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How to Prepare IT Certification Exams |
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Preparing IT certification exams is a significant undertaking
whether you're just out of college or have been in IT field
for years. IT professionals are continuously demanded to acquire
new knowledge in order to perform well on their jobs as new
technology in IT industry emerged at a pace that has never
been seen before. While tests in colleges emphasizing on measuring
the systematic understanding of theoretic foundation of a
subject, industry certification exams focus on evaluation
of hands-on experience.
Thorough planning before the exams will boost your confidence,
increase chance of success, and save time of preparation in
your certification exams.
1. Assess whether you're ready
To answer the question of whether you're ready to pursue
a particular IT certification - MCSE, MCSA, MCSD, CCIE, CCNA
or CCNE certification, you may want to examine the questions
from the latest certification exams to identify the gap between
what you've known and what you need to know. It's not advisable
to prepare an IT certification exam heavily based on working
on actual certification questions or braindumps, but braindumps
do offer values in preparing your tests. You'll learn the
format of the exams, the scope of the exams and your weakest
link in the subject.
2. Plan when you'll be ready
One certification usually requires the pass of several tests.
Once you've made up your mind about taking the certification
exams, the plan of when to take those tests depends on your
career needs, domain knowledge, hands-on experience, availability
of study materials and availability of your time to prepare
the tests. Besides the official certification guide and reading
materials published by vendors or authorized organizations,
there're numerous other helpful learning materials available
online or in print.
Use of Computer Based Training software is a very effective
way to speed up your IT certification preparation. For instance,
CBT Planet (Computer Based Training Planet) provides IT professionals
comprehensive vendor-co developed self-study IT courses, by
Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, SAP, Linux and more.
3. Prepare the exams step-by-step
a) Briefly scan all chapters of official publications and
make a detailed plan.
b) Study the materials chapter by chapter in details and
take notes.
c) Review your notes and summarize all chapters.
d) Take sample exams
e) Work on your weak spots.
Now, you're ready for your IT certification exams.
Copyright @2005, Bruce Zhang
You have permission to publish this article electronically
free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body
of the article and the bylines are included.
About the Author:
Bruce Zhang has over 10 years of experience in architecting
and developing large-scale Web-based applications, and designing
enterprise strength databases. Computer Based Training has
been a valuable tool for gaining new IT knowledge in his career.
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