The experience was good because a) I had to study, a lot, and b) I had to suffer the stress and indignity of a professional examination. Let me regale with you some detail on that:
- I carried a 40-pound book to and from work for weeks, just so I could read it and study it on the bus
- At the exam, I had to (literally) pull my pockets out to show there were nothing in them
- My glasses were studied for a full 30 seconds for signs of hidden notes
- I got the last testing station in the test room, tenth out of ten computers, right beside the door, which opened about.... one thousand four hundred and fifty times during my 2.5 hours there. Grr.
And it all brought me back to six years ago, when I wrote all of my CRM exams. If you haven't written one recently, yes, the security is a bit tighter still. (It's all in the name of preventing cheating, so I accept it as a given.) That loooooong walk from the computer to the front desk, where they hand you the piece of paper that says either "Pass" or, well, something else. It's a stressful walk.
Any exam stories to tell? Horror stories or glory stories or something in between? Please feel free to respond in the comments.
Wayne Hoff, CRM, IGP
ARMA Calgary ICRM Liaison
Congratulations on passing the IGP exam Wayne!! I can relate to everything you have mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a big difference in how long that walk is depending on how you prepare yourself for exams. After breezing though my first CRM exam, I didn't think that I needed to put much effort in to studying for my next exams and decided to write 3 at once. That lack of preparation was felt immediately through each of those 3 exams and made that walk extremely painful.
For anyone looking to write exams, I strongly recommend that you stay away from the Pearson Vue site at CDI College. I chose this location earlier this year and it was a terrible place to write. It is basically a closet located at main reception, where phone calls and conversations between employees and patrons are a constant distraction. Luckily it didn't affect my test results, but I strongly recommend the Fail Safe location over CDI.
Brad Schaffer, CRA
Congratulations on passing the IGP exam Wayne!! I can relate to everything you have mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a big difference in how long that walk is depending on how you prepare yourself for exams. After breezing though my first CRM exam, I didn't think that I needed to put much effort in to studying for my next exams and decided to write 3 at once. That lack of preparation was felt immediately through each of those 3 exams and made that walk extremely painful.
For anyone looking to write exams, I strongly recommend that you stay away from the Pearson Vue site at CDI College. I chose this location earlier this year and it was a terrible place to write. It is basically a closet located at main reception, where phone calls and conversations between employees and patrons are a constant distraction. Luckily it didn't affect my test results, but I strongly recommend the Fail Safe location over CDI.
Brad Schaffer, CRA
Noises don't distract me too much... But the fact that someone is making noise so inconsiderately drives me crazy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the head's up, Brad - that's good to know. I wrote at the Marlborough test centre and it was a very professional setup. There were 10 computers in the room, but each was in its own carrel and it was well separated from the outside. I my wrote CRM exams at SAIT six years ago - not sure if anything has changed, but I liked Marlborough better.
Just catching up on reading the blog! I think each exam site has it's benefits and downfalls. The walk to get the pass or fail is the longest and sometimes even if you've studied or think you've studied, it may not matter depending on the exam you end up with! I am glad to be finished them for sure! For me part 5 was a challenge and ended up with a rewrite. Best advice I got for part 6 was READ the questions being asked and answer them. Congratulations Wayne on your IGP designation. Not sure I want to carry a 40 pound book on the bus, but....
ReplyDeleteGood advice, Monica... read the question carefully. I can think of a billion times I rechecked the question and realized there was a word or two that skewed the meaning of the question towards a particular answer.
ReplyDelete40 pound books - exercise for both the mind AND the body. :)