Do you shave your entire body?" It's kind of an odd question (and might get you a funny look or a slap in the face depending on who you ask!), but if you were to ask a world-class swimmer, the answer would almost certainly be "yes." If you're serious about competition, you need to be willing to take the necessary steps to give you an edge. In these days of stiff job competition, getting certified in technical skill sets may make the difference between landing your dream job or continuing to dream.

Overview
CFMX Exam Buster from CentraSoft is a testing tool geared to help developers earn their ColdFusion MX Developer Certification from Macromedia. It consists of over 750 questions and 11 practice tests that are similar to those you would take as part of the real exam. The questions are designed to test your knowledge in the following areas of Web/ColdFusion development: Application Development, Database Concepts, Client State Management, and Data Exchange.

Installation
Installing the software was painless. The software is provided as an executable file. After launching the installer, simply answer some password/registration dialog boxes, specify the install directory, and that's it.

Taking a Test
Upon starting the program, you have three ways to proceed: select from a list of predefined tests, take a topic test, or take a random test. CFMX Exam Buster comes with 11 tests that are similar in format to the real certification exam. The test questions can be of three formats: true/false, multiple choice, and multiple response (select more than one correct answer). See Figure 1 for an example. After you answer a question, you can move on to the next question, go back, or go to a specific question.

If you are unsure of the answer, you can mark a question for review and come back to it at the end of the exam. If you're really stuck, you can opt for the "life preserver" that opens the cheat mode window with the correct answer. Cheat mode can be enabled/disabled in the program options.

As with the real test, you have 70 minutes to complete 66 questions. After you complete all the test questions, you can have the program score your test. A score of 65% or better is required to pass. A score of 80% or above means you have earned "advanced" status. Along with the overall score, you will be presented with the summary of all your questions and answers as well as a list of only the questions you answered incorrectly.

The program also categorizes each question into one of 22 topic areas, including ColdFusion components, arrays, and SQL and CFQuery concepts. You can see which topics need improvement and then take topic tests to concentrate in those areas.

In addition, the program has a "submit comments" feature. If, while reviewing your test, you think that your answer was correct, but marked incorrect, or if you think a question may not have been stated clearly, this feature will bring up a Web page with a form to submit comments to CentraSoft. I used this feature and received a quick reply.

Conclusion
The key to doing something well is lots of practice and a good practice environment. For the CFMX Certification Exam, CFMX Buster provides just that. After using the tool, I could go into the real exam with confidence and a feeling of "been there, done that." I don't know if you need to shave your body, but if you plan on getting certified I would recommend using CFMX Buster.

SIDEBAR

Vitals: CFMX Exam Buster
CentraSoft Corporation
http://centrasoft.com * info@centrasoft.com

• Figure 1