Critical CMP Tip:
Read The Question

Tropic Beach with the saying Reading is a Discount Ticket to Everywhere

Critical CMP Tip:
Read The Question

Cat in the Hat Picture with the saying "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

Here it is, the MOST critical CMP Exam tip I can give you.

Are you listening? Errr…. Really what I meant to ask is, “Are you reading?” The key to successfully passing the CMP Exam is to read the questions.

I know what you are thinking! “No sh%^ Ellen!”

Here’s what I discovered when I was preparing for my CMP Exam. I thought I was reading the questions. What I was doing was reading them and then saying to myself, “Ok, I know what they are looking for!” Then I would rush to find the answer. Hubris!

But I had not read what they wrote. I read what I thought was written. There’s a big difference!

You Need to Practice CMP Tips Reading the Questions

In the Event Solutions Academy, I offer tons of practice questions for my students. When they approach practice questions, they use this technique:

  1. Read the question. Not what you think it says, but what it really says.
  2. Reread it.
  3. Now try to state the question in your own words, using your vernacular.

Let’s say the question is:

Volunteers greet association members at the convention and ask each a series of pre-selected questions concerning the event functions. What type of research of the association’s membership are they conducting? 

When I restate this question in my own words, I would say

I welcome association members to the convention and ask them survey questions. What type of research am I conducting on the association’s membership?

By restating the question, you focus on what’s important, removing distractions. And because you state it in your own words, you avoid complex language and get to the heart of the matter.

If you find that you can’t say the question in your own words, you MUST go back and reread the question until you can. All you need to answer correctly is included in the question. Don’t look for more than is provided, and don’t skip over anything important.

But What About the Time It Takes to Read the Questions?

I know!

You are thinking, “If I do this, I will run out of time to finish the exam.”

I can tell you that you won’t, but you won’t believe me until you prove it to yourself!

The only way to do that is to take a full-length practice test, with 165 questions, just like the actual exam, as I provide in the Event Solutions Academy. After finishing those tests, you will have the confidence to take the time you need to read every question until you are free to answer what is genuinely being asked of you.

As Frederick Douglas said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

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