Certification exams can be challenging to prepare. But with the right approach and mindset, you can increase your chances of success.

I passed many exams in the past, and I want to share some tips that helped me.

• Practice, practice, practice

• The best way to prepare for an exam is to practice as much as possible. Take practice exams, review study materials, and work through sample questions. This will help you identify areas where you need more help and get familiar with the format and structure of the exam.

Where can you find practice exams? Here is a quick tip:

• Use google dorks to find practice exams. For example, if you want to find practice exams for the OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I exam, you can search for

oca java mock exam doctype:pdf

This will return a list of practice exams in PDF format.

• Time is important; If a question takes too long to read/answer, I recommend skipping it (you can go back to those in the end if you still have time).

• There are a number of questions that have a main method — start with that when reading the code (that’s the starting point).

• Read with the mouse pointer and pay attention to missing words (like else for an if). The format of some questions can be really messy, so it’s easy to miss something.

• Take a quick look at the answers before reading the code (it might help understand better the code and find the solution).

• Skipping is good. Too much is not. Don’t go skipping half of the questions in the beginning (like 10 from the first 20) — it’s easy to lose the track of time after that.

• Speed reading is good. This skill is a must-have for the exams. This skill comes with a lot of practice, usually by taking mock exams.

• When answering questions, use the process of elimination to narrow down your options. Cross off any answers that are clearly incorrect, then focus on the remaining choices. This will increase your chances of selecting the correct answer.

• Once you’ve selected an answer, stick with it. Don’t second-guess yourself or change your answer unless you’re sure it’s wrong. Overthinking can lead to confusion and reduce your chances of success.

• My last tip is when you don’t know the answer, select the 3rd option 🤣🤣🤣 (just kidding). I don’t know why but It seems that the 3rd option is the correct answer in most cases.

Good luck! 🤞

Do you have any tips to share? Please leave a comment below.