For Marie, who worries about taking the IBCLE exam and reading too much
into the questions:

As a LC with many years of hands on experience, you are probably better
prepared than you realize.  Those who sign up for the exam are given a
listing of recommended readings to help them prepare.  I think that reading
Lactnet is also a wonderful resource in your preparation for the exam. You
get to hear about many real clinical problems and the ways that lots of
different people would approach them. One very nice thing about the exam is
that you are allowed to write down and hand in comments about the
questions.  So if you feel answer a) is right because of one set of
factors, but answer b) is right because of another set, you can say so, and
your comments will be considered.  I know that some questions were
discarded the year I took the exam, 1994, perhaps as a result of the
comments handed in.  I felt like I had failed the test afterwards, but it
turned out I had done just fine.  Your results are given to you broken down
into areas, so you know just where your strengths and weaknesses are for
future study.

Anne Altshuler, RN, MS, IBCLC and LLL Leader in Madison, WI