they let you go back within

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 sections. They being,
 of course, Microsoft.

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 If there's time within a section to
 go back, you know, okay, go take a

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 quick look at it.

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 But otherwise just move on.

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 Guess it. You never know.

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 All right. So that those are really
 the approaches that I take for both

0:11:31.080000 --> 0:11:34.400000
 studying and sitting
 the exam itself.

0:11:34.400000 --> 0:11:37.840000
 Again, my recommendation to you
 is to have a process for both.

0:11:37.840000 --> 0:11:39.920000
 They don't have to be the
 same process as mine.

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 Mine is something that's worked for me
 for over 25 years, very successfully.

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 And I just wanted to share
 it with you in this video.