Exams are among the most crucial elements that need your uttermost attention, especially one from a Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) program. It determines your ability to design safe systems and operate them economically, even as they keep on evolving each year. It is important to do your best in these exams.
That is why you need to have the right knowledge on how to prepare for CFSE exams and prove your competence. Here are some tips that will help you excel in CFSE without struggling and stressing.
Image Courtesy: Freepik
Reading the functional safety standards
There are different types of functional safety programs with unique safety standards. You need to know what standards are within your program before attempting to read them. When preparing for a CFSE exam, you need to understand every detail of the standards.
The exams are open-ended that give you a chance to refer to the standards within a limited time. This is why you need to know the structure of the standards to help in maneuvering through very fast. Each safety standard is under mechanical, processing, or electrical related. Further subdivisions occur to many subcategories that need your uttermost attention.
It will help you get the content of the specific standard and use it to provide relevant answers. You only need to go through these standards in your free time and it will be easy to tackle the exam. It is better if you know all of them but you can try coming up with a memorizing strategy to recall.
Going through recommended resources
Exams need you to go through relevant resources and for CFSE, online sources are very crucial. They give you an update on new content relevant for the specific CFSE program and informs on any changes taking place.
They are easy to access through smartphones, tablets, and laptops. It helps you reduce the burden of carrying many books everywhere. You need to find the right online resource to help in getting tests and assessment quizzes. They are the same questions you will find in the exam paper and it will be easier to answer them.
Certain websites provide CFSE exam samples that are independent and it is not a guarantee to find the same questions in your exam. They enlist extra questions to ensure you have a wider view of what to expect in the exam paper. It illustrates some of the related topics that you can go through.
To have more time on hands for this purpose, go to EduBirdie for college papers. If you are in college, that’s your best resource for term papers, coursework, and all sort of essays. It will ensure that you have ample time to read and prepare for the CFSE exam.
Practicing using exercises and old exams
Practice makes you perfect and to achieve this, you need to burn the midnight oil to meet this level of success. CFSE exams grading uses item-specific criteria whereby grading of a question is per the level of knowledge expected.
Going through exercises from your CFSE specialization will give you a clue of some questions that might feature in the exam. It motivates you to get back to your notes, which increases your memory. The extra questions provided on sample exams will help you expand on other related topics and increase your knowledge.
You can come up with summaries of the notes using your own words and do this in order of topics. Most of these topics link each other to help you build information from the beginning and understand it until the end. Using visual aid enhances your memory to get a clear picture of the content.
Image Courtesy: Freepik
Knowing the exam format
You have to have an idea of how your exam looks before facing it. It prepares you for what to expect ensuring your nerves stay calm. CFSE exam has a structure of multiple-choice questions that take 2 hours to complete and case study questions that take 3 hours.
For you to pass, you will have to work hard and get at least 60% in the multiple-choice section and 70% in the case study. Your total should amount to at least 80% of the overall grade to ensure you stand a chance of getting certified.
It is very easy to achieve this grade once you begin preparing very early and mastering where to find safety standards. The exam uses the criterion-referenced method giving you a chance to refer from CFSE resources.
Try to understand questions from exercises and evaluate them as though they are exam questions.
Plan the exam day
You do not want to end up feeling tensed minutes before a CFSE exam because you lack relevant exam materials. Getting everything ready in advance will relieve you of unnecessary stress and help remain calm throughout the process. Prepare yourself in line with the type of exam you will sit for, either the SW specific, HW specific, or a General Standards Test.
Studying at the last minute is not much help but getting enough rest before the exam day rejuvenates your mind. In case you need special accommodations during the process of taking tests, inform the CFSE Governance Board in advance for arrangements to start.
Begin by checking the rules and regulations of the exams before you start preparing. CFSE exams are open-books, giving you a chance to take a standard guide and any relevant reference material. Check if you carried the necessary calculator, replacement batteries, and pencils with you. Take note that it is an irregularity to carry a written summary of notes to the exams.
Understanding the background of CFSE
CFSE program aims at developing your safety engineering competence to ensure you design and operate the systems safely. You get to select on a specific CFSE program to study on application engineering that includes process industries and machine engineering. You can also decide to major in hardware or software development.
To pass your exams, you should have an educational background in a related engineering discipline or industry-specific training courses. You also need to have some technical experience relative to the specific certification and a safety-related experience. They boost your chances of understanding the course from an experienced background.
It has an exam specification with solutions to problems in listed topics for the safety of the equipment. It enables you to familiarize yourself with these problems at your disposal. It contains a hazard and risk analysis, safety requirement specification, conceptual and detailed design issues, and functional safety management.
Conclusion
The secret to exam success lies in how you prepared to sit for it. The preparation process is long and needs your total investment in it. This makes it important for you to create a plan and sacrifice some time to go through your CFSE notes. The tips above will help you manage time and organize relevant materials to prepare well for the exams to ensure you meet certification for the specific program.
Author’s Bio:
Emma Rundle is an online tutor covering various fields like writing training for thesis, essays and dissertation and competitive exam coaching to help students get into the best universities worldwide. She has a large fan base and wants to continue her great work in the future. In her free time, she practices yoga, listens to classical music, and reads non-fiction.