Not everything that tastes good is healthy, and not everything healthy tastes good. I think of exams as the latter. They are one way to test knowledge, and that attitude is a big part of how I survived getting certified. After taking all kinds of exams, one thing hasn’t changed – I don’t like them.

I get anxious when faced with tests. I dislike the all-or-nothing of each question. I have an aversion to the idea that the items can be drawn from the fine points of any of the 100,000+ words that I just read. On top of that, exams are an imperfect form of testing one’s knowledge (a trait shared by any other type of academic testing).

What has kept and what keeps me going despite all of this is the goal – getting that certification.

Lessons from My Past on Obtaining a Certification

My years in music and martial arts have provided me with plenty of lessons in how I approach certifications. I’ll mention a couple here.

(You may not have a background in these, but the lessons aren’t relevant to music and martial arts alone. You’ll be able to identify something in your past that provides these same lessons.)

A Certification Prep Lesson from Music

Practice. (One might call it rehearsal.) Or you can say, “Practice makes perfect.” Or even, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” The important take away is that preparation has to be done. Take little tests (10-15 questions), take long practice exams, use notecards, make a Python script for a quiz – anything to prove that A) you can take tests and B) you won’t pass out if you fail.

A Certification Prep Lesson from Martial Arts

The main lesson I learned is perseverance. Don’t give up.

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