Did something recently change? I had some of my students today tell me that they were advised that they could not return to questions once they had skipped them and would not be able to go back and review flagged questions. First heard here, just trying to get to the ground truth.
Skipping and/or reviewing questions on the certification exam
- Thread starter Nick Anthis
- Start date
For which exam?
ETA: Oh sorry, just noticed this was in the Security+ forum specifically. I took Security+ this past summer, I think, and was able to review questions. I took the CASP+ today and could review all questions except the one presented in the virtualized environment. If this policy is changing for CompTIA exams, it's news to me.
My approach to all CompTIA exams:
1. Skip the PBQs at the beginning
2. Answer all the easy multiple choice questions, skipping the ones that seem harder or that will take more time to answer
3. At the review screen, answer all the remaining multiple choice questions
4. Go back and answer the PBQs.
I do this for every exam and finish with time remaining.
The CASP+ does have one VM related question which you must answer. If you skip it, you will not get a chance to do it again.
1. Skip the PBQs at the beginning
2. Answer all the easy multiple choice questions, skipping the ones that seem harder or that will take more time to answer
3. At the review screen, answer all the remaining multiple choice questions
4. Go back and answer the PBQs.
I do this for every exam and finish with time remaining.
The CASP+ does have one VM related question which you must answer. If you skip it, you will not get a chance to do it again.
From the exams that I've written this year, the conventional wisdom noted by Greg is still valid and probably will be for a time longer. However, knowing CompTIA, I would surmise that VM questions might start showing up in other exams as well, so this new dynamic may be something to which, as educators, we need to be attentive. We'll see with the next round, beginning with CySA v3.
/r
/r
Yeah, I've written questions before and I also have the same mindset about the PBQ questions. I know that CompTIA doesn't like us to tell students to come back to the PBQs at the end and get through all the MC questions first, but I tell my students that it's better to answer as many of the MC questions, and use any remaining time for the PBQs, which can take between 5 and 10 minutes to answer one of them.
Well, it's a double-edged sword. You give the students the ability to use a review screen to go back and forth through the exam and they'll use it to their advantage. Perhaps someone might consider doing that as 'gaming the system', but any gamer will tell you, "if the game lets you do it, in game, without hacking or modification, then, it's legal". And test taking technique has been taught as a discipline for as long as there have been tests, even paper ones.
/r
I've just taken a CompTIA exam and I can confirm that you are able to go back and review your answers.
This includes the PBQs, except for the virtual machine simulation, if there's any.
The buttons for forward and back are at the lower right hand corner of the exam screen.
At the end of the exam, there's still the options to review all questions or review flagged questions.
As stated earlier, the only exam question that I wasn't able to get back to was the VM simulation.
As the exam progress to the simulation, there will be a window explaining that the student won't be able to go back to the sim.
I am not sure about the VM Question in CASP, because i did not try to start it again, and did not look if you could look into at again,
but i could go and see all Questions.
But imho, you should be able to start it again, because it was for me in the Middle of the Exam. and Even with 4 hours time, you could loose track to cover the rest of the 60 questions, that where open. And there was no Warning. It you just showed after "Next":
We start your VM Simulation, just wait a few seconds..
But again, i did not check..
Next Trainer doing it, should report back.
For Other Exams: i do not know, that the Review is limit.
I know this is with Cisco Exams (one way only the hole Exam) and some Microsoft Exams, where partly not able to go back to questions, or later to Szenario Questions.
Michael.
but i could go and see all Questions.
But imho, you should be able to start it again, because it was for me in the Middle of the Exam. and Even with 4 hours time, you could loose track to cover the rest of the 60 questions, that where open. And there was no Warning. It you just showed after "Next":
We start your VM Simulation, just wait a few seconds..
But again, i did not check..
Next Trainer doing it, should report back.
For Other Exams: i do not know, that the Review is limit.
I know this is with Cisco Exams (one way only the hole Exam) and some Microsoft Exams, where partly not able to go back to questions, or later to Szenario Questions.
Michael.
When I read the instructions just before starting the exam, it warned that you would not be able to reset or skip the VM question. This information is given on the last screen before the timer starts, so if this is your first time taking an exam with a VM question, it might be worth investing a minute or two reading those details.
To be honest, i did not read that. Should have. but mostly the same.
But i would suggest for CompTIA to put the VM Question separte on the End, to reduce Stress..
Michael
Totally agree--it was unnecessary added complexity to not know how much time to invest in that question. If we can't return to it like we can with PBQs, I would much rather the VM question be placed at the end. But they didn't ask me.
Still, turns out I had way more time than I needed for the MC questions. And if the VM question had been at the end, I probably would have spent too much time messing with that and not enough time going back over the other questions. I ended up changing several of my answers to the MC questions and passed.
I agree.
It would have been less stressful if the VM is with the PBQs either at the start or end of the exam rather than in the middle.
Nevertheless, I've had a few people testifying that you can still pass the exam even if you skip the sim.
But I personally like the sim. Just sharing the testimony of others who skipped it and still passed.
Well, as I get ready to go into the CASP tomorrow morning....
I have read a number of accounts where folks skipped the VM sim question and got through. My guess is that that particular question will garner a lot of weight for those that pass it. Since CASP was originally designed for the cybersecurity practitioner in mind (vs. the CISSP when is tilted to the manager types), I could see more emphasis on that. Can't speak to that for sure - we'll see.
I think if you skipped the VM question and had a strong showing on the MC questions as well as they other PBQ's, that would suffice. If I recall the comments, there was no VM question on the 004 beta.
/r
I did not solve all the Quests in the Sim. I did not want to loose to much time (even i was done after around 100 min), since it was in the middle (Number 27 of all Questions). And i thought (falsly) that i could go back to it).
When i finished it said: the Results will be available soon in my Account, but can take some hours. When i recieved the Score Report, i got the Result also. So maybe the VM is not measured at all, or measured in the Background and calculated when you are finished.
Since we all got only Passed / Failed, noone of the test takers know, how much points he got. You could only look on the Domains, where you had something wrong. If the List is long: There was a lot wrong.
Michael
When i finished it said: the Results will be available soon in my Account, but can take some hours. When i recieved the Score Report, i got the Result also. So maybe the VM is not measured at all, or measured in the Background and calculated when you are finished.
Since we all got only Passed / Failed, noone of the test takers know, how much points he got. You could only look on the Domains, where you had something wrong. If the List is long: There was a lot wrong.
Michael
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I took both the CySA+ & CASP+ in the last 2 weeks of December & with the specific exception of any VM questions (which they TELL YOU during the exam you cannot reset/redo), all of the regular multiple choice questions AND the regular PBQs where able to be marked for review and gone back to later. Ask you students if they meant ALL questions or just the one(s) that set up a VM.
No the VM question does not appear on the review screen and you can NOT restart it. Before starting the exam, it DOES tell you that any VM questions can NOT be reset or reattempted. Am almost sure that just before it started I also got a notice telling me that only one attempt was allowed.
Not sure but my last command accidentally shut down the VM, so I am pretty sure I got zero points for that question. I still passed.
Well, I found the VM question, actually, a bit of fun. With PBQ's, you're locked into a specific frame, but with the VM question, how you approach the question is up in the air. If you want to use vim, nano, emacs - doesn't lock you in, for example. How you do things is up to you, so long as the tasks are done.
Not sure how they are scored, but if you did the tasks and shut the machine down, my guess is you get credit, unless you didn't do the tasks prior to shutting the system off, or something.
Not sure how they are scored, but if you did the tasks and shut the machine down, my guess is you get credit, unless you didn't do the tasks prior to shutting the system off, or something.