Candidates sitting the IPEd accreditation exam in 2022 need to know about the vast array of resources that will help them prepare. Many of these are covered on the exam resources page of the IPEd website, but here is a quick overview.
- Exam prep workshops – strategies, practice questions and guidance on exam structure and marking. If you missed the first series, book in for the rerun being held over three Mondays on 9, 16 and 30 May. See Preparing for the 2022 Accreditation Exam — online workshops (series 2) for more information.
- Guide for candidates – essential reading for every candidate. It not only covers the exam rules in detail but also provides tips and suggestions.
- Style manuals – the two online manuals that will be available in the exam, and most hardcopy manuals, contain lots of information on topics that might be covered in any part of the exam. Pick a style manual (or more than one) and familiarise yourself with how to find particular topics. Please remember that IPEd members receive a discount on subscriptions to the Australian manual of style.
- Editing handbooks, reference books, booklets, fact sheets and more – read anything and everything, as long as it’s reasonably up to date.
- Workshops and presentations on particular topics and skills, whether presented by IPEd, an affiliate or a related industry organisation. The deeper and broader your skills and knowledge, the better.
- Mentors, study groups and study buddies – just talking to those who have previously sat the exam, and those sitting it with you, can build your confidence as well as provide focused help on specific areas.
- Practise, practise, practise – don’t forget that the best preparation for a skills and knowledge test is to apply those skills and knowledge in your everyday editing work. This is particularly important for the MANUSCRIPT part, which is not something you can just learn by looking at a sample exam, and having basic competence in Word and Acrobat (PDF).
This article has been updated to correct errors introduced in production.