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Studies have shown that doing well on the first 5–10 questions is critical: “spending more time and attention on the first five or ten items on a computer adaptive test will improve an examinee’s final ability estimate”[^6]. Doing well in the beginning means the exam will become more difficult as the exam engine attempts to present questions that a candidate will get correct 50% of the time. This can add to exam-day stress: the better a candidate does, the harder it gets.

If the exam ends in 125 questions; it means one of two things: the candidate either aced the exam or failed. The candidate is somewhere in between if the exam continues past 125 questions. The exam may end at any point after that, and will end by question 175.

Taking the Exam

The English exam has between 125 and 175 questions comprised of four types:

Multiple choice
Scenario
Drag/drop
Hotspot

Multiple-choice questions have four possible answers, lettered A, B, C, or D. Each multiple-choice question has exactly one correct answer. A blank answer is a wrong answer: guessing does not hurt you.

Scenario questions contain a long paragraph of information, followed by several multiple-choice questions based on the scenario. The questions themselves are multiple choice, with one correct answer only, as with other multiple-choice questions. The scenario is often quite long and contains unnecessary information. It is often helpful to read the scenario questions first: this method will provide guidance on keywords to look for in the scenario.

Drag and drop questions are visual multiple-choice questions that may have multiple correct answers. Fig. 1.1 is an example from Chapter 2, Domain 1: Security and Risk Management.

Fig. 1.1 Sample drag and drop question.

Drag and drop: Identify all objects listed below. Drag and drop all objects from left to right.

As we will learn in Chapter 2, Domain 1: Security and Risk Management, passive data such as physical files, electronic files, and database tables are objects. Subjects are active, such as users and running processes. Therefore, you would drag the objects to the right, and submit the answers, as shown in Fig. 1.2.

Fig. 1.2 Sample drag and drop answer.