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