Exhale. You met the November deadline to apply for the April version of the IBLCE Exam. You just paid your whopping fee. (The amount you paid differs from first-timers to repeaters, and also, from country to country. Nevertheless, it’s a big chunk of change!) But if you’re thinking you can relax, forget it. You can’t. You need to step on the gas, and not take your foot off until the end of March! Don’t delay your studies – it’s time to figure out your plan for IBLCE exam prep.
I can give you three main reasons to start your exam prep NOW:
1. Most of us underestimate the time needed
Few of us can accurately estimate the time we need to complete a task. Perhaps the most famous under-estimation involved the Sydney Opera House. Experts estimated the building would cost $7 million, and that construction would be completed in 4 years. The reality was very different. It was finished 14 years after construction started, and the final cost was $102 million.
Buehler and colleagues asked PhD students to estimate the time needed to finish writing a thesis. They were instructed to give an estimate for a best-case scenario, and a worst-case scenario. The students estimated an average of 27 days for a best-case scenario, and 48 days for a worst-case scenario. In reality, it took the students an average of 55 days to complete their theses.
Rather than asking for future predictions, Roy and colleagues asked people to remember how long a similar task took in the past. They found that people underestimated the duration of past tasks.
Thus, whether people based their estimates on a hoped-for future, or an event in the past, their estimates have proven to be substantially low.
This rings a big bell for me. I take my best estimate, double it, and add a little more time. Nevertheless, I often underestimate the work and time involved.
2. Budget the remaining days/weeks to make it manageable
I counted 7 major categories and 13 subcategories covered in the IBLCE Detailed Content Outline. Then, I counted 105 topics on the exam. Wow! In all of the years I’ve been taking the IBLCE Exam or helping others prepare for the exam, I’ve never realized there were that many.
That means that starting today, you have exactly 129 days remaining to cover 105 topics. Do the math! How will you tackle those 105 topics?
- If you want to study or review only on the weekends, you have only 19 weekends to cover 105 topics. That’s more than 20 topics per weekend.
- If you want to study or review only on the weekdays, you’ll have 91 days to cover 105 topics. That means you’re tackling a topic almost every day.
Waiting until you “feel like it” starting doesn’t work! Here are a few suggestions to help you stop procrastinating.
3. Take control and pass on your first try
Ben Franklin warned, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
There’s a high likelihood that you’ll underestimate the time it will take to complete your studies. Hundreds of people fail the IBLCE exam every year. After all of the bucks you’ve spent to sit for the exam, don’t risk being one of them.
This is a career-critical exam. If you feel like you need some structure, use our online review course. Don’t delay your studies for the IBLCE Exam – prepare now so you can pass on the first try!
How are you planning to study for the IBLCE Exam?