Preparing IT certification exams is a significant undertaking whether you're just out of college or have been in IT field for years. IT professionals are continuously demanded to acquire new knowledge in order to perform well on their jobs as new technology in IT industry emerged at a pace that has never been seen before. While tests in colleges emphasizing on measuring the systematic understanding of theoretic foundation of a subject, industry certification exams focus on evaluation of hands-on experience.

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Thorough planning before the exams will boost your confidence, increase chance of success, and save time of preparation in your certification exams.

1. Assess whether you're ready

To answer the question of whether you're ready to pursue a particular IT certification - MCSE, MCSA, MCSD, CCIE, CCNA or CCNE certification, you may want to examine the questions from the latest certification exams to identify the gap between what you've known and what you need to know. It's not advisable to prepare an IT certification exam heavily based on working on actual certification questions or braindumps, but braindumps do offer values in preparing your tests. You'll learn the format of the exams, the scope of the exams and your weakest link in the subject.

2. Plan when you'll be ready

One certification usually requires the pass of several tests. Once you've made up your mind about taking the certification exams, the plan of when to take those tests depends on your career needs, domain knowledge, hands-on experience, availability of study materials and availability of your time to prepare the tests. Besides the official certification guide and reading materials published by vendors or authorized organizations, there're numerous other helpful learning materials available online or in print.

Use of Computer Based Training software is a very effective way to speed up your IT certification preparation. For instance, CBT Planet (Computer Based Training Planet) provides IT professionals comprehensive vendor-co developed self-study IT courses, by Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, SAP, Linux and more.

3. Prepare the exams step-by-step

a) Briefly scan all chapters of official publications and make a detailed plan.

b) Study the materials chapter by chapter in details and take notes.

c) Review your notes and summarize all chapters.

d) Take sample exams

e) Work on your weak spots.

Now, you're ready for your IT certification exams.

Copyright @2005, Bruce Zhang

You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body of the article and the bylines are included.

From its origins in Walldorf, Germany in 1972, SAP has blossomed rapidly to the present state of having 44,500 installations in 120 countries with a monumental 10 million users. Five ex-IBM engineers convened to brainstorm and as good engineers love the process of "dreaming up" and formulating the dream into a practical and functional concept, they produced and perfected SAP.

Founded in Germany it of course was given the Germanic name, Systeme, Andwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung. To save you the stress of trying to pronounce that if you have no German language ability, the English translation is Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing.

SAP AG has grown to become the third largest software maker in existence not only in its native Germany, but worldwide. The reason for its burgeoning success is directly attributable to the introduction of SAP R/2 in 1979. This first integrated, enterprise wide software application was an overnight success. SAP R2 runs on mainframes and went on to penetrate the majority of large businesses in Germany. With expansion into other European companies the founders recognized the growing popularity of client-server architecture.

SAP recognized and responded to that market with the development and release of SAP R/3 in 1992. This brilliant program was welcomed with open arms by the business community. SAP R/3 evolved into an unprecedented success especially after expanding into the North American market beginning in 1988.

Five years later SAP R/3 had grown from zero to 44% of all SAP sales worldwide. Currently SAP America has 3,000 employees and can lay claim to having many of the Fortune 500 companies as clients. We could present a laundry list of recognizable names including 7 of the top 10 pharmaceutical sap online course companies and 8 of the top 10 semiconductor corporations.

The significance of the numbers is readily understandable by even the most uninitiated in business concepts. Its popularity results from the ability to not only be a brilliant application but to its versatility and adaptability to a wide variety of businesses. One good example is the MIT implementation of modules in Finance/Accounting, Controlling, Project System, Funds Management, Materials Management and Sales Distribution.

Imagine for example, a global building materials corporation preparing an estimate on a major building renovation. Imagine the work involved in putting together amount of material required, man-hours needed to produce the custom-made pieces, cost variables, shipping times, assembly time for the on-site work, etc. Finally, imagine a program that can put it all together and deliver to you an estimate of projected cost and approximate date of completion. The value of having that efficacy at your fingertips is beyond imagination. Since the old adage of "time is money" is especially true in these modern times, SAP R/3 is obviously invaluable.

Many educational institutions are responding to the need for SAP trained individuals to diagnose, select and implement the modules which would best serve a company. An organization makes SAP R/3 purchasing decisions by choosing modules which will best serve their particular requirements. The integration and bringing to full functionality is a process that must evolve over time. Some programs can be fully implemented within 18 months while some large corporations require a ten year commitment. Of course, portions of the full scale SAP R/3 software become useful within a reasonable length of time.

At this time many smaller companies are discovering the components of the SAP R/3 software programs which are applicable to their needs. Each implementation results in increased success for the business owner plus future growth potential for SAP R/3.