Breathing a Sigh of Relief and Sharing Study Tips

I'm so pleased to report that I passed the APR exam on Saturday. Here's a tip list of the areas that require your attention as you prepare for the exam:

1) Skip the History of Public Relations. While I can now list several early PR practitioners and their contributions to the industry, not one question on the exam addressed this area of study. It would be wise to spend your time elsewhere.

2) Business Literacy and Management Skills & Issues together comprise 20% of the exam. I suggest spending a good deal of time learning about organizational charts, employee communications, and line management.

3) Communication Models and Theories are a big part of the exam. However, you won't see any of the graphic charts of these models like the PR textbooks use. Instead, you will be asked how these models relate to current practice or a test case. Therefore, understanding the models and theories is much more important than memorizing them.

4) As every APR will tell you, the Researching, Planning, Implementing & Evaluating Programs portion is the heart of the exam. Memorize the ten-step process for developing a public relations program. Those steps will be useful to you in responding to several questions.

5) Most questions are asked in a case study/test case format. Therefore, textbook studying will only get you so far in preparation. In my opinion, on-the-job experience is the best preparation for the exam.

The night before the exam, I asked my children, all teenagers, for advice. They are professionals at taking multiple choice standarized exams after years in the public school system. They reminded me of the "process of elimination" technique whereby you immediately discount the answers that are wrong and then go back to the possible choices and select the best option. This was a comfort to me when I was confronted by a couple of tricky questions on the exam.

Best wishes as you continue your studies. I'm relieved to be through the process, but I really felt that the 8 months of preparation was time well spent on professional development. Next blog post will be a thank you note to my mentors.