DIRECTORSHIP CERTIFICATION / FOCUSED REVIEW
Your study plan, board judgment practice, and review queue in one place. Learn what the board owns, what management executes, and which facts justify the next step.
THE CURRENT FORMAT
Answer from memory, check the reasoning, and come back to the mistakes after a gap. Use the time you have to get better at decisions you’ll see in more than one form. These short plans help you find and repair gaps; they do not estimate your odds of passing.
Start with governance and board effectiveness. Use the weights as a starting point, then give extra time to the areas you actually miss.
Choose one answer. Incorrect or blank answers earn zero, so answer every item. Make a first pass in about 45-50 minutes and reserve the balance for flagged items. Review before submitting Part I; you cannot return after you leave it.
Budget roughly 9 minutes per case and keep a small buffer. Each case has 3-4 steps. Select every justified response and leave unsupported options unchecked. Commit each step before seeing the next. You cannot revise a completed step.
Case scoring: The June 2026 Candidate Handbook, p. 26, gives credit for justified choices and for leaving inappropriate choices unchecked.
| Option | Selected | Unchecked |
|---|---|---|
| Appropriate | +1 | 0 |
| Inappropriate | −1 | +1 |
The 2025 practice workbook’s right-minus-wrong worksheet is a different measure. Neither the workbook nor the published points table establishes the complete conversion to a scaled score.
Passing: The same handbook reports a passing scaled score of 500 on a 200-800 scale. It is not a percent correct. There is no reliable conversion from a workbook score to an exam result.
Timing: The current NACD candidate page and June 2026 handbook agree on 150 minutes for cases. The older 2025 rollout notice lists 158. The two 75-minute blocks and their intervening 8-minute break add to 158, but NACD does not confirm that this explains the difference. Follow your exam clock. The handbook lists 210 minutes of active answering and 240 minutes for all scheduled components, including the required nondisclosure agreement and optional tutorial, breaks, and survey. Check current testing rules for ID, arrival or remote check-in, and breaks. Keep study notes put away during breaks.
Navigation: The case workbook and practice interface require at least one selection before advancing. The current public handbook does not specify a minimum. Follow the actual tutorial and controls, and do not plan on skipping a step or revisiting one after committing it.
Rama’s advice: read the actual question first. Decide what is known, whose role it is, and whether the action fits this point in the case.
Are you assessing, advising, approving, investigating, or monitoring? Answer the requested decision.
Use this step and earlier facts. A rumor is a reason to inquire; a verified red flag can justify escalation.
The board governs; management executes. Directors can ask for evidence, challenge assumptions, recommend action, or make a decision reserved to the board.
Does this action answer the question at the right level, now? Check whether urgency, a conflict, or credible misconduct requires a stronger or more independent response.
Two common traps: “Recommend” is not automatically right, and asking for more information is not always the next step. Justify each selection and exclusion. If the board acts, name the owner, the next review, and the fact that would trigger escalation.
Start with the syllabus and chapter glossaries. Explain duty of care, duty of loyalty, and the business judgment rule from memory. Know when independent directors need an executive session and how relevant feedback reaches the CEO. Use a practice miss to find the section you need to revisit.
In the Company Rivals walkthrough, first establish the competitive landscape using relevant segment information. When the threat is rumored, test the CEO's assumptions with management's evidence, financial scenarios, and product comparisons. When the threat is confirmed, consider strategic advice appropriate to the question and the stage.
For each option, explain who should act, why the action is needed now, and what fact would change your answer. Keep the answer key with its source edition. Rama used the 2021 workbook; newer discussion materials use revised facts and answers.
WORKED EXAMPLE / ORIGINAL
A warehouse operator reports repeat near misses but no documented injuries. The board asks for trend and cause data, management’s corrective plan, and a follow-up date. If later evidence shows leaders concealed reports, independence becomes part of the response: route the matter to the proper board body and protect the inquiry from implicated managers.
REHEARSE THE DISTINCTION
“Ask management for a corrective plan” preserves operational accountability. “Write the shift procedures yourself” crosses into operations. “Do nothing until injury occurs” fails the oversight test. Now change one fact: the safety risk is immediate and the operator has not contained it. Explain what the board would need to confirm today, who can act, and what would trigger independent escalation.
CEO selection and oversight, succession, board composition, conflicts, strategy approval, risk appetite, major transactions and monitoring. Charters, delegated authority and applicable law govern the exact decision.
Build plans, hire and supervise staff, model alternatives, run operations and execute approved responses. Directors may guide or seek independent help when warranted without becoming the operating team.
Answer out loud before revealing the back. Mark a shaky or missed answer for another pass. These are original prompts, not actual exam questions. If the topic is unfamiliar, read one worked example, close it, and then answer a different example from memory.
Start with the included questions or choose a case. Answer before revealing the explanation, then explain the rule aloud. Rate what needs another pass. Each session has up to three questions or case steps.
Explain the rule and the fact that would change your answer. Then choose when to revisit it.
Write the decisive fact, the rule, and what would change your answer. Record correct guesses as well as misses. Retest later with a changed example before marking the item learned. Sign in to keep your review queue with you across devices.
Sign in with the same ChatGPT account on each device. Your saved study materials, review dates, recall marks, and notes load automatically. Changes sync as you study.
Start with NACD’s blueprint and your weakest domain. Turn chapter glossaries into recall prompts and read mini-cases for what happened and what followed. In the practice materials, commit your answer before opening the rationale. If you have an authorized discussion recording, pause before the explanation and compare your reasoning after.
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