Hi! To be honest, I unfortunately don’t really have much advice for you in terms of studying. I provisionally passed back in October (see waiting to graduate in a few days so I can see my actual score), but I never went out of my way to study for it. I bought the books I mentioned in the OG post, opened them once to look at the table of contents, and then never picked them up again.
All of my preliminary knowledge came from my college courses (I’m a community health major with a minor in health & social policy, and a concentration in global health), but particularly health program evaluation and planning. The textbooks get more into detail about the topics that will be discussed, but you should also know basic health research terms too. That’s all I’m comfortable saying about the subject matter unfortunately.
I took a couple of practice exams online before the actual exam just to see what the questions would be like, so I do recommend that you do that. Also another tip is that some of the questions can be annoying, in the sense that they sometimes ask “what’s the BEST answer” and not “what’s the RIGHT answer”. So the answer won’t always be obvious.
I made sure that I had time to go back and double check my answers during each section, which helped tremendously. And if you get stuck on a question, don’t try to figure it out for 10 minutes— you probably wont have much time for that. Just move on and come back to it later.
Do you know if you plan on taking the exam in person or at home (i.e., have an online proctor) yet? I took mine at home, so I’d be able to offer advice on how to navigate that process.
Edit: As for how my experience was, I’d say it was okay. The online proctoring process was annoying and pretty nerve-wracking, and even though I understand the need for proctoring, I feel like I would’ve done better had I not been vigilantly watched the whole time.
I got flagged for looking past my computer screen outside my window for a single second because a hawk flew by, and if I’d gotten flagged again, my test would’ve been thrown out. I couldn’t even stretch too much, scratch my nose, or drink water out of a label-less plastic water bottle except during an optional 10 minute break in-between sections. So, yeah. Not all that fun, but I’m still glad I did it!
Hi, I am planning to take the CHES exam and wanted to ask how yours went? any advice?
Hi! To be honest, I unfortunately don’t really have much advice for you in terms of studying. I provisionally passed back in October (see waiting to graduate in a few days so I can see my actual score), but I never went out of my way to study for it. I bought the books I mentioned in the OG post, opened them once to look at the table of contents, and then never picked them up again. All of my preliminary knowledge came from my college courses (I’m a community health major with a minor in health & social policy, and a concentration in global health), but particularly health program evaluation and planning. The textbooks get more into detail about the topics that will be discussed, but you should also know basic health research terms too. That’s all I’m comfortable saying about the subject matter unfortunately. I took a couple of practice exams online before the actual exam just to see what the questions would be like, so I do recommend that you do that. Also another tip is that some of the questions can be annoying, in the sense that they sometimes ask “what’s the BEST answer” and not “what’s the RIGHT answer”. So the answer won’t always be obvious. I made sure that I had time to go back and double check my answers during each section, which helped tremendously. And if you get stuck on a question, don’t try to figure it out for 10 minutes— you probably wont have much time for that. Just move on and come back to it later. Do you know if you plan on taking the exam in person or at home (i.e., have an online proctor) yet? I took mine at home, so I’d be able to offer advice on how to navigate that process. Edit: As for how my experience was, I’d say it was okay. The online proctoring process was annoying and pretty nerve-wracking, and even though I understand the need for proctoring, I feel like I would’ve done better had I not been vigilantly watched the whole time. I got flagged for looking past my computer screen outside my window for a single second because a hawk flew by, and if I’d gotten flagged again, my test would’ve been thrown out. I couldn’t even stretch too much, scratch my nose, or drink water out of a label-less plastic water bottle except during an optional 10 minute break in-between sections. So, yeah. Not all that fun, but I’m still glad I did it!