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The following are ideas, hints, and words to the wise, designed to improve your chances at taking the state insurance exam. Here are some thoughts to consider. Think these through and you will pickup more points. Make several passes. Most people seem to be nervous when sitting down for the exams. One of the "cooling off" methods is to start with question number 1. If you know the answer, fine, answer it. If not, pass it by. You can mark it for review and go on to the next one. Continue to work through the questions, answering only the ones you are comfortable with on the first pass. Then when you end the first pass, start again at the first question you skipped, and dig a little harder the second pass. You will probably have learned some things from the first time through, and you will be more relaxed. Keep making passes. It works. If you are taking a test with a computer, see if you can turn the timer off. The timer on the computer tells you how much time you have left in the test. Many people find that a complete irritation. For many, it is nothing but a reminder as to how fast the time is going. It is an artificial stress booster. At the test center, you can’t bring anything with you. Prepare at home with hints and drawings which are meaningful to you and which you can memorize and then write on the scratch paper they give you when you first arrive so that you are ready when the test begins. If you can eliminate some bad answers, then finally guess on the remainder. I'm not a big believer in guessing, but if you just don't know the answer, and two of them look good, then your chances have improved to 50/50. Much better than guessing with 1 out of 4 chances. Watch out for requests for negative answers: all of the following are true EXCEPT; which of the following is NOT... and so on. Often examinees will get so excited about finding an answer they really know to be true that they have already forgotten the request was for an "except." There are three good answers in the choices, and only one bad one. Keep in mind you are looking for the bad one. Eat light, drink light. Better to be slightly thirsty and slightly hungry than to get sleepy or need to use the restroom when you are worried about the time. Choose the right time of day for your biological clock. When are you most energetic? The test is given in the morning and the afternoon. Decide what part of the day is best for you. Arrange to take it then. Answer all questions. Don't let the computer hide questions from you which you thought you had already answered. Mark them to come back to... and keep checking through the ones you marked. Is your "first answer" usually the right one, or are you the type of person who thinks through carefully before making a final decision. This is a place where you will have to judge for yourself. I have seen so many students move away from a good answer, trying to outthink the exam. Think about how you best function, and then go with that direction. Try covering the answers with your hand. Just look at the question first. Then try to come up with the answer in your head before you are "mislead" by the answers. It often works. Then look at the answers and see which one is the closest to what you were thinking. Try the technique of doing the questions in four parts: read the question, read the answers, read the question again, and then read the answers and try to settle on one. Read the question thoroughly! It is amazing how many people miss a question because they jumped to the wrong conclusion as to what the question was asking. Slow and steady wins the race. Logic: what if you have a question where the first answer looks good, you have never heard of what is discussed in the second answer, and the third answer looks great. Guess what? The fourth answer is the right one. It will either say "all of the above," or it might say "both a and c" If it says "all of the above," then b has to be right, even if you've never heard of it! The longest answer could very well be right. Don't assume that this will always be the case, but it is sometimes the factor that helps. Aim for 100% right. Don't try to get 70% and then think you need to leave. It is expensive and time consuming to have to retake the exam. Shoot for the 100%. You are given a set time for the test, but if you do happen to come up to the end of the time and not have answered all the questions, pick a letter and go with it for all those you left. Pick a letter like "c" and rather than trying the "Christmas Tree" effect, shooting wildly, stay on the same course and you will probably get one or two more right than skipping all around on your guesses. This is also true for the ones you have left which you have no idea what the answer ought to be. If you have twelve questions at the very end which you have no idea about, pick “c” and go with that letter for all twelve. You should get three more points according to the rules of statistics. Those are three free points from questions where you had no good guess as to what the answer should be. READ THE GLOSSARY. You will gain more good information by reading the glossary in the book that you can imagine. It is a great source of help. A lot of the exam is made up of definitions. Plan ahead time-wise and take a restroom break before you take the exam. How do you judge the depth of the question and the thinking of the test builder? I'm trying to estimate from the level of difficulty of the test questions. I think a good rule of thumb is to imagine the test maker as an 8th grader who is a good reader. Not devious....rather straightforward. Assume that the test builder doesn't know much about how insurance actually works from being "in the field working with clients." Imagine that he/she reads well and looks for questions directly from the book and is trying to make sure you know the actual insurance words used in the definitions. That's another reason why reading the glossary will do a lot for you. Show up early. More than 30 minutes! It is said by many that the testing people will not let you sit for the exam if you are not there a few minutes early. They will require that you file to retake the test and charge another testing fee. You can take that extra time to calm down and get your thinking in order. They may let you start early if you arrive early. If you are using paper sample tests, or the tests in the book, don't mark the right answer on them. That way, you can re-use the tests. Then, the night before the exam, mark the answers lightly with a pencil. Then do what the Olympic athletes do: postive programming. That means read the question and only the right answer, the next question and only the right answer..... Even from the very beginning, the PMReview 800 Questions were set up so that you can’t tell which answer you had previously used. One other little thing to watch out for. In the test, don't get to confusing the location of the answer with the answer itself. If the answer you are looking for is "2" years, and the answer "2" is actually found on answer (c), watch out not to mark (b) because it is the 2nd letter. It may sound like that would never happen... but it does. If you don't have a current or near current edition of the book, you are asking for problems. Either get one or see if you can borrow one. Do you have any great ideas that are not on my list? I and everyone taking this review would appreciate it if you would send your super idea to me. Thanks. What's my email? gary@pmreview.com :-) |
