Welcome Wednesday: Share your study tips!

[#1]

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I have been studying and preparing to write the ACP-520 certification exam. In fact, I will be writing it a few hours from now. As with a number of the other certification exams I have taken, I have put in a number of evening and weekend hours of preparation.

I know that a number of people are always looking for tips and advice on what they should do to prepare for writing exams and I thought this was a good opportunity for everyone to share some study advice. So my question this week: How do you prepare/study for an exam?

For me, I’m going to list three things that really help me:

1. Read the Exam topics guide! On every exam prep page at university.atlassian.com this guide will give you a complete list of the topics that will be tested and what percentage of the exam they are worth. I would strongly recommend that you ensure you are comfortable with the topics that are worth the most as this will give you a better chance of passing the exam.

2. If the there sample questions, do them! But, be sure to read through the comments as to why the incorrect answers are wrong and why the correct answers are correct. This can really help come the time you are writing the exam about identifying why answers that look close are incorrect.

3. Spin up a test instance. Actually working with the product and features you are going to be tested on in the exam can really help you commit to memory the information you are going to need to remember and recall.

Alright! Those are my tips, what are yours? Let me know in the comments below.

Have a great rest of the week!

[Andy Gladstone]

@Jimmy Seddon first off, good luck on the exam! 

I used to be great at studying, but in the past few years the hamster wheel of work-life-work has really impacted my habits. I don't have anything of current value to share, but will be watching this post for the tips to help get me back on track. 

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

Good luck with the exam Jimmy!

As for some tips and tricks, I'm signing everything you said. It's pretty much the same way I prepared for ACP-520 and for all previous exams. The best part was setting/creating an exam prep instance/site where I could try everything out and work on areas where I might be lacking some knowledge or where I felt insecure about the answers.

As I like to write everything down, I usually have some kind of structure in Confluence for exams where I write stuff from courses or books so I can review it quickly. Something like ACP-520 Exam topics, ACP-520 Exam hints, ACP-520 Sample questions...
I was prepping for the ITIL4 exam a few weeks ago and a good thing was/is to set up a learning path that you'll take - especially if there's much stuff you need to go through or remember. I set myself a daily schedule of which topics/pages I'll go through that day + I've written key info from each topic. It really helped me out at the end; a day or two before the exam.

Anyhow, this 'structure' is pretty cool as it is applicable to almost every exam out there (at least those that I've taken), and it helped out a few of my co-workers while they were preparing for their exam.

[Ivan Lima]

I have a feeling that you're going to do great and add one more accomplishment to your list. While you've covered the important parts, I personally think nothing beats getting your hands dirty and practicing the real thing. Good luck!

[Vanessa Jara]

Exito!

[Mahesh Shinde]

Hi @Jimmy Seddon

I would add one more thing to go through the courses and videos which are created by Atlassian on their University sites. For every exam they have free kind of videos which is really helpful to summaries the topics. 

Regards,

Mahesh Shinde

[Rilwan Ahmed]

I would add one point: Have real time experience before taking up any certifications.

[Summer Hogan]

I don't have much to add here @Jimmy Seddon except for make sure you are hydrated, had a meal or snack before and got plenty of rest the night before. Those are very important. The last thing you want during an exam is your tummy rumbling like Pooh! 

[Manish Verma]

Great tips. All 3 tips are of great importance when it come to Atlassian certifications. I would recommend focusing a lot on syllabus topics of any Atlassian exam and real time practice on test instance. I found Atlassian exams are very tough if I missed to practice on test instances before exams.

[Adriana Hernández (Appfire)]

Hi @Jimmy Seddon

Thank you for sharing these study tips for the Atlassian certification exams. I hope everything went well for you in this one.

Regarding the study tips, I'll say that for me, the best way to study for these exams and retain all of the information is to create a questionnaire for yourself (like a Kahoot, Google Forms, etc.) and write down questions that you feel that are challenging but that you already know the answer or have already played with it in your sandbox.

 Cheers,

Adriana