SDL exam prep while working full-time as an AP — anyone do it without taking leave?
I'm an assistant principal in my 8th year and finally ready to go for the School District Leader certification. The problem is I'm in the middle of a school year and taking time off isn't realistic. My exam is scheduled for late April and I'm trying to build a study schedule that doesn't eat my weekends alive. Has anyone passed the SDL while in an active administrative role without burning out?
The content areas I'm most worried about are district-level budget management and collective bargaining questions. I have solid instructional leadership experience but my district keeps me pretty insulated from the finance side. On practice tests I'm around 68%, which feels low for 10 weeks out. The NYSED candidate materials are thorough but dense.
My plan is 90 minutes per day on weekdays, focused on one domain at a time, and a full practice test every Sunday. That gives me about 12 full practice tests before exam day. I'm using the Barron's guide and NYSED materials. Any other resources specifically strong for the school finance and law sections?
I passed it while working as a principal two years ago — same situation, couldn't take leave. The 90-minute daily schedule is realistic if you protect it. I did mine from 5–6:30 AM before school and it was sustainable for about 8 weeks.
For the finance questions, the NYSED Commissioner's Regulations are your best friend. The exam tests specific statutory language more than conceptual budget knowledge.
68% at 10 weeks out is fine. I was scoring 64% eight weeks before mine and passed with a 79%. The domains get easier once you've done three or four full practice tests and start seeing the question patterns repeat.
The NYSED school finance training modules are free, about 4 hours total, and the budget aid formulas section directly mirrors what shows up on the exam. Saved me probably 10 hours of trying to decode the Barron's explanations.
The collective bargaining section was lighter than I expected — more about the Taylor Law framework than specific contract negotiation tactics. Know the improper practice categories and PERB's role and you'll cover most of it.
Honestly I almost bailed on mine around February. I was putting in 10-hour days at school and coming home with nothing left in the tank, and the ethical and legal standards stuff in particular felt like it was just not sticking no matter what I tried. What actually helped me was finding a set of free sdl ethical and legal standards practice questions online and drilling them in 20-minute chunks during my lunch break instead of trying to carve out big study blocks that never happened anyway.
You don't need leave. You need consistency in small doses. I passed in April and I'm telling you the people who told me to wait for summer were wrong. Just don't try to do everything at once and don't give up when February hits and you feel completely behind because that's normal.
Honestly, I almost bailed in March. I was exhausted, I hadn't touched my study materials in two weeks, and I kept telling myself I'd just retake it in the fall when things slowed down. What changed was narrowing my focus instead of trying to cover everything. The ethics piece especially tripped me up until I started drilling with free sdl ethical and legal standards questions specifically, because that stuff shows up more than you'd expect and it's not always intuitive.
If you're an AP you already live this material every day, it just doesn't feel like studying. I did 20-30 minutes on my commute, sometimes during lunch, and that was it most weeks. It wasn't pretty but I passed. Don't give up on the April date just because it feels impossible right now.
Quick update since I posted a few weeks ago -- took a practice set last night and pulled a 78 on the ethical and legal portion, which honestly surprised me. I've been using the free sdl ethical and legal standards questions to drill that domain specifically and it's clicking way faster than I expected. Didn't touch a book until 9pm most nights this week but it's adding up.
I'm sitting for the real thing March 14th. Still working through the instructional leadership cases on weekends but I feel like if you stay consistent with 45 minutes a night you can absolutely do this without taking leave. It's tight but doable.
Eight years in and you already think like a systems person, which honestly puts you ahead for this exam. What clicked for me was stopping the flashcard grind and spending more time on the wrong answers. Every time I missed a question I'd ask why that choice felt right and what assumption I was making, because that's usually where the test is actually trying to catch you. The free sdl ethical and legal standards questions were great for this since the ethical scenarios have really tempting distractors and you can't just memorize your way through them.
Scheduling-wise, I did 30 minutes before school most days instead of trying to carve out longer weekend sessions that never actually happened. It's not glamorous but it's consistent, and consistency beat intensity for me when I was still in the building full-time.
I'll be honest, I almost bailed three weeks in. I'm a former AP, went through this two years ago while managing a building, and there were nights I closed my laptop and thought "this isn't the year." What actually kept me going was stopping trying to study everything and just drilling the stuff I kept getting wrong. The ISLLC/PJE standards are dense but once you stop treating them like a reading assignment and start recognizing how they show up in scenario questions, it clicks.
You don't need to carve out huge blocks of time. Thirty focused minutes is worth more than two hours of exhausted skimming after a board meeting. I passed with maybe four or five genuine study sessions a week, sometimes less. It's doable without leave, I promise, but you have to be ruthless about protecting even that small window. April is enough time if you start now and don't let a bad week make you spiral.