How were you handling just before you begin your certification exams the next day?

[delete12345]

Currently, I'm about to take an exam for Amazon AWS certifications, and it occurred to me that there are going to be a lot more folks out there who has taken a certification exam in some form or fashion during their careers. It doesn't have to be Amazon AWS certifications, and it could be other types of certifications as well.

I was wondering how folks handle themselves while making preparations for certification exams, other than continue to do practice exams.

EDIT: I posted in wrong forum. But feel free to chime in on your gaming certification exams and preparations, and how extreme you found yourself to be in while binging some games the night before.

EDIT 2: Thanks to the mods.

 

[Deleted member 8752]

I was chilling before my bar exam. I felt almost certain I studied hard enough to pass. Just know - being nervous never ever EVER helps you take exams. Whether you know the information or not by the day of the exam, your attitude should sort of be like "fuck it" if I fail I fail. Then just answer the best you can.



Edit: I'll tell you a story that my friend told me when I was prepping for my bar exam. He knew someone who's brother failed the bar exam four times. Then on the night before the fifth time he took the exam, his brother cracked open a beer, handed it to him and asked him "how do you feel about your test?" The guy said "nervous as hell. I'm definitely going to fail again tomorrow." So his brother said, "great have a beer."

They chilled out, talked about other stuff, and an hour later, his brother cracked open another one, handed it to him and asked the same question "how do you feel about your exam," and his brother said the same thing again "nervous." So the brother responded, "cool, take another swig and let's just take our minds off it."

The night went on. His brother kept chit-chatting with him, and giving him beers in the process. The guy taking the test almost forgot he even had a test the next day.

In fact, he ended up drinking six beers that night and right before he passed out his brother asked him one last time "how do you feel about the test tomorrow?" He replied, "I'm probably too drunk to even take the test tomorrow." Sure enough, the next day, his brother drove him to the test since he was too hung over to drive himself.

You probably already guessed it, but yea, he passed that one. Totally hung over. He was probably just overthinking the other ones.


So my advice is to just not even sweat it. By now, you likely know more than you realize and are very likely to pass.

 

[SlickVic]

I suppose this varies on the type of exam you're taking, but the day before I usually try to review any 'high yield' summaries (usually tables, images, and such) that I may have forgotten from earlier reviewing (or just to reinforce some key concepts). During earlier reviewing/studying I try to make a note of tables and such to review the night before. The challenge is for exams with a bunch of content being tested, there's just a lot of those 'high yield' summaries to review. But I suppose I do as much as I can, and try to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

I try to avoid cramming new stuff the night before (just trying to review what I've already studied essentially), but I'm also not someone who's able to relax/take the day off the day before an exam, so I try to make use of the day before as best I can.

 

[Bladelaw]

Practiced anything I felt weak on till I could answer the questions on reflex. The Practical stuff was never too hard since it usually made sense unless the setup questions were poorly worded.

 

[Joe]

I talk things out in my head a lot. Usually, it's not that I feel I don't know the material, it's that I worry about my ability to synthesize and elaborate on things. So I usually end up pacing around my room, running through imaginary conversations in my head. Imagining possible questions and answering them, or explaining broad concepts from an elementary level, trying to describe things as if I were talking to a layman. Sometimes actually talking out loud, gesturing, practicing the actual speaking. That's usually how I think and organize and synthesize my thoughts. I usually don't stress too much about exams, but job interviews require a similar kind of prep, and that's where I really use those tricks.

 

[Vapelord]

I did 3 while I was training staff in India to get my MCP and MCDST? I think those were Windows 2000 when I did them. They were way cheaper to take there so there was way less stress than here in NA where each test can run around a couple hundred bucks a pop. I just reviewed some exam cram junk off usenet or something back then haha...