Biggest test that you studied for

I am currently studying for a rather competitive promotional exam. Approx. 600 will take the test, only the top 60 pass and realistically about only 15 will be promoted.
There is approx. 2,000 pages of material for the closed book portion and an additional 2,000 pages of material for the open book portion. The test is about six months away. It's only given every two years, so if I don't make the cut, it will be two more years before I can retake it.

I know that we have some highly educated people here, who have studied for exams with volumes of material.

My questions are:
What kind of test did you study for ?
What study methods did you fiind useful or useless ?
Any tips, hints or suggestions for tackling this mountain of material ?

TIA (I guess I better get to studying now )

If possible, I would get samples of previous exams and use them as a guide for both the information that they are testing and the STYLE of the questions.

Although there may be 4,000 pages in the body of knowledge, it contains a few major concepts that will always be on every exam. Figure out the major concepts and make sure that you understand them. Then worry about the minutia.

Just my humble advice. YMMV

Doctoral prelims

Read, read, read - discuss with peers, do "mock" tests, read some more, practice explaining things

Split it into smaller chunks, by topics, select the most relevant stuff and make sure you understand it.

Took approx 6 months of studying, every day (not all day, but every) - passed with flying colors.

Can you mention the subject matter?

Lightmeup said:

Can you mention the subject matter?

Click to expand...

Police Administration.
Specifically for the position of Lieutenant.
I was lucky and passed the Sergeant's test without studying. That doesn't happen with this test.

My most productive method to prepare for an exam was cheat notes. By the time you get them into a form factor small enough to actually use, you don't need them any more because you've learned the material through sheer repetition, and by spending so much time trying to figure out the really important stuff to cram into the cheat notes.

I never did use any cheat notes, but I found them to be a most effective study technique.

I took the MCAT and found the most efficient method for me was the "mock test". I also suggest taking breaks at regular intervals and getting enough sleep between readings.

Good Luck!

CPA exam. I bought study guides that had hundreds of sample test questions in them. I'd spend about two hours almost every night for about a month or two going over questions and checking answers.

Once, in my third quarter of Calculus, I was totally lost and needed a couple days of solid work to get myself back into it.

Other than that, I have rarely studied. I studied for about 15 minutes for my SATs (1400) and not at all for my Spanish AP test (5). I might review a few pages of a math textbook, and I looked over the review questions my geology teacher sent out to everyone (such a cool teacher, by the way), but other than that, studying hasn't been my thing.

I've thought for several years that studying is intrinsically absurd. If someone has been learning a subject, why would they need to learn it again a few days before a test? If you need to study, you probably didn't learn it well enough the first time. In real life, you usually can't study - you just have to know what you're doing. This has actually helped me relax for tests, because I figure that if I actually deserve a good score, I'll probably get one.

I guess I'm odd.

I had a pretty tough urine test the other day :laughing:

I started to say preparing for my thesis defense, but to be honest by the time I finished my thesis, I didn't need to study, I really couldn't think of much else. I never studied for the GRE, I think I got a 1230 or something like that on it.

My biggest test was when I tried out to become a New York Stripper; I'll tell you, I made Chris Farley look good.

..didn't get the job though.. :laughing:





(..but that then led to the oppurtunity to become a New York State Trooper.. ) :lolsign:

Driver's License Test.

ditto to GreenLED..

CCNA. Back a few years ago when it actually meant something.
Only because I was working for a poorly managed consulting company who labeled me as a pc tech so they could pay me 1/2 of what I was worth and after I finally got my first review after 3 years of working my hind off for them they said I wasn't qualified for a system admin title because I didn't have any certifications. Well their highest cert they recognized was the CCNA so I bought a couple books and studied and passed it a couple months later, then asked for another review and they said I still wasn't qualified as a admin because I just got the cert. And of course I wasn't eligible for the certification bonus for it either since they had just given me a raise when I had my first, second, and third year review all at once. During this three years I was doing sysadmin work for all their customers, one of their largest and best customers said their DR plan was to call Eugene because I always came through for them. They were my first production Windows 2000 Active Directory install. They were giving me the title.salary info from Robert Half's (large nation wide consulting/contracting company) Salary guide so I went out and sent a resume to Robert Half and less than 6 months later had a sysadmin job with them and a between 1-2 years later I was making double what I was when that company labeled me a PC tech. now I work for one of the largest IT shops in the city and am just waiting for the day when I get to see a bid from that company on something

I don't really study. I'm one of the people that either get it or don't. If I didn't understand it the first time you said it, I wont understand after you've spent 4 hours explaining it to me.

I took Algebra 2 last year. At the end of the year our teacher said here's the college algebra final from ___ (Yale, Harvard, MIT ect) used ___ (5-10) years ago. It's worth 5% of your grade. If you pass this you've learned everything you need to know. This is the hardest test you'll take in any of my classes until the AP clac final. Good luck.

We got an hour and a half to take the test. I finished in just over half an hour. I got a 79%. The highest grade was a 81%. I was ranked 4th out of 90 some kids.

The moral to the story, like others said, learn it right the first time.

Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard, be evil