7 tips which should help you gain your MCITP certifications with minimal upsets.

Nothing replaces a good understanding of all tested MCITP topics, but here are 7 tips to give you the best chance of passing during your MCITP exam.

1. Go through the initial practice questions.

These are the sample questions which you have the option of going through at the beginning of each exam. Even if you’ve already been through them on previous exams it is recommended that you run through them again for two reasons, first – there may be new question formats which you are unfamiliar with which could throw you off during the exam and second, it helps gets your brain in to “exam mode” before the exam has started rather than during your first couple of questions (while the time is ticking!)

2. Read each question carefully twice.

Microsoft has a reputation for having misleading questions in which they give you a whole heap of information and detail, but you won’t need half of it to get your answer. If you quickly skim read through the question then answer, more often then not you will make an assumption or overlook vital information you’ve just skim read over and choose the wrong answer. First read each question through once, then understand what they are asking you, read the question for a second time taking note of key information given and finally choose your answer.

3. Skip questions you don’t immediately know the answers to.

A good technique when sitting an MCITP exam is to first only answer questions you definitely know the answer to. The questions which you need more time to decide you answer with, take a note of them on the pen and paper provided to you in the exam and come back to them at the end. This is a good technique as there is no point wasting time and interrupting your positive exam flow on a question you may not know. So go through the whole exam answering all questions you KNOW the answers to, take note of all questions which you need more time on, when you reach the end of the MCITP exam, go back to all the questions you didn’t answer and spend the remainder of your time working through those.

NB, don’t use the skip feature on these questions. On adaptive based exams, it is rumored to have an effect on subsequent questions that you are asked. For instance if you tick “skip” on a question which the topic area you have poor knowledge in, there is a high chance that you will get a higher number of subsequent questions on the same topic.

4. Use the pen and paper provided to you.

There are 3 good times to do so –

• As soon as you get into the exam, you can start writing down notes which are fresh in your head. This may be notes from a topic which you are poor in and was quickly cramming study notes into your head right before the exam.
• Use it to write vital information down from difficult questions so you don’t have to keep re-reading over the question for it. Also use it to draw diagrams which may help you to work out the answers to some questions.
• Noting down questions you will come back to. As explained in the previous tip.

5. Go toilet before the exam.

This is an obvious one but often forgotten if your nervously waiting to get the MCITP exam over with. As soon as you get to the testing centre, go straight to the toilet. There is nothing worse than having to leave your exam while the time is ticking to go toilet. Even worse would be to hold on during your exam which will affect your concentration.

6. Eliminate obvious wrong answers if unsure.

On questions you are unsure of, there are usually one or two answer options given which are quite clearly wrong. Eliminate these incorrect answers first which will help you come to the correct answer through the process of elimination.

7. Use all of your time, don’t leave early.

It is no race to finish in a little amount of time and you’ve been studying hard for this exam so why ruin the final step to certification to save a few minutes? There have been no rumors of time taken affecting your final weighted score so if you’ve been given 60 minutes – use them all. If you finish answering all questions in 30 minutes, use the remaining 30 minutes to go re-read over your answers for obvious mistakes – it could be the difference between a fail and a pass!

There you go – 7 tips which should help you gain your MCITP certifications with minimal upsets.