Exam-taking Basics

The most important advice about taking any exam is this: Read each question carefully . Some questions are deliberately ambiguous, some use double negatives , and others use terminology in incredibly precise ways. The author has taken numerous exams ”both practical and live ”and has missed at least one question in nearly every exam because he did not read the question closely or carefully enough.

Here are some suggestions for how to deal with the tendency to jump to an answer too quickly:

• Be sure you read every word in the question ” If you find yourself impatiently skipping ahead, go back and start over.

• As you read, try to reformulate the question in your own words ” If you can do this, you should be able to pick the correct answer(s) much more easily.

• When returning to a question after your initial read-through, read every word again carefully.

• If you return to a question more than twice, ask yourself what you don't understand about the question, why the answers don't appear to make sense, or what appears to be missing ” If you think about the subject for a while, your subconscious might provide the details that are lacking or you might notice a trick that points to the correct answer.

Above all, try to deal with each question by thinking through what you know about the PIX firewall ”the characteristics, behaviors, and facts involved. By reviewing what you know (and what you have written down on your information sheet), you will often recall or understand enough to be able to deduce the answer to the question.