What $1644 in Certification Costs Taught Me About Studying

Studying efficiently is easy once you know how.

Studying well is easy once you know how. And I’ll share with you the methods I used to pass my last three certification exams (Sec+, Net+, CISSP). When you’re paying $750 (CISSP exam registration fee) to take an exam you want to make sure you pass the first time.

I see these people on Reddit patting each other on the back after they fail the CISSP for the third time. Yep, three times. That’s $2250 buck-a-roos down the drain.

The encouragement is wholesome but man if you aren’t passing after the second time then somethings wrong. Either the content is too advanced for you in your career or your studying methods suck.

(I recognize some get legit test anxiety. In those instances you can usually get accommodations to help with that.)

I find that most people are intelligent enough but they are lazy when it comes to studying. Some aren’t even lazy. They just don’t know any better.

Unfortunately, many avid certification studiers are like those Redditors. They use bad study techniques and don’t even know it.

So what’s the big mistake they’re making?

They make poor use of their time.

The Number One Time Waster

There’s a common trap everyone falls into when it comes to studying.

You see, when people begin studying for certifications they’re serious and excited. They pick the right study resources. They’ll go through a book or a video course and take detailed notes.

These notes are sometimes unorganized but they hand wrote the info down. They look at their notebook full of notes front and back and think there’s no way I can fail now.

Then they go to study and what do they do? Reread their notes.

And that’s where the problem is…

Let me explain.

Reading notes and study material has a horrible return on investment when it comes to memory retention and academic performance. They’ll read through the notes and see the same thing 2-3 times.

They’ll go “Yeah…yeah I know that”. They get lured into a false sense of security. Eventually they completely skip sections of their notes or gloss over them. “Why should I have to read this again?”, they think.

The feeling of being productive gives their brain the feel good chemicals. They don’t recognize that reading and highlighting notes is a low value activity. I can’t blame them either. I did the same thing when I was in college.

Many studies have been done on this, but a study called “Metacognitive strategies in student learning” conducted in 2008 summarizes it well:

Repeated testing enhances learning more than repeated reading, which often confers limited benefit beyond that gained from the initial reading of the material.

You can find the full academic journal here.

What that says is you gain little benefit after the initial reading of the material. So what’s the play to get bigger ROI on our study time?

Enter active recall.

From Study Sucker to Study Superstar

Active recall is the act of purposefully pulling information out of your noggin. The idea is simple. And the good news?

It’s simple to implement too.

Master active recall study methods and you can cast your fears of paying for a certification multiple times out the window.

Here’s 7 ways I’ve used active recall to pass my certs:

Method 1: Recall information at the end of a study session

At the end of a study session spend 5-10 minutes recalling what you just learned. I suggest spending 5 minutes for every 50-60 minutes of study time devoted to just recalling.

Here’s the trick though. Do NOT look at your notes for help. Flip your notes over and think hard about what you just learned. A clear sign you were not paying attention well is if you can’t recall anything or if you only recall a small section of the material.

When your done studying for the day spend a final 10 minutes trying to recall everything you learned. You won’t remember everything if you studied for 3 hours but you start training your brain to pull info out now.

Method 2: Create Flashcards

This is a tried and true method.

Use your notes to create flash cards. You can go physical notecards or digital for this. I prefer digital and recommend the use of Anki flashcards. Anki is free software that you can find at ankiweb.net.

Use your flashcards for several days then build out three piles. Pile one will be the items you are confident on. Pile two will be what you are so-so on. Pile three is what you consistently struggle with.

The ultimate goal is for pile three to be nonexistent, pile two to be very small and pile one to be large.

Flashcards work great for acronyms. I mean have you seen the Net+ acronym list?

That’s just half of page 1. And there’s 3 pages.

Method 3: Practice Tests

Practice tests are my favorite. Do not use notes when you take practice tests. Treat them like the real deal. For my CISSP certification I did over 1000 practice questions.

You can make your own practice tests but I never have for certifications. I’ve always bought them. You can get practice tests for less than <$50 most of the time and get 100+ questions.

Spend time researching the best practice tests for the certification your taking. Use forums, Reddit, Discords and Twitter to determine the best resources. You can often find free questions online but they suck in comparison to paid resources.

Paid resources usually come with multiple practice tests. Split the questions up into 3-5 practice tests if you end up with just a huge question bank. Review what you missed at the end of each exam. Study those things by seeking out additional resources, using flashcards or other active recall study methods. Then test again. You should see improvement.

Your last practice exam will be a higher score if you follow this route correctly. You will have a good technical grasp of the material if you are scoring 80%+ across all your practice tests.

Method 4: Create Visuals or Infographics

This is one I did the least but it works great for others.

The idea is to take a difficult to understand concept and draw it out. The time I used this the most is when I studied for the Network+. I would draw out basic networking diagrams.

When I was researching subnets I would draw out what the physical representation would look like. This turned out to be a great exercise.

Another option is to use a website like Canva to create infographics. For me, it was the act of creating the visuals that helped. I rarely went back and looked at them. I think the only time you might ever look back is if you created an infographic and use it as a future cheat sheet.

Method 5: Teach Yourself (or others!)

I’m a huge believer in this one. You find holes in your knowledge real quick when you try to explain something to someone.

You see, when you have to teach someone you need to explain it all the way through. As you go to do this you’ll figure out small pieces that you don’t understand. A lot of the time you know the big picture but not how everything ties together.

Often the big picture is all you need for the cert exam but you should be shooting for total mastery over the long run. Mastery of certification subjects will lead you to a better career.

You can do this by finding a study group and teaching others a topic. Alternatively, you can talk out loud and teach yourself. This doesn’t work as well but you can do it anywhere. It also works better for those shy guys and gals.

Method 6: Create Mnemonics

Ever heard of something like PEMDAS or the sentence “My Very Earthly Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas”?

Those are mnemonics. A mnemonic is anything that helps you remember a system or pull a topic from memory. In the above examples, PEMDAS is for your math order of operations and the Earthly Mother sentence is to help remember the order of the planets.

When I was learning the order of the Wi-Fi standards I would remember it as BAG NAC AX BE (802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, etc.). For me that was easier to remember.

Once you have some mnemonics I like to pull them from memory randomly. This helps us cement those mnemonics to memory and trains our brain to pull that info. Active recall baby!

Method 7: Closed Note Taking

Closed note taking is one I learned of recently. I’ll admit that I did not use it for my previous certifications but I will for future ones I take.

Closed note taking is like Method 1. Instead of trying to recall what you learned after a study session you take your first round of notes. And you do the notes based off what you can remember from the lecture. No looking back!

I think this is a cool and slightly more hardcore version of Method 1. I’m excited to try it out and see how much it helps.

Summary

Rereading notes suck and active recall rules. Implement the following active recall methods to get a massive boost in ROI for your study time:

1. Recall information at the end of a study session

2. Create flashcards

3. Complete practice tests

4. Build your own visuals or infographics

5. Teach yourself or others

6. Create mnemonics

7. Write your notes without looking back at the material

I urge you to implement active recall into your certification study. You will get higher test scores and learn the material 10x better.

That’s all from me. Expect a home lab article next week.

Tanuki

P.S. This is how my certification costs broke down if you’re wondering:

Security + Exam Fee: $370

Network+ Exam Fee: $340

CISSP Exam Fee: $750

Study Materials:

• Udemy Courses: $30

• Practice Tests: $154

• Everything else was free / borrowed

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