Congratulations on taking the next step towards earning your Autodesk Certification!

The purpose of this information is to help prepare you for an Autodesk certification exam by sharing some best practices and tips.

Step 1: Know what you need to know

Knowing what the Autodesk certification exam is going to cover is essential when preparing. Exam objectives for each certification exam are offered online to provide insight on the topics covered in the exam and the minimum candidate qualifications. Use this information as your study guide. Make sure that you understand each skill and subskill included on the list.

Step 2: Focus. Practice. Build from real-world experience

When preparing for any exam, the tendency is to try to learn everything, and you can easily find yourself overwhelmed. When preparing for an Autodesk certification exam, study only the topics mentioned in the exam objectives. Don’t distract yourself by trying to learn everything.

Get some practice. Hours of experience are essential to successfully earning a certification. The certification prep course supports instruction that aligns specifically to what the test covers. This doesn’t replace real-world knowledge.

Step 3: Develop a test-taking strategy

Don’t take the test without a strategy. It’s important to develop test-taking skills and have some understanding of what to expect when taking an exam.

The Autodesk certification exams include a series of question types for completion in a 90 to 120-minute testing time limit. See our full list of certification exams for the specific timing for your exam.

Note that you will not have access to the software during the exam. Instead, you will be asked questions that test your comprehension based on your experience and knowledge without using the software as an aid as you complete the exam.

During the exam period, you have the option to mark questions and revisit them later. A time marker is visible during the testing period to help keep time.

As a test taker, it’s important to know what each question is asking. Evaluate each answer option carefully before responding. Being careless or reading questions quickly often results in an incorrect answer.

It’s ok not to know the correct answer or to be unsure of an answer. It happens. Try not to get flustered. Eliminate any clearly wrong answer first to narrow down your options and then pick the answer(s) you think is best. Mark the question so you can review it later and move along. Once you’ve gone through all the exam questions, go back and review answers to your marked questions. Don’t hesitate to change your answers. Contrary to widespread belief, your first instinct might not always be correct.

Step 4: Manage your time

One of the most important tips when taking a timed test is knowing how much time is available to answer each question. When you start the exam, you’ll be given the total number of questions and the amount of time available. Do a quick calculation and figure out how much time you have per question. Keep this in mind and use it as a guide when answering questions. Answer the easy questions first and then move on. Don’t forget to breathe. Keep an eye on the time marker to track your pace.

Step 5: Remediation

Your exam is scored with a pass or fail result. Passing scores vary by certification exam, and we do not disclose the passing score to candidates before they take the exam. If you pass the first time, congratulations! If you didn’t pass the exam the first time, take steps to review the topic areas that you fell short on, revisit the exam objectives and the cert prep course offered by Autodesk. With additional practice, you’ll be more prepared the second time.

Good luck!

Practice Exercise: Manage layers and query objects