When it comes to preparing for an IT certification, the adage ‘Practice makes perfect‘ makes perfect sense. Practicing, practice, practice is great, but is it sufficient to know if you are truly ready for your certification exam? Customers sometimes ask us which is more important – practicing for a test and simply aiming for a 100% or actually assessing your skill levels. Do you need to be assessed on your practice tests? Some test prep vendors believe practice tests are sufficient. We say they are both important. In fact, they go hand in hand and are invaluable when used together. As you can see, practice tests and assessment reports feed off of each other and together can ensure your exam readiness and success in your certification exam efforts!
Practice Tests:
– Help you understand the format of the certification exam
– Give you a clear idea of what types of questions to expect
– Tells you which answers you got right or wrong
– Provide the correct answers
– May use tools such as Flash cards to reinforce concepts
– Help you focus on specific study material
– Can be customized by time, number of questions or exam objective
– Are typically shorter than full length final exams
– Allow you to retake questions on the practice test
Assessments:
– Tell you how ready you are for your exam at any time
– Can show your progress overall, or by topic
– At the beginning of your preparation, helps provide a clear idea of your strengths and weaknesses for the exam
– Reports after each practice test, show your progress
– Do not provide answers or explanations for incorrect answers
– Can show a historical performance trend
– Help with gap analysis by showing breakdown of performance by category
– Can display comprehensive reports that show performance by practice test or by exam objective
– Help you customize new practice tests based on test results