Velocity Reviews - RE: Pre Exam Nerves....

I had failed the 70-272 MCP Exam 2 years ago. I am glad I did because I
didn't deserve to pass, in the same way that I saw others spend weeks and
even months sweating over their exams. Over a 2 week period, I flicked
through the ExamCram2 book and didn't even look at the 70-272 book from MS
Press. In one way I was nervous and I felt well if I pass, that would be a
fluke, if I failed, then atleast I have overcome the fear of taking the exam.
I scored a 618 with litterally no study, just real world experience.

In terms of fear or anxiety of the exam; this is the most natural thing
ever. It is the fight or flight survival mechanism of our body. The same
feeling an ancient hunter has when he is confronted with a Lion. He has a
choice to run or fight the Lion. Again, it is a choice. In today's society,
we also have choices, but some are conscious and some subconcious. The fight
or flight survival mechanism is more of a subconcious issue and unless you
can connect with the subconcious, you will always need to deal with fight or
flight situations. The subconcious is important because it has a capacity to
do things without thinking. The amydala is a part in the brain where it
stores the fight or flight feelings. Once a feeling is registered from a
particular event, like an exam from school and having learnt that exams are
important and therefore I need to feel anxious, it will then store this
feeling in the brain called a habit. So how do you overcome fear? Well it is
as easy as relearning bad habits, simple as that. The more you learn
something new to overcome a bad habit the more you are squashing the old
habit. The more you relax, the less you feel anxious. People have the power
to create such bad and upsetting levels of fear and anxiety that they
actually paralyze themselves, second quessing themselves and furthermore
create situations that are based on illusions of fear. So why not spend all
this power and energy on becoming relaxed, calm and peaceful people. It's
very possible. I suppose the whole thing also related to the same thing like
taking waterskiing lessons; the anticipation of putting on all the gear and
watching and wating for the pull signal. But once you are on top of the
water, everything is enjoyable and easy to manage, unless you are way out at
sea which is highly unlikely or darn right stupid. I believe that
anticipation is mostly what people suffer from. I can say 99.9% of people
have no more symptoms of anxiety after they come out of the exam, even when
they failed, so the problem lies before the exam of course.

What I would suggest is take some time-out everyday, lay down and put your
headphones on to some nice relaxing music. Oceans, Rainforests. Summer days,
you can it, buy a CD... its worth the $10 or €10. Tell your family, friends
that you do not want to be disturbed for 30 solid minutes or longer. Now
during this time, breath in on the count of 3 and exhale on the count of 6.
You will find that after doing this 10 times you be garannteed to feel
relaxed. Now after this, imagine walking towards a building, any building.
Imagine every detail around the building, the people and the signs and the
whole environment. Now before you walk into the building stop and wait. In
your vision speak out your words. 'I am taking my 70-272 exam, I have studied
for 12 weeks everyday and I am ready. I am ready to pour out all this
information. I am at the peak of my personal and professional development and
I know that this is the time to be rewarded. I deserve this." Say whatever it
is that will help you to understand how you feel. Then image yourself being
lifted off the gound and you are moving forward into the building and into a
room with a computer and a desk. You feel at peace and you are imaging all
the detail there is. The most important thing you are feeling is peace and
calm. Study every part of the room and how you feel, if you feel anxious, let
it happen and let is fade away because you are now in the place where it is
calm and peaceful. There is no need to be afriad. There is no threat, there
is no fear, no anxiety. These are all self produced feelings that have no
justification. You are seeing your fear, as it is in your imagination. The
fear you see, is nothing because you are imagining whatever it is that you
want to imagine. Imagine peace, calm. The questions you get are there for you
to answer and you have the knowledge to take each question and apply the
knowledge you have learned and answer the questions with the most calm. As
you walk around the room and study every part of it, you may feel the need to
let go of any preconcieved ideas that you should be anxious. Let it be known
that you do not need to fear anything. Take another 3 count breath and exhale
on the count of 6, exhaling and relaxing at the same time. When you have
finished in this room and you are happy and at peace and believe that you are
at peace, float to the exit and look outside, imagine the sun, warm air and
the people talking and smiling. Start to count from 10 to 1 and as you do so,
you are becoming more and more awake and you open your eyes, go into your day
and think positive about your exam. Do this as often as you need to, even the
night before you go to sleep. And if you fall asleep, thats OK too.

There are many methods for creating win-win feelings. Take the advice of
eating healthy all through your study and I mean healthy. Crisps, Chocolates
and cakes do not stimulate the brain to learn. Eat apples, raisins, nuts. Eat
balanced meals and don't fill your gut too much. No Alcohol. Alcohol kills
brain cells, so the next time you start to remember a certain TCP/IP
configuration and you can't it maybe because you drank too much beer that
weekend :) and I know how much Irish people like to drink beer and a creamy
extra cold Guinness too!*Irish myself*. Get alot of excercise, give your body
a good start to the day or start with a brisk walk or cycle. Your body will
start listening to you, once you start looking after it, then it will start
to learn to have the capacity to take in more information in and create extra
memory storage for more complex situations.

I can tell you, Microsoft understands real world experiences, but in my exam
experience they want you to know if you can read a book, answer the questions
in the back, and pass the readiness tests that come with the book, anything
else you do is a bonus. There are so many diverse technicians on the planet
and to test them would be quite difficult, so I suppose the MCP is a good way
to benchmark these techs in a psychological way and present the exam in a way
that tests more their IQ rather than experience. I have noticed that some
exams want you to take the Microsoft way of doing things. Like if I know a
quicker way to preform a specific task, Microsoft doesn't want to know and
your answer is wrong, so take heed in those know-it-all attitudes and just do
as asked in the book and the questions. I would also recommended getting all
the questions you can get your hands on and make a pool of questions, make
sure you know them; if you want more questions you can buy then for €80 from
MeasureUP and gives you 175 questions. It's a great way to study and focus on
Microsoft exam related material as Microsoft uses MeasureUP in the MS Press
Book.

It's great that you have worked or working in such an IT environment and
this exam will also help you get hungry for more MCP exams. But try just to
focus on what they want, because really they don't give a $hit what you do at
work. As it is not a real world experience exam.

Good Luck

Slán!
RemoteShark

"Irish_IT_hopeful" wrote:

> Hello!
>
> I'm new to this newsgroup and have found it useful so far...I've got my
> first MCP exam in a few days and I'm starting to get a bit nervous...I'm
> going for the 70-271. I know that you can't tell me what to expect,
> but...umm...what can I expect?! I've been working in a public sector
> organisation for a few years supporting NT servers, Win 2k/XP desktops and
> Win2k/2k3 servers...I've got some good hands-on experience but have never
> taken any computer hardware/software classes...am I mad?!
> --
> ===
> I''ve never taken any computer classes...I''m a musician!