12.5 Exam Week Operating Plan

High-yield law and total-rewards cram

Exam week is for consolidating the highest-frequency facts, not new topics. U.S. employment-law coverage thresholds are dense, frequently tested, and easy to confuse - memorize the count that triggers each law.

On Total Rewards and FLSA: the FLSA exempt salary threshold is $684/week ($35,568/year) for 2026 (the 2024 increases were struck down in November 2024), the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour, and overtime is 1.5x for non-exempt hours over 40/week. The three common white-collar exemptions are executive, administrative, and professional, each requiring the salary basis and a duties test. Know the total-rewards model (compensation + benefits + work-life + recognition + development) and equity concepts: internal, external, and individual equity, and pay strategy choices to lead, lag, or match the market.

Behavioral competencies and strategic frameworks

Drill the 8 behavioral competencies until you can name all three clusters cold (Leadership: Leadership & Navigation, Ethical Practice, Inclusive Mindset; Interpersonal: Relationship Management, Communication; Business: Business Acumen, Consultation, Analytical Aptitude). SCP business-acumen and consultation items lean on strategic frameworks - have these ready as your analytical lens:

• SWOT - internal Strengths/Weaknesses vs. external Opportunities/Threats.
• PESTLE - Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental scan of the macro environment.
• Porter's Five Forces - industry competitiveness (rivalry, new entrants, substitutes, buyer power, supplier power).
• Balanced Scorecard - four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Process, Learning & Growth - the classic way HR ties people metrics to enterprise strategy.
• Change models - Lewin (Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze) and Kotter's 8 steps for enterprise change leadership.
• HR metrics/ROI - cost-per-hire, turnover rate, time-to-fill, and the ROI = (gain - cost) / cost logic for justifying programs to the C-suite.

Verify logistics and protect attention

The exam is delivered in person at authorized Prometric test centers (with remote-proctor options where offered). Build an exam-week habit: confirm everything from official SHRM and Prometric communications, not memory or social posts. Verify the center address, your appointment date/time, the arrival window (typically ~30 minutes early), and the two valid acceptable IDs (a primary government photo ID; names must match your registration exactly). Then narrow study: review your three weakest functional areas, re-run missed SJIs, and stop adding new material.

Protect performance with the basics - sleep, a known travel route, a light pre-exam meal, and a calm routine - but remember these support content readiness, they do not replace it. The last 48 hours should make exam day boring: fewer surprises, fewer loose ends, no unsupported assumptions.

A few more high-yield facts worth locking in

Beyond coverage thresholds, several enterprise-level facts recur. Know the EEOC as the agency enforcing Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, GINA, and the Equal Pay Act, and the NLRB as the body administering the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) - whose Section 7 protects employees' "protected concerted activity," a frequent SJI hook even in non-union workplaces. Distinguish the at-will default from its exceptions (public policy, implied contract, covered protected classes). For safety, OSHA's General Duty Clause requires a workplace free of recognized hazards.

For benefits, ERISA governs retirement and welfare plans, and the ACA employer mandate applies to Applicable Large Employers (50+ full-time-equivalent employees).

A compact exam-week checklist

The strategic posture for exam week mirrors good HR leadership: reduce avoidable risk, verify what matters from the source of truth, and protect the capacity (here, your attention and energy) that the real work depends on. New content rarely moves your score in the final 48 hours; eliminated surprises and a rested, calm mind reliably do. Keep the plan narrow enough to execute without stress, and let the preparation you have already done carry the day.

If you draw a blank in the room, return to first principles rather than panicking: name the functional area the item lives in, name the behavioral competency the scenario activates, and let that pairing point you toward the strategic, business-aligned response. The frameworks in this section are not trivia to recite - they are the lens that makes an unfamiliar scenario tractable. A senior candidate who walks in having internalized the threshold table, the total-rewards model, and SWOT/PESTLE/Five Forces/Balanced Scorecard rarely meets a truly novel item; almost everything maps back to a framework already in hand.