Strategies for Passing AAAE Certification Exams

Alright, looks like we're ready to go. So my name is Jeff Price. I am the co-author of the Certified Member Materials for the American Association of Airport Executives, along with Dr. Jeff Forrest. Both of us are from Metropolitan State University of Denver. And we've been co-authoring the CM modules since 2010. I'm also the author of the exam for the certified member. I also teach and write the airport certified employee security program as well so this presentation is going to cover both. It equally applies to the CM or the ACE programs, not just my ACE program, but other ACE programs too should help you with passing those. So how to pass the AAA certified member or certified employee programs facilitated by Jeff Price. Just a little bit on my background and I'm not going to go really too far into this, plus the video is covering part of it anyway, but I am a full-time college professor and I do the training. for AAA as a contractor on the side. So I trained most of the certified member courses, including the academies and the security courses. Over the course of my time with AAA, I've trained most of their courses, ASOPs, Basic Advanced, ASOS, Incident Report Writing, all sorts of them out there. So that's kind of my background. I am a former airport director. And one of the things that I do want to stress is when I write the materials, I do write it. from really the perspective of being an airport director. So I want to give you some hints along those lines as we go. Former airport operations, Denver Stapleton, Assistant Security Director, Denver International, am a commercial instrument rated pilot, and previous life was in the Coast Guard. So 26 different ways to pass the AAA certification exams. First off, hope is not a plan. Hope is what you want. you have when you've not prepared. Preparation is a plan. Hope is what people have when you're neither committed nor take action to achieve what you want to achieve. Preparation, positive mental attitude, and execution is a plan. You have control over all three of these things. I want you to pass these exams. I don't write these to try and trick people to see how many I can get to fail. I want you to pass them and I want you to have this information so that you can be better prepared to pass them. So let's start with an exercise. I'm going to give you a paragraph here, and I'm going to ask you to identify the potential test questions. Let's see if I can get my own picture out of the way there. So, not totally, but we'll be close enough for now. Let's just take this from the Certified Member Program. Zero-based budgeting. In its ideal form is a process that assumes the budget for each year has no historical information. And all items must be justified on their own. In this approach looking back at previous results or budget guidance is not accepted advantages to this technique are That it requires a fresh perspective and a reanalysis of all items or amounts to be budgeted, though it does not allow, sorry, for all items to be amounts to be budgeted, just because that's what occurred in the past. The disadvantage is that it's practically impossible to fully implement this methodology. So, pause this for a second and see how many test questions you can identify from this paragraph. In the interest of time, I'm going to move us to the next slide and show you how you can break down one of these to identify some test questions and create index cards or flashcards out of them. Identify the potential test questions. Zero-based budgeting assumes a budget has no historical information. There's a characteristic. All items must be justified on their own. Looking back at previous results for budget guidance is not accepted. Advantages requires a fresh perspective and reanalysis of all items every year. Disadvantage is practically impossible to fully implement the methodology. Let's break that down a little bit more. What have we highlighted? Okay, so I've highlighted literally probably one, two, three. four possible test questions out of this and now I'm getting rid of the extraneous language it doesn't need to be there zero based budgeting assumes a budget has no historical information all items justified on their own looking back previous results not accepted so forth let's break it down to an outline So now we've taken this one paragraph and we reverse engineered it. We've broken it down to an outline. Zero-based budgeting assumes the budget has no historical information, justified on their own, looking back at previous results not accepted. Advantage requires a fresh perspective, reanalysis, disadvantage practically impossible to implement. So I'm going to break this down even further. Zero-based budgeting. No historical information. Items must be justified. Previous results not accepted. Advantages. Fresh perspective, not based on past budgets. Disadvantage. Practically impossible. Creating a flashcard. What type of budget uses no prior historical information? Zero-based budgeting. And then you can continue to build on that because I'm going to ask about advantages and disadvantages. in addition to characteristics of zero-based budgeting. Now, I'll give you a paragraph that is full of potential test questions. Not every paragraph is going to have four or five potential test questions in it. In fact, most paragraphs might have one or two. Not that many. many and this process does take a little bit of time but so does the studying and when we do our CM Academy review courses they're exactly that a review the assumption is made that you have already done the homework ahead of time so Does this take time? Yeah. Will you get better at that? Yeah. As you go along, you're going to start to see those natural test questions as you go through, and you won't have to go to the highlight and the outline and all that other stuff. You'll just start to see them as they pop out. Now take a look at this paragraph. To describe one airport would simply be to describe one airport. Airport operational activities and characteristics vary widely, with some airports focused more on commercial service, some focused on general aviation, still others focused on cargo operations. The variables continue in numerous directions from this point on, but there's enough similarities that a general description of airport operational activities, sorry again for the video covering that, can be identified, particularly if the airports are broken down by further classification. So pause this one and see if you can come up with a test question on this. Just one. Again, in the interest of time, I'm going to move this on. I don't have a test question out of this paragraph. This is what's called a context paragraph. Now, if you came up with one, good for you. I didn't. This is a context paragraph. It's setting you up for the information you're going to need to know moving forward. So, in this case, what this is telling me is, oh, we're probably going to talk about different characteristics of airports. That's what we're talking about here. And there's a variety of types of airports. Okay, so what do I need to be paying attention to now? The different types of airports I need to pay attention to and their characteristics. So now this segues me into the stuff that is testable. All right, 26 ways to pass these exams. First way and the best thing you can do, read the modules. In any of the programs, I know it's a lot of information. Even if you don't totally understand it, get it into your head. Read the modules. Don't look for the shortcuts. I'll mention that later. Don't look for, you know, there's Quizlet.com, Cram.com. There's a whole bunch of information out there. Don't spend more time looking for shortcuts. shortcuts and you do actually reading the material number one thing you can do is read the modules again even if you don't totally understand it just get through them and use tools as you go along and I'll mention some of that as we go but what is what has been the consistency the number one thing people can do to pass these exams is literally read the modules Number two is have a plan. Start reading as soon as you get the information just to get yourself immersed in that. Come up with a schedule study, times that you would have a block of time that you would schedule as if it was an important meeting that you could not miss, and make the commitment to study during those times. times get your study materials ready highlighters word processor pens whatever you use to take notes with any of that material you need obviously the modules By the way, when those modules get sent out, many times there's supplemental information that goes along with it. So make sure you open those. Sometimes there's an errata or additional information or practice questions or study guides that go along with it. So check those emails don't just dismiss them when they're coming from triple-a see what those attachments are it might be providing you valuable information read with intent give yourself context And this, what I mean by this is the, if you just read something to read it, there's really nothing stuck in the brain. If you read it with the intent or given a context, what if you had to brief or teach this information to somebody else? Now, how would you read that material? So I was in an experience in my life one time where I had to learn as much as I could about the airport master plan in a week. and be able to brief it. If anybody's ever seen the Master Plan Advisory Circular, it's about 300 pages long, and I had to condense that enough so I could give it in a 20-minute presentation and be able to answer questions about the process. So when I read that with that intent, I very much had a better retention of the information because I was giving myself a reason to do all of this. So read with context, read with intent. How would you brief this or teach this to somebody? else. Make flashcards. Flashcards used because they work. It's the best way to memorize rote knowledge, particularly in a short period of time. I've seen this when I was in the military. You'll notice all the students walking around because they all have stacks of flashcards of stuff that they're trying to memorize make flashcards use flashcards you can use old-school index cards if you want or you can use the the flashcard apps the benefit is if you're gonna write your index cards out of your flashcards There's a higher retention by handwriting that information. But if you decide to type the information into one of the flashcard apps, you can get it done faster. And also it will move through the material and not give you as many questions of stuff that you already know. You can do that with the manual flashcards as well, but it really comes down to what you have time for and your personal preference. Avoid shortcuts. Look, Quizlet.com. all those flashcard apps great for creating flashcards but don't rely on somebody else's work I've seen questions out there from past exams I've seen first the exam made those cards may be from outdated exam information or outdated module information I saw one group that was passing around a practice exam literally a practice test triple-a is not published though since about 2009 I think a lot of times what people will do is they'll take the CM class they'll write down the practice questions from the class they'll write down the jeopardy practice questions and they'll assume that I've got it down why because I've got the practice questions from the tip from the class so I've got everything I need no you don't there's no possible way we could put all those questions in a week-long course there's way too many of the database So you fool yourself thinking that, okay, I've got this down. I won't have to study anymore. No. Too often I've seen people spend more time looking for the shortcuts than actually studying the material. And those people don't pass. Also, give yourself some help, like chat GPT or something. If you're having a hard time explaining a concept, feel free to use some AI, some artificial intelligence, to ask it to explain it to you in a different way. But keep in mind... that what's don't stake your grade on that what's in the modules what's going to be on the exam so use the tools that might help you understand things but don't rely 100 on them all the time Use official study materials. Like for the CM, we publish study guides. Use those. Some of the ACE programs do study questions for practice. Use those. So now you're using the official materials and always do those. There's a reason we publish them. do those. Reason number eight, study groups. Look, some people are better in study groups than others. If studying in a group is your thing, go for it. If not, if you find that's not helpful for you, don't feel the need to push yourself and do that. You can best decide as to whether you should be in a study group or not. What else did I have to say about that? Okay. Teach to learn. This is a process we use in class where I'll give 15 to 20 minutes of information to the class through presentation, and then we'll have the people at each table. because the tables are set up, at least in my classes, in pod style. We'll have one person at each table go back through the workbook and just go through the workbook without digging into all of the details of the materials and talk. through that back to the rest of their team in a very shortened version, five six minutes just to talk through it. We always learn more when we teach so that's actually if you're not a whether you are or aren't like to study in groups that's a good way to study in groups is you can ask each other questions and stuff but if you're going to do the group study assign people certain areas and have them bring that to the table and teach it. So we can we simulate this in class in short periods of time if you have time in advance to do study groups and you've got a couple weeks or months that's a good way to do this we always learn more when we teach anytime you can incorporate that definitely do so if you can at all possibly do it take the class the CM class the ACE classes you'll learn what's important and not just what's context and get my notes here so make sure I don't miss anything. You'll have plain language explanations of the material. There'll be analogies, there'll be stories to try and make the concepts easier to understand. So if you can take the class, take the class. But if you take the class, make sure you read the materials first or get through them as much as you can. The class is not a substitute for reading the materials. Study daily, even if it's a quick flashcard review. Keep your flashcards, your flashcard app nearby. Flip through them during your downtime while you're waiting in line at Starbucks, you're waiting for a meeting to start, whatever. Keep that information fresh in your mind. Especially as you get farther along through those modules, the earlier stuff you read, the retention is going to start to drop off. So make sure you're keeping those up to date. Study the materials intermittently, which may sound a little contrary to what I just told you. What I mean by this is study one section one day, then another section another day. A couple of days later, revisit that first section again. So it's my master's degrees in adult education, curriculum, and instruction design. There's some teaching philosophy and pedagogy that goes on behind the scenes. I don't want to get into all that explanation. But this sort of intermittent refresher of information is going to help you out tremendously. Think like your teacher or course developer. So read with perspective as if you're the one creating the exam. Most questions come along the lines of who, what, when, where, why, how. Take a paragraph like we did earlier and see if you can break down some questions. Use that who, what, when, where, why, how format. Because most of your questions come along the lines of who's responsible for this. What's this process? How does this work? Why do we do this? So keep that in mind. Think like a teacher or course developer. What would I want the student to know versus what's just context to set them up for that information? Ask yourself. If you're going to ask a multiple choice question from what you're reading, what would you ask? And the way I studied for my CM, and I'll admit I self-studied both times. First time I self-studied, almost got it. Second time I did, no problem. I wish I would have taken the class because I would have gotten it the first time. Both times I did read the materials. But the second time I studied, I literally wrote the exam for myself. I wrote my own version of the exam. I even included detractors. I literally wrote a multiple choice test. And I've covered as many questions as I possibly could gather from that material. What's amazing is I started to get into the actual exam, and a lot of those were similar to what I'd written myself. So I can't stress that enough. Write your own exam. That's exactly what I've been talking about. Sorry, sometimes I get out of my slides. Because you start to think like a test developer at this point, and you start to identify those correct answers. 15 break the exam break the modules down into sections subsections studying in small amounts so one of the things that I love studying high-performance people like Olympic athletes or people who've been very successful in their field or military personnel, the elite. Like with Navy SEALs, they talk about going through training. How do they get through months of intense training? One evolution at a time. Break it down one small section, learn that section, move to the next section. Don't worry that you're in objective one of module one and you've still got three modules plus the rest of module one to go. That's not your worry right now. Your worry is module one, objective one, the section that you're in. Then you're going to move to the next section. Then you're going to move to the next section. Focus on each one of these and eventually you're going to be done. Except the modules. is the truth regardless of what you do in industry. This is one of the hardest things that people will do is if you do have industry background and knowledge, that's fantastic. Oftentimes that is a tremendous help, but the modules are written or the exam is written from the modules. The modules are not written based on how 5,000 public use airports do business. Everybody does things just a little bit differently. So the modules are based on FAA advisory circulars, FAA. orders publicly available TSA information airport research documents from Airport Cooperative Research research panels National Safe Skies Alliance Paris projects textbooks that are published on the topics so your reality might not be the reality of the module so just make sure you understand hey in my world we do it this way but the CM says it's different obviously put the CN answered down. This is one of the biggest hurdles people with industry experience have. If you don't have that much experience, you've kind of had a little bit of a benefit is that you kind of accept all this as the truth and your brain doesn't start arguing with it and say, I've never heard of that before. I've trained at 87 different airports and I've seen probably 170, I don't know, four different ways of doing things. Airports can do things a little bit different. So just understand, focus on what's in the modules. believe that to be the truth until you pass that exam. Then you can go back to the way you've been doing things at your home airport. Don't assume the material in each certification program is the same across the board. The ACE programs are written from a variety of different instructors, and then the CM, of course, written by myself and Dr. Forrest. And we all focus on different things. We all draw from usually the... same knowledge bases but we try we do check each other's information from time to time and I tend to vet a lot of those programs as well but sometimes people want to emphasize one thing over another so just because you did well at ace ops doesn't mean don't read the CM ops section there might be some distinctions there might be some differences maybe the CM or ace ops got updated since the last document was published So don't make those assumptions. Understand each instructor writes questions differently and tests on different information. So whatever class you took before with a different instructor, understand another instructor is going to take things from a little bit different perspective. And that's just like high school or college or anything. Everybody has their own kind of perspective on how things are going to go. Number 19. Check the module truth against your truth. This kind of speaks to what I mentioned earlier about assuming that the module material matches your real world, or vice versa, assuming your real world is on the exam. If you're an expert in one area, like you're an expert in planning, and you're in the CM planning section, a lot of it should look familiar to you. If it doesn't, I haven't done my job right. But understand that, okay, I've kind of got this. Let me just check it to see if there's anything inconsiderate. consistent with what I know to be true in industry, then let me move on to some of these other areas where I don't have as much experience. So make sure you're assuming that, or not assuming that module truth and your truth are going to be the same thing. Get hands-on and eyes and ears. Take a tour of the departments like the planning department or the ops department. See if they can get you out to the airfield. Spend a day with somebody from some of the different departments. like public relations or something along those lines, just so that you'll have a more rounded understanding of the material overall. Number 21, talk to others that have taken the exams. Keep in mind that, again, each author is differently, or writes questions differently. But talk to others and see kind of what those were emphasized. You know, were they, wow, were they talk a lot more about this, more about that? or more other questions about you know dates and times of things or or more of the questions about what affected what or what's the definition of this that and the other so focus on those areas also one thing I I do just backing up real quick to number 20 take a look at the actual documents that we talked about in the modules go take a look at a copy of the grant assurances or sponsor assurances they're online they're downloadable speedy F don't have to read the whole thing just understand what that looks like it's a visual connection it makes it real same thing with an airport layout plan or an airport master plan or the NIPP is national plan of integrated airport systems This turns abstract concepts into reality. Look for natural test questions. Anything that's a qualifier, like the most, the first, the best. Those are all natural test questions. anything again with a qualifier like large hub airports represent 70 percent of the total annual passenger appointments in the united states that's a quantifier that's a natural test question those are just easy to write so they're easy to study all right when you take the exam part one read the question carefully understand what the question is asking So is the question, did you just ask about an aircraft operator or an airport operator? Are you talking about a joint use or a shared use airport? Don't start to answer that question in your mind when you're halfway through the question. Read the question first so you understand because that context might have switched. I can guarantee you, at least for the CM&A security, I don't try to write trick questions. I don't try to do that. But the FAA, the TSA, EPA, they're agencies of nuance. And by that I mean there's a... difference between 9,999 passenger implements and 10,000. It's a huge difference in calculating how much funding your airport's going to get. Just that one difference in number. So these things do matter. There's sometimes a distinction between and and or that can make the question right or wrong. And I'd rather you have the credibility and industry to speak about this knowledgeably than not. So that's ultimately, I want you to pass a test, but I also want you to become knowledgeable about this information. Maybe not a master of the information that takes time and energy and effort over a course of time, but at least so you have an understanding of what people are talking about when they're talking. talking about it all right don't start answering the question in your mind till you've read the question try not to change your initial answer it's usually right you've got a better chance changing it to the wrong answer Do a quick study day of the exam. Shuffle through your flashcards, usually the areas that you struggle with. Get yourself back into test mode, back into the CM world. When you take the exam part two, use the, AAA will send out a practice exam. The practice exam has nothing to do with the exam you're about to take. It's just to help you set up your computer for the actual test. Do that ahead of time. This is going to relieve stress on actual test day because then you're not worried about, does my webcam work? Does my microphone work? work is this my computer going to work with the software get that done ahead of time have your driver's license available for your ID or whatever your ID is get ready to go so that when you do take the test you have all that information you're not scrambling around looking for it What I would do is go through and answer the questions you know right away. The testing software does allow you to skip questions and go back to them later. If you're getting stuck on a question you're not sure, move on to the next question. Do a couple passes. What's going to start to happen is your brain is going to start to get back into the CM world or this ACE world. And it's going to be living there. And it's going to start to get insights. And sometimes one question is going to... spur the answer to another question that you might have. So let that, let that stuff happen. You know, go through the ones that you know, go back through the ones you're pretty sure about, go back through them again, and see... maybe one question helped another. At the end of this, you're going to be left with a handful of questions you're really just not sure on. But you're in the best position to make educated guesses at that point. All right, we're in the homestretch here. Also, check to be sure you've answered all the questions before you submit. And the test software does a pretty good job of making sure you don't screw that up. But make sure you've answered all the questions. 25. If you don't pass, try again. Pass or fail, you're going to get a report from AAA on how you did in each objective in each module. So if you've passed, then you kind of get, you know, a fun little study aid that says, oh, okay, well, this is how I did in good and bad areas. If you don't pass, you literally get a study guide. It's going to say, look, you got three questions from module one, objective one. You got two of them right. Or you. got three questions from objective five module one you got zero of them right oh okay now i know what you're gonna need to study some more so if you don't pass you're gonna get a report on how well you did and where to study next time you'll have seen a hundred to 180 actual test questions depending on the test you're taking and put that retake date on the calendar and schedule it and by the By that I mean, get with AAA and schedule it. Don't pencil it in that you're going to do it later. I took my remote pilot test about a year or so ago, and when I scheduled it with the FAA's website, I meant to schedule it for two months out, inadvertently scheduled it for a week out, and couldn't change it. So, boy, with that on the calendar, that I had to hurry up and get that done in that period of time, that really focuses your effort. Don't fool yourself into thinking, wow, this is... is a lot of information, especially if you take the class. You know, it's all kind of firehose. I don't totally understand it. I'm going to take some time later. I'll read through all this stuff again and, you know, I'll take the test in three or four months. It's not going to happen. I've seen this for years. Almost never happens. Get it on the calendar. Knock it out as soon as you can. All right. The 26th and most important one I've got for you. Read the modules. Yes, I know it was number one. but literally that's the thing that's going to help you pass these exams. Hopefully this will be of some help to you. Hopefully we'd love to see you in class at some point in the future. And if I don't, but you earn your CM or your ACE, congratulations. If this is something that helped you, I'm very happy for you. Otherwise... Again, hope to see you in class. If there's anything that you have questions on, I'm pretty easy to find on the Internet. Just type Jeff Price Aviation, and my website, Leading Edge Strategies, will come up. My email's on there. happy to go from there. One more thing to remember, hope's not a plan. Hope is what people have when you're neither committed nor take action to achieve what you want to achieve. Preparation, positive mental attitude, execution is a plan. You have control over all three. All right, so Q&A, obviously you're watching this on a video, but if you do have questions, again, my website, leading edge. strategies calm my emails on the website or there is a form field you can fill out and happy to try and answer any questions you have good luck to you

Alright, looks like we're ready to go. So my name is Jeff Price. I am the co-author of the Certified Member Materials for the American Association of Airport Executives, along with Dr. Jeff Forrest.

Both of us are from Metropolitan State University of Denver. And we've been co-authoring the CM modules since 2010. I'm also the author of the exam for the certified member. I also teach and write the airport certified employee security program as well so this presentation is going to cover both.

It equally applies to the CM or the ACE programs, not just my ACE program, but other ACE programs too should help you with passing those. So how to pass the AAA certified member or certified employee programs facilitated by Jeff Price. Just a little bit on my background and I'm not going to go really too far into this, plus the video is covering part of it anyway, but I am a full-time college professor and I do the training. for AAA as a contractor on the side. So I trained most of the certified member courses, including the academies and the security courses.

Over the course of my time with AAA, I've trained most of their courses, ASOPs, Basic Advanced, ASOS, Incident Report Writing, all sorts of them out there. So that's kind of my background. I am a former airport director.

And one of the things that I do want to stress is when I write the materials, I do write it. from really the perspective of being an airport director. So I want to give you some hints along those lines as we go.

Former airport operations, Denver Stapleton, Assistant Security Director, Denver International, am a commercial instrument rated pilot, and previous life was in the Coast Guard. So 26 different ways to pass the AAA certification exams. First off, hope is not a plan. Hope is what you want. you have when you've not prepared.

Preparation is a plan. Hope is what people have when you're neither committed nor take action to achieve what you want to achieve. Preparation, positive mental attitude, and execution is a plan.

You have control over all three of these things. I want you to pass these exams. I don't write these to try and trick people to see how many I can get to fail.

I want you to pass them and I want you to have this information so that you can be better prepared to pass them. So let's start with an exercise. I'm going to give you a paragraph here, and I'm going to ask you to identify the potential test questions.

Let's see if I can get my own picture out of the way there. So, not totally, but we'll be close enough for now. Let's just take this from the Certified Member Program.

Zero-based budgeting. In its ideal form is a process that assumes the budget for each year has no historical information. And all items must be justified on their own. In this approach looking back at previous results or budget guidance is not accepted advantages to this technique are That it requires a fresh perspective and a reanalysis of all items or amounts to be budgeted, though it does not allow, sorry, for all items to be amounts to be budgeted, just because that's what occurred in the past.

The disadvantage is that it's practically impossible to fully implement this methodology. So, pause this for a second and see how many test questions you can identify from this paragraph. In the interest of time, I'm going to move us to the next slide and show you how you can break down one of these to identify some test questions and create index cards or flashcards out of them. Identify the potential test questions. Zero-based budgeting assumes a budget has no historical information.

There's a characteristic. All items must be justified on their own. Looking back at previous results for budget guidance is not accepted. Advantages requires a fresh perspective and reanalysis of all items every year. Disadvantage is practically impossible to fully implement the methodology.

Let's break that down a little bit more. What have we highlighted? Okay, so I've highlighted literally probably one, two, three.

four possible test questions out of this and now I'm getting rid of the extraneous language it doesn't need to be there zero based budgeting assumes a budget has no historical information all items justified on their own looking back previous results not accepted so forth let's break it down to an outline So now we've taken this one paragraph and we reverse engineered it. We've broken it down to an outline. Zero-based budgeting assumes the budget has no historical information, justified on their own, looking back at previous results not accepted.

Advantage requires a fresh perspective, reanalysis, disadvantage practically impossible to implement. So I'm going to break this down even further. Zero-based budgeting.

No historical information. Items must be justified. Previous results not accepted.

Advantages. Fresh perspective, not based on past budgets. Disadvantage.

Practically impossible. Creating a flashcard. What type of budget uses no prior historical information? Zero-based budgeting.

And then you can continue to build on that because I'm going to ask about advantages and disadvantages. in addition to characteristics of zero-based budgeting. Now, I'll give you a paragraph that is full of potential test questions.

Not every paragraph is going to have four or five potential test questions in it. In fact, most paragraphs might have one or two. Not that many. many and this process does take a little bit of time but so does the studying and when we do our CM Academy review courses they're exactly that a review the assumption is made that you have already done the homework ahead of time so Does this take time?

Yeah. Will you get better at that? Yeah. As you go along, you're going to start to see those natural test questions as you go through, and you won't have to go to the highlight and the outline and all that other stuff.

You'll just start to see them as they pop out. Now take a look at this paragraph. To describe one airport would simply be to describe one airport. Airport operational activities and characteristics vary widely, with some airports focused more on commercial service, some focused on general aviation, still others focused on cargo operations. The variables continue in numerous directions from this point on, but there's enough similarities that a general description of airport operational activities, sorry again for the video covering that, can be identified, particularly if the airports are broken down by further classification.

So pause this one and see if you can come up with a test question on this. Just one. Again, in the interest of time, I'm going to move this on.

I don't have a test question out of this paragraph. This is what's called a context paragraph. Now, if you came up with one, good for you.

I didn't. This is a context paragraph. It's setting you up for the information you're going to need to know moving forward.

So, in this case, what this is telling me is, oh, we're probably going to talk about different characteristics of airports. That's what we're talking about here. And there's a variety of types of airports. Okay, so what do I need to be paying attention to now?

The different types of airports I need to pay attention to and their characteristics. So now this segues me into the stuff that is testable. All right, 26 ways to pass these exams.

First way and the best thing you can do, read the modules. In any of the programs, I know it's a lot of information. Even if you don't totally understand it, get it into your head. Read the modules.

Don't look for the shortcuts. I'll mention that later. Don't look for, you know, there's Quizlet.com, Cram.com. There's a whole bunch of information out there.

Don't spend more time looking for shortcuts. shortcuts and you do actually reading the material number one thing you can do is read the modules again even if you don't totally understand it just get through them and use tools as you go along and I'll mention some of that as we go but what is what has been the consistency the number one thing people can do to pass these exams is literally read the modules Number two is have a plan. Start reading as soon as you get the information just to get yourself immersed in that.

Come up with a schedule study, times that you would have a block of time that you would schedule as if it was an important meeting that you could not miss, and make the commitment to study during those times. times get your study materials ready highlighters word processor pens whatever you use to take notes with any of that material you need obviously the modules By the way, when those modules get sent out, many times there's supplemental information that goes along with it. So make sure you open those.

Sometimes there's an errata or additional information or practice questions or study guides that go along with it. So check those emails don't just dismiss them when they're coming from triple-a see what those attachments are it might be providing you valuable information read with intent give yourself context And this, what I mean by this is the, if you just read something to read it, there's really nothing stuck in the brain. If you read it with the intent or given a context, what if you had to brief or teach this information to somebody else?

Now, how would you read that material? So I was in an experience in my life one time where I had to learn as much as I could about the airport master plan in a week. and be able to brief it.

If anybody's ever seen the Master Plan Advisory Circular, it's about 300 pages long, and I had to condense that enough so I could give it in a 20-minute presentation and be able to answer questions about the process. So when I read that with that intent, I very much had a better retention of the information because I was giving myself a reason to do all of this. So read with context, read with intent. How would you brief this or teach this to somebody? else.

Make flashcards. Flashcards used because they work. It's the best way to memorize rote knowledge, particularly in a short period of time. I've seen this when I was in the military. You'll notice all the students walking around because they all have stacks of flashcards of stuff that they're trying to memorize make flashcards use flashcards you can use old-school index cards if you want or you can use the the flashcard apps the benefit is if you're gonna write your index cards out of your flashcards There's a higher retention by handwriting that information.

But if you decide to type the information into one of the flashcard apps, you can get it done faster. And also it will move through the material and not give you as many questions of stuff that you already know. You can do that with the manual flashcards as well, but it really comes down to what you have time for and your personal preference.

Avoid shortcuts. Look, Quizlet.com. all those flashcard apps great for creating flashcards but don't rely on somebody else's work I've seen questions out there from past exams I've seen first the exam made those cards may be from outdated exam information or outdated module information I saw one group that was passing around a practice exam literally a practice test triple-a is not published though since about 2009 I think a lot of times what people will do is they'll take the CM class they'll write down the practice questions from the class they'll write down the jeopardy practice questions and they'll assume that I've got it down why because I've got the practice questions from the tip from the class so I've got everything I need no you don't there's no possible way we could put all those questions in a week-long course there's way too many of the database So you fool yourself thinking that, okay, I've got this down.

I won't have to study anymore. No. Too often I've seen people spend more time looking for the shortcuts than actually studying the material.

And those people don't pass. Also, give yourself some help, like chat GPT or something. If you're having a hard time explaining a concept, feel free to use some AI, some artificial intelligence, to ask it to explain it to you in a different way. But keep in mind...

that what's don't stake your grade on that what's in the modules what's going to be on the exam so use the tools that might help you understand things but don't rely 100 on them all the time Use official study materials. Like for the CM, we publish study guides. Use those.

Some of the ACE programs do study questions for practice. Use those. So now you're using the official materials and always do those.

There's a reason we publish them. do those. Reason number eight, study groups. Look, some people are better in study groups than others. If studying in a group is your thing, go for it.

If not, if you find that's not helpful for you, don't feel the need to push yourself and do that. You can best decide as to whether you should be in a study group or not. What else did I have to say about that? Okay.

Teach to learn. This is a process we use in class where I'll give 15 to 20 minutes of information to the class through presentation, and then we'll have the people at each table. because the tables are set up, at least in my classes, in pod style. We'll have one person at each table go back through the workbook and just go through the workbook without digging into all of the details of the materials and talk.

through that back to the rest of their team in a very shortened version, five six minutes just to talk through it. We always learn more when we teach so that's actually if you're not a whether you are or aren't like to study in groups that's a good way to study in groups is you can ask each other questions and stuff but if you're going to do the group study assign people certain areas and have them bring that to the table and teach it. So we can we simulate this in class in short periods of time if you have time in advance to do study groups and you've got a couple weeks or months that's a good way to do this we always learn more when we teach anytime you can incorporate that definitely do so if you can at all possibly do it take the class the CM class the ACE classes you'll learn what's important and not just what's context and get my notes here so make sure I don't miss anything. You'll have plain language explanations of the material. There'll be analogies, there'll be stories to try and make the concepts easier to understand.

So if you can take the class, take the class. But if you take the class, make sure you read the materials first or get through them as much as you can. The class is not a substitute for reading the materials.

Study daily, even if it's a quick flashcard review. Keep your flashcards, your flashcard app nearby. Flip through them during your downtime while you're waiting in line at Starbucks, you're waiting for a meeting to start, whatever. Keep that information fresh in your mind. Especially as you get farther along through those modules, the earlier stuff you read, the retention is going to start to drop off.

So make sure you're keeping those up to date. Study the materials intermittently, which may sound a little contrary to what I just told you. What I mean by this is study one section one day, then another section another day.

A couple of days later, revisit that first section again. So it's my master's degrees in adult education, curriculum, and instruction design. There's some teaching philosophy and pedagogy that goes on behind the scenes.

I don't want to get into all that explanation. But this sort of intermittent refresher of information is going to help you out tremendously. Think like your teacher or course developer. So read with perspective as if you're the one creating the exam. Most questions come along the lines of who, what, when, where, why, how.

Take a paragraph like we did earlier and see if you can break down some questions. Use that who, what, when, where, why, how format. Because most of your questions come along the lines of who's responsible for this.

What's this process? How does this work? Why do we do this?

So keep that in mind. Think like a teacher or course developer. What would I want the student to know versus what's just context to set them up for that information?

Ask yourself. If you're going to ask a multiple choice question from what you're reading, what would you ask? And the way I studied for my CM, and I'll admit I self-studied both times. First time I self-studied, almost got it.

Second time I did, no problem. I wish I would have taken the class because I would have gotten it the first time. Both times I did read the materials. But the second time I studied, I literally wrote the exam for myself. I wrote my own version of the exam.

I even included detractors. I literally wrote a multiple choice test. And I've covered as many questions as I possibly could gather from that material. What's amazing is I started to get into the actual exam, and a lot of those were similar to what I'd written myself.

So I can't stress that enough. Write your own exam. That's exactly what I've been talking about.

Sorry, sometimes I get out of my slides. Because you start to think like a test developer at this point, and you start to identify those correct answers. 15 break the exam break the modules down into sections subsections studying in small amounts so one of the things that I love studying high-performance people like Olympic athletes or people who've been very successful in their field or military personnel, the elite. Like with Navy SEALs, they talk about going through training. How do they get through months of intense training?

One evolution at a time. Break it down one small section, learn that section, move to the next section. Don't worry that you're in objective one of module one and you've still got three modules plus the rest of module one to go. That's not your worry right now.

Your worry is module one, objective one, the section that you're in. Then you're going to move to the next section. Then you're going to move to the next section. Focus on each one of these and eventually you're going to be done.

Except the modules. is the truth regardless of what you do in industry. This is one of the hardest things that people will do is if you do have industry background and knowledge, that's fantastic. Oftentimes that is a tremendous help, but the modules are written or the exam is written from the modules. The modules are not written based on how 5,000 public use airports do business.

Everybody does things just a little bit differently. So the modules are based on FAA advisory circulars, FAA. orders publicly available TSA information airport research documents from Airport Cooperative Research research panels National Safe Skies Alliance Paris projects textbooks that are published on the topics so your reality might not be the reality of the module so just make sure you understand hey in my world we do it this way but the CM says it's different obviously put the CN answered down.

This is one of the biggest hurdles people with industry experience have. If you don't have that much experience, you've kind of had a little bit of a benefit is that you kind of accept all this as the truth and your brain doesn't start arguing with it and say, I've never heard of that before. I've trained at 87 different airports and I've seen probably 170, I don't know, four different ways of doing things. Airports can do things a little bit different. So just understand, focus on what's in the modules.

believe that to be the truth until you pass that exam. Then you can go back to the way you've been doing things at your home airport. Don't assume the material in each certification program is the same across the board. The ACE programs are written from a variety of different instructors, and then the CM, of course, written by myself and Dr. Forrest.

And we all focus on different things. We all draw from usually the... same knowledge bases but we try we do check each other's information from time to time and I tend to vet a lot of those programs as well but sometimes people want to emphasize one thing over another so just because you did well at ace ops doesn't mean don't read the CM ops section there might be some distinctions there might be some differences maybe the CM or ace ops got updated since the last document was published So don't make those assumptions.

Understand each instructor writes questions differently and tests on different information. So whatever class you took before with a different instructor, understand another instructor is going to take things from a little bit different perspective. And that's just like high school or college or anything. Everybody has their own kind of perspective on how things are going to go. Number 19. Check the module truth against your truth.

This kind of speaks to what I mentioned earlier about assuming that the module material matches your real world, or vice versa, assuming your real world is on the exam. If you're an expert in one area, like you're an expert in planning, and you're in the CM planning section, a lot of it should look familiar to you. If it doesn't, I haven't done my job right. But understand that, okay, I've kind of got this. Let me just check it to see if there's anything inconsiderate.

consistent with what I know to be true in industry, then let me move on to some of these other areas where I don't have as much experience. So make sure you're assuming that, or not assuming that module truth and your truth are going to be the same thing. Get hands-on and eyes and ears. Take a tour of the departments like the planning department or the ops department.

See if they can get you out to the airfield. Spend a day with somebody from some of the different departments. like public relations or something along those lines, just so that you'll have a more rounded understanding of the material overall. Number 21, talk to others that have taken the exams.

Keep in mind that, again, each author is differently, or writes questions differently. But talk to others and see kind of what those were emphasized. You know, were they, wow, were they talk a lot more about this, more about that?

or more other questions about you know dates and times of things or or more of the questions about what affected what or what's the definition of this that and the other so focus on those areas also one thing I I do just backing up real quick to number 20 take a look at the actual documents that we talked about in the modules go take a look at a copy of the grant assurances or sponsor assurances they're online they're downloadable speedy F don't have to read the whole thing just understand what that looks like it's a visual connection it makes it real same thing with an airport layout plan or an airport master plan or the NIPP is national plan of integrated airport systems This turns abstract concepts into reality. Look for natural test questions. Anything that's a qualifier, like the most, the first, the best. Those are all natural test questions.

anything again with a qualifier like large hub airports represent 70 percent of the total annual passenger appointments in the united states that's a quantifier that's a natural test question those are just easy to write so they're easy to study all right when you take the exam part one read the question carefully understand what the question is asking So is the question, did you just ask about an aircraft operator or an airport operator? Are you talking about a joint use or a shared use airport? Don't start to answer that question in your mind when you're halfway through the question.

Read the question first so you understand because that context might have switched. I can guarantee you, at least for the CM&A security, I don't try to write trick questions. I don't try to do that. But the FAA, the TSA, EPA, they're agencies of nuance. And by that I mean there's a...

difference between 9,999 passenger implements and 10,000. It's a huge difference in calculating how much funding your airport's going to get. Just that one difference in number. So these things do matter.

There's sometimes a distinction between and and or that can make the question right or wrong. And I'd rather you have the credibility and industry to speak about this knowledgeably than not. So that's ultimately, I want you to pass a test, but I also want you to become knowledgeable about this information. Maybe not a master of the information that takes time and energy and effort over a course of time, but at least so you have an understanding of what people are talking about when they're talking. talking about it all right don't start answering the question in your mind till you've read the question try not to change your initial answer it's usually right you've got a better chance changing it to the wrong answer Do a quick study day of the exam.

Shuffle through your flashcards, usually the areas that you struggle with. Get yourself back into test mode, back into the CM world. When you take the exam part two, use the, AAA will send out a practice exam.

The practice exam has nothing to do with the exam you're about to take. It's just to help you set up your computer for the actual test. Do that ahead of time. This is going to relieve stress on actual test day because then you're not worried about, does my webcam work?

Does my microphone work? work is this my computer going to work with the software get that done ahead of time have your driver's license available for your ID or whatever your ID is get ready to go so that when you do take the test you have all that information you're not scrambling around looking for it What I would do is go through and answer the questions you know right away. The testing software does allow you to skip questions and go back to them later.

If you're getting stuck on a question you're not sure, move on to the next question. Do a couple passes. What's going to start to happen is your brain is going to start to get back into the CM world or this ACE world.

And it's going to be living there. And it's going to start to get insights. And sometimes one question is going to... spur the answer to another question that you might have.

So let that, let that stuff happen. You know, go through the ones that you know, go back through the ones you're pretty sure about, go back through them again, and see... maybe one question helped another.

At the end of this, you're going to be left with a handful of questions you're really just not sure on. But you're in the best position to make educated guesses at that point. All right, we're in the homestretch here.

Also, check to be sure you've answered all the questions before you submit. And the test software does a pretty good job of making sure you don't screw that up. But make sure you've answered all the questions.

25. If you don't pass, try again. Pass or fail, you're going to get a report from AAA on how you did in each objective in each module. So if you've passed, then you kind of get, you know, a fun little study aid that says, oh, okay, well, this is how I did in good and bad areas.

If you don't pass, you literally get a study guide. It's going to say, look, you got three questions from module one, objective one. You got two of them right.

Or you. got three questions from objective five module one you got zero of them right oh okay now i know what you're gonna need to study some more so if you don't pass you're gonna get a report on how well you did and where to study next time you'll have seen a hundred to 180 actual test questions depending on the test you're taking and put that retake date on the calendar and schedule it and by the By that I mean, get with AAA and schedule it. Don't pencil it in that you're going to do it later.

I took my remote pilot test about a year or so ago, and when I scheduled it with the FAA's website, I meant to schedule it for two months out, inadvertently scheduled it for a week out, and couldn't change it. So, boy, with that on the calendar, that I had to hurry up and get that done in that period of time, that really focuses your effort. Don't fool yourself into thinking, wow, this is... is a lot of information, especially if you take the class. You know, it's all kind of firehose.

I don't totally understand it. I'm going to take some time later. I'll read through all this stuff again and, you know, I'll take the test in three or four months.

It's not going to happen. I've seen this for years. Almost never happens.

Get it on the calendar. Knock it out as soon as you can. All right.

The 26th and most important one I've got for you. Read the modules. Yes, I know it was number one.

but literally that's the thing that's going to help you pass these exams. Hopefully this will be of some help to you. Hopefully we'd love to see you in class at some point in the future. And if I don't, but you earn your CM or your ACE, congratulations. If this is something that helped you, I'm very happy for you.

Otherwise... Again, hope to see you in class. If there's anything that you have questions on, I'm pretty easy to find on the Internet.

Just type Jeff Price Aviation, and my website, Leading Edge Strategies, will come up. My email's on there. happy to go from there. One more thing to remember, hope's not a plan.

Hope is what people have when you're neither committed nor take action to achieve what you want to achieve. Preparation, positive mental attitude, execution is a plan. You have control over all three. All right, so Q&A, obviously you're watching this on a video, but if you do have questions, again, my website, leading edge.

strategies calm my emails on the website or there is a form field you can fill out and happy to try and answer any questions you have good luck to you

Transcript for:Strategies for Passing AAAE Certification Exams

Transcript for:
Strategies for Passing AAAE Certification Exams