EXMP study plan

Define every core term in Domain 1 in your own words and build a personal glossary of at least 40 entries

Diagram the fundamental models and relationships from memory, then correct the diagram against your notes

Write a one-page summary explaining how the core concepts connect to the other six domains

Solve 25 practice items on fundamentals and log each miss with its root cause

Explain the most heavily weighted fundamentals subtopics aloud for 10 minutes without notes

Set up a working practice environment and complete three basic configuration exercises in it

Compare two configuration approaches and write down the trade-offs of each

Complete 30 mixed fundamentals and configuration questions under a 45-minute timer

Configure each major implementation component from a blank starting point without consulting steps

Troubleshoot five deliberately broken configurations and record the diagnostic path for each

Document the default settings and common pitfalls for each component you configured

Re-run two earlier exercises from memory to confirm retention

Translate a written business scenario into a list of explicit and implied requirements

Produce an architecture sketch that satisfies those requirements and justify each design choice

Identify three risks in your design and propose a mitigation for each

Answer 20 planning and design scenario questions and score yourself against the reasoning, not just the answer

Implement the week-4 design in the practice environment end to end

Refactor one part of the implementation to meet a changed requirement and note what broke

Explain to a peer, in writing, why your architecture meets the stated non-functional requirements

Complete 30 design and implementation questions and review every explanation

Write a test plan for your week-5 implementation covering normal, boundary, and failure cases

Execute the plan, log every defect, and fix at least two of them

Create an operations runbook for routine maintenance of your implementation

Diagnose three injected faults and record time-to-resolution for each

Map the security, compliance, and risk controls in your implementation to their governing requirements

Perform a threat walkthrough of your design and rank the top five risks by likelihood and impact

Draft a compliance checklist for the scenario you planned in week 4

Answer 25 security and risk questions and reconcile each miss with your checklist

Take two full-length timed practice exams and record section-level scores for both

Re-study only the three weakest subtopics identified by those scores

Re-teach the highest-weight fundamentals from memory in a 15-minute written summary

Build a one-page exam-day reference sheet of formulas, defaults, and decision rules