Advice for Inventor Associates and Professional Exams?

[Anonymous]

Ive luckily had the oppurtunity to do the Inventor (and autoCAD) associates and professionals exams free of charge at my local reseller.  Can anyone offer advice on what to expect, the level of difficulty etc...I have been told that the associates exams are multiple choice so Id imagine they would be quite easy (maybe a bad assumption to make).

I have been using Inventor & autoCAD on a daily basis for two years and consider myself fairly proficient but dont want to make the mistake of being complacent!!

Any advice and tips you can offer would be greatly appreciated

p.s. im doing the exams in roughly one month.

thanks in advance,

[JDMather]

I found the Associate exam to be more difficult (even though it is multiple choice) because you can't use the software for that exam.

The Associate exam often encludes questions related to the What's New for the particular release you are testing for.
So make sure you are very familiar with the What' New.
Make sure you know about idw various table types and editing.

I found the Professional exam to be much easier as you actually use the software to solve the problems.
Make sure that you are very familiar with the various Inspection tools and iProperties as many of the answers will come from querying your model after you create or edit sketches/features.

With both exams go through and answer the easy questions first.  Do not spend inordinate amount of time on any question until you have answered the ones that are easy AND quick to answer. (This is a very important tip - a question could be very easy technically but take a long time to get to the solution.  Don't get bogged down on time just because you know you can answer the question - you could end up using up more time than the question is worth causing you to miss a bunch of others that would have been easy and quick.)

Pay attention to the practice exam at the beginning (for those of you only interested in the Inventor exam - don't panick if you see AutoCAD questions in the Inventor practice).  In particular there is one type of question that has multiple correct answers.  As I recall the selections are multiple squares rather than multiple circles in these questions - so they aren't trying to trick you if you pay attention.

Make sure you know how to Alt Tab to toggle between Inventor and the test site.  (Create you account here in advance http://autodesk.starttest.com/  - I think there might also be some samples.  I found the real exams to be easier than the practice exams.)

Some questions on the Professional might require you to enter numbers - practice Ctrl C and Ctrl V from the Inspection fields or iProperties rather than typing these numbers.

You are not permitted to take anything into or away from the test seat - but you should be given a pencil and paper.
I like to note in order of difficulty the questions that I skip over (the testing software keeps track of and lets you easily go back to unanswered questions - but I like to rate those I think I can actually answer so that I ignore those I can't and don't waste time on them.  Getting close to the end make best guess at any remaining.

On the Professional you are permitted a bathroom break that stops the timer - take advantage of it.
When you get up and walk around for a bit your head will clear up and a question will suddenly become clear.  Don't use that time to sit there and get more frustrated about a particular question.

Be familiar with using the Inventor Help (not sure how this has changed since they went to wiki).  I usually get at least one question that I had no idea until looking in Help.

I forget what the pass percentages are (available on the link above) but make sure you know exactly how many questions are required to pass.  Once you hit that number (pretty sure on your answers) it makes finishing the remaining questions (just to be sure) much less stressful and I think less likely to make a stupid mistake.

The Professional exams that require a number - only one will be correct - usually all the other choices will not even be close.  If they ask you to open a file make sure you open the correct one example xxxxb.ipt or xxxxa.ipt as they will both look the same - like the image on the test, but will be slightly different as they are randomly rotated so that you can't (and shouldn't according the instructions) compare notes with someone else about to take the exam.  If you take it at a location like AU don't give someone else an unfair advantage by discussing the particulars.  There is usually a prep class that covers much the same information I've typed here with some sample questions demonstrated.

After you have passed the Professional exam you need only take the Associate exam for each new release (note the What's New advice from above). 

I managed to pass the Associate exam for 2011 (haven't done 2012 yet) in about 15 minutes (including time to go back through the entire exam), but all of my students have had to repeat it at least once to pass.  I have had several students then go on to pass the Professional exam.

Go into the exam with extreem confidence that you can pass. (you have the correct user name here)

The exams are free at AU (and you typically get a t-shirt (when you pass) that you can wear with pride at the conference).

Good luck and let us know how you do.