Many of my students haven’t taken an exam since high school or college, so they’re naturally a bit nervous about it. Here are a few tips and tricks for passing the exam.
- First off, get a good night’s sleep the night before. This will help you more than the extra hour of cramming.
- If you’re taking a paper-based exam in a classroom, you can write on your question packet. Underline keywords (especially words like “not” and “incorrect.”)
- If you’re taking a computer-based exam, you’ll automatically have an extra five minutes added to your exam session to account for network latency, etc.
- Read each question carefully. Even if you see a keyword, read the question and all answers completely to make sure there isn’t a better answer
- Acronyms will be spelled out for you, so don’t have to memorize what ITIL’s acronym alphabet soup stands for
- Expect there to be about three super-hard questions on every exam; don’t get psyched out. Just skip and go back if you can’t answer a question, and don’t forget to use the process of elimination!
- Be suspicious of absolutes, e.g, “always,” “guarantees,” “never,” etc.
- Read questions carefully: Don’t miss the word “not.” It may not always be capitalized or emphasized.
- For testing purposes, always take the pure ITIL approach; do not think about how you’d approach the question in your own organization.
Take your time. You have an hour.
If you’d like more tips and tricks, check out my posts that fall under the “Exam Tips” category in the right-hand column.
