There are many companies out there that publish certification practice exams; obviously some of them are better than others. A lot of people place practice exams and braindumps in the same category. However, they are not the same. Braindumps, for those not already familiar with the term, list off exam questions word for word. People read the questions and memorize the answer, hoping that they are the same questions that will be on the exam. Call it cheating, perhaps.

Practice exams, on the other hand, contain 100% original questions that are designed to mimic the look and feel of the exam. They contain practice questions based on topics you will likely encounter on the exam but do not use actual exam questions. These exams are usually written by experts who know the exam topics inside and out. Now I’m all for using practice exams as an exam preparation tool, as long as you are using them correctly. This means not memorizing questions and answers but understanding them instead.

Use the practice exams to increase your knowledge of various topics. You can actually learn quite a bit from taking a practice exam, especially if you pay close attention to the answers and their explanations. A good practice exam will include the answers, explanations, and links to additional reading related to the question topic. Use this information. Read each explanation, even if you get the answer correct. This will help you to learn why you were wrong and why the correct answer is indeed correct. You may also be able to pick up additional tidbits of knowledge that you were not aware of.

Use the practice exams to determine areas you still need to work on. As you work through a practice exam, you can soon see which questions you find difficult. Take it as a sign that these are the topics that you still need to pay more attention to. Some practice exams will tell you at the end which exam objectives you did not score well on. Use this information to your advantage and study up more on these areas before taking the real thing.

Use the practice exams to increase your exam readiness and confidence. Good practice exams will mimic the exams as closely as possible without giving you the actual questions you will encounter. Since Microsoft exams use a variety of different types of questions, the practice exams you use should also include a variety of question types. For example, they should include the standard single multiple choice answer questions, multiple answer questions, drag and drop, list and reorder, hot area, and so on. Use the practice exams as a means of increasing your ability to answer these different types of questions.