Did a full timed practice test today and ran out of time with 16 questions left. Definitely have a time management problem.
The CEC - Copyediting Certification exam has 85 questions and the time limit is 123 minutes by my understanding. That works out to roughly 63 seconds per question — which should be doable except I keep stopping on "CEC exam" type questions.
My bad habit: I over-analyze questions I'm unsure about rather than making a best guess and moving on.
Any strategies that worked for you? Specifically:
- Do you go through once and skip hard questions to come back to?
- How many questions on "CEC" should I expect — is it worth the time investment?
- Is the real exam usually easier to pace than practice tests, or harder?
I'm good enough on the content, I think — it's purely pacing that's failing me.
Same boat a few months ago. Here's what I'd tell myself:
The CEC exam is more application-focused than the study guides suggest. They test whether you understand CEC, not just whether you can define it.
My tip: when you see a scenario question, mentally walk through it step by step before looking at the answers. The wrong answers are designed to catch people who jump to conclusions.
Good luck — the fact that you're doing this level of prep means you're going to be fine.
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