Are Practice Tests a Good Idea?

Working with different certifying agencies means that we have the privilege of constantly learning how they each achieve the same goal of maintaining and growing their programs. Some are very forward thinking and offer products and services (beyond just their credential) to diversify their revenue stream. One thing we’ve noticed is that not all certifying agencies out there offer practice tests. The ones that do have hard copy or electronic version, but we started to wonder if the ones that don’t are missing out on something.

We asked NOCA to post a poll question to find out what their members had to say. The results below are based on 23 responses at the time of publication.

Yes, we offer practice tests for ALL of our programs 52%
Yes, we offer practice tests for SOME of our programs 26%
No, we do not offer practice tests 22%

We’re pulling together a list of pros and cons of offering (or not) practice tests. Send us your reasoning. Do you charge for practice tests? Are practice tests a service to candidates? Do they cause confusion? The discussion is open. Send us your thoughts. Hopefully, we’ll be able to pull this together into a valuable resource for you to use with your Certification Boards and Committees.