How far in advance should you schedule?

medic

How far in advance should you schedule your exam?  Besides the psychological motivator of the deadline, is there any reason to schedule weeks/months out?

I am hoping to test in February.  Any reason I should schedule now?  My reason not to is financial.  I would rather not pay for the exam until I am actually going to take it.

mikey88

I'd schedule up to two weeks out. Right when you "feel" ready with couple weeks of final prep.

bigdogz

I normally do it in 3 or 4 weeks. This way I know I have to grind out the chapters, understand the concepts, and how to apply them.

PCTechLinc

If your only motivation is financial, you should go through Pearson to create an account and look at their schedule.  Based on the testing center you choose, it will tell you the available dates/times, and how far out you can schedule.  Just keep in mind that availability can change based on other people scheduling exams, as Pearson handles a LOT of different vendors and exams.

medic

My local community college is a Pearson Vue test center but they are not listed.  Bummer.  I took all my Cisco and CompTIA certs there and availability was never an issue.  My closest Pearson testing center listed on the ISC2 site only has a few days in Feb.  Guess I better register soon!

PCTechLinc

ISC2 only allows specific testing centers for their exams.  In Monterey county, we have a testing center in Salinas, but for ISC2 you have to go to San Jose or Milpitas.  One of the requirements is a palm-vein scan device.  There are other requirements, but that one stood out for me.

PC509

I did 6 weeks in advance. Gave myself a solid deadline. I had been studying on and off for a couple years, and that was my hard "Take it or lose" date. I had that six weeks to finally commit and make it count. I passed.

I was going to wait until I was ready. That's why it took me a couple years to take it. It's why I didn't get my CCNA until 2012. A lot of my certs were late because I wanted to be "ready". I never feel completely ready. So, I found that making a hard date to be ready by and scheduling it puts that pressure on you. It's a solid, set date where you're taking it. You better be ready. 

So, I took the advice of some others - put it out a bit but not too far. You have time to cram and finish studying and be confident you'll pass, but not too early that you're going to be stressed and underprepared. 4-6 weeks. 

LordQarlyn

I like to schedule no more than 2 months maximum, even less if I have already been doing preparation for the exam or the exam is not particularly hard (looking at you ITIL). That give me the urgency of a deadline but not so far out that I would be likely to get burned out before the exam. Sometimes that still happens, for my CISSP I was so burnt out that I could even review the exam, I just submitted it. Fortunately I passed that one.

srothman

I think it depends on how much of the course material you apply on a regular basis. I scheduled my MS 500 exam on last week Friday to write next week Wednesday, but I have a good understanding of the content, and confident that with some revision I'll be fine. more advanced, or more expensive exams, perhaps worth a longer lead time, if only for the added bit of pressure to invest in studying. I've learned long ago to not kick the exam can too far down the road.

medic

When I started studying for the CISSP, I set February 2020 as my target.  I feel I am still on that target.  I didn't want to actually register too early because it is $700 and life is random and a lot can happen between now and then.  At the same time, I don't want to find there is no February availability when I go to schedule.

medic

Booked the exam for Feb 13th. 

LordQarlyn

medic said:

Booked the exam for Feb 13th. 

Good luck! You can do it! ✊