You've decided you want to be a CHSE or CHSOS, now you need to understand the exam and the test blueprint. Everyone wants to know "what's on the test," and the blueprint has the answers. That being said, you need to know both how test blueprints are made and used to guide your studying.

When an organization is designing a certification and exam, the first step they do is a practice analysis. A practice analysis essentially tries to identify what most people do in their job.

In simulation, a practice analysis is difficult because we all do different things. Therefore, the analysis comes down to what most people do, or the average of what we do (essentially). The practice analysis is then used to create an examination blueprint, but because it is trying to find what most people do, it will reflect some of what you do, but not all.

When you are studying from a blueprint, you have to keep in mind that the core of what we do is similar, even if some of us use simulators (manikins) and others use standardized or simulated patients. Invariably, when people who work primarily with simulators take the CHSE exam, they say it was all about standardized patients. At the same time, people who work with SPs say the test was all about simulators. The reason is we notice what is "odd" to us.

To be successful in passing the exam, you need to look past the surface of the question and look at the structure of what they are asking. For exampl, if the question was asking about what you do after a simulated experience (either with a manikin or an SP), you would do debriefing or give feedback either way.

Exam blueprints are weighted to reflect the different time we spend on tasks and the level of knowledge needed. Therefore, someone who is studying smart, rather than hard, would focus their time on the "high value" topics, or those that comprise more of the test. The blueprints for CHSE and CHSOS are as follows (complete blueprints available here):

If we use the CHSE blueprint as an example, we would want to spend about 4 percent of our time studying about scholarly activities and 52 percent on educating and assessing learners using simulation. Under each section there is more detail, but the key is to not spend most of our time studying about scholarly activities (even if that is your weakness) as it is only 4 percent of the test.

The test is 115 questions, of which 15 questions are in development and do not count, so you should expect somewhere around four questions on scholarly activity. If you spend most of your time studying for four questions, then you may not pass.

My recommendation is to review the entire blueprint with three highlighters. Read each line on the blueprint and highlight it in blue if you are an expert in that topic, yellow if you are so-so on the topic, and red if you have no clue about the topic. Those that are in blue you should probably not study as this is a basic examination. The trap is that you may want to read the references about the blue stuff as it is your own area.

For the yellow and the red, you need to prioritize based on the percentages of the test. Additionally, look for yellow and red items that are related where you may be able to read one article and cover most of the topic.

For example, if you were highlighting a lot of topics on adult learning theory, (CHSE Domains IIA, E, F and G, or CHSOS domain V) you might read: Zigmont, J. J., Kappus, L., & Sudikoff, S. N., (2011). Theoretical foundations of learning through simulation. Seminars in Perinatology, 35(2), 47-51. For a full list of references, check here.

With the blueprint in one hand and the reference list in the other, you can start your studying. My recommendation is always to read one article a night (which is about an hour for most people), and you should be ready in 60-90 days.

Reading one article a night is a great habit anyway, so why not let your examination prep get you into the process? I am also working on one page (double-sided) handouts for each blueprint area (with 2-3 references) that will be posted as created, so keep your eyes open for them in the near future.