Appendix C. Exam day guide
Time management
The Promotion exam has 30 questions in 45 minutes, so you have 1 minute 30 seconds per question on average. In the first 30 minutes, work through every question once and flag the ones you are unsure about. Of the remaining 15 minutes, spend 10 revisiting the flagged questions and use the last 5 to make sure you have not left any question unanswered. True or false and ordering questions with long passages take more time, so save time on single-choice questions.
Tips by question type
| Type | Tip |
|---|---|
| Single choice | Find the bold conditions in the question first, then eliminate options that violate them |
| Multiple choice | Choose exactly the number stated in the question: two or three. If even one is wrong, the answer is wrong |
| True or false | A statement is Yes only if both the judgment and the reason are correct. Watch for correct conclusions with wrong reasons |
| Ordering | Work out dependencies by asking what must already exist before this step can happen |
| Matching | One item on the right remains unused. Match and eliminate the obvious pairs first, then match the rest |
Read conditions precisely
Judgment questions are designed so that changing one condition changes the correct answer. Before reading options, analyze the question along four dimensions to reduce the risk of falling into traps.
- Goal: What does the team ultimately need: quality, latency, cost or reviewability?
- Constraints: What can be changed? Are methods restricted to instructions, examples or input arrangement only?
- Source trust: Does the material the model reads contain external content outside your control?
- Verification: How is the result judged? Does a person compare it, or does a system parse it?
Then check whether every option satisfies all four. The most tempting wrong answer usually meets one condition very well while violating another. Be especially suspicious of options relying on emphasis or repetition, changing major controls such as window size, model or effort without diagnosis, delegating judgment with “strike a balance” or “adapt appropriately,” or treating repeated matching answers as facts.
Key point
When in doubt, ask once more whether the option satisfies every bold condition at the same time. If two options seem plausible, the one achieving the same goal with a lighter method is usually correct.
Checklist for the day before the exam
- Reread each chapter’s “Common mistakes” and “Summary at a glance.”
- Explain every Appendix A term aloud in one sentence.
- Reread explanations for questions answered incorrectly during free practice and identify the misconception behind each mistake.
- Secure your exam environment in advance: stable network, quiet place and 45 uninterrupted minutes.