Test Preparation Courses

Timothy Porter is an Army veteran of 10 years. He achieved the rank of Sergeant First Class within 7 years. After being involved in a bomb explosion, Porter was medically retired and began pursuing his passion: technology. In 2009, after teaching himself how to develop mobile apps, Appddiction Studio was formed. In 2011, Appddiction Studio was nationally recognized by the USA Network Channel. Porter was one of their USA Character Unite Award winners for developing an award-winning anti-bullying App for schools. Appddiction Studio has developed well over 200 commercial mobile apps and has become a leader in Enterprise transformations focusing on Agile and the SAFe Framework.

Porter has multiple degrees in Management Information Systems and holds an MBA. He is an SPC and RTE and has performed roles for Appddiction Studio as Scaled program Consultant, Enterprise Coach & Trainer, Agile Coach, Release Train Engineer to Scrum Master. Appddiction Studio has been performing for programs supporting Gunter AFB as a Prime Contractor in: Agile Coaching, EODIMS JST & EODIMS Backlog Burndown and now as a subcontractor on ACES FoS.

Porter has taught over 50 public/private SAFe classes and has submitted his packet for consideration to become SPCT Gold Partner. He is certified at all levels of SAFe Framework and teaches Leading SAFe, SAFe Scrum Master, Advanced Scrum Master, Lean Portfolio Management, Product Owner/Product Management, SAFe DevOps, SAFe Architect in addition to Agile courses like ICAgile Agile Fundamentals, ICAgile Agile Team Facilitation, ICAgile Agile Programming & ICAgile DevOps Foundations.

How to Test Air Quality in Your Home

Photo: istockphoto.com

Household pollutants can come from a variety of sources including the materials used in your home’s construction, and mold and mildew caused by poor ventilation. Clean air in the home can protect you from carcinogens, allergens, and harmful particulates. Even if you don’t suspect a problem, it’s a good idea to have some type of air quality monitor in the home. Threats like radon and carbon monoxide are colorless, odorless, and tasteless, and you’ll have no clue that there’s trouble until you’re already in the danger zone. The good news is that it’s fairly easy to conduct indoor air quality testing and monitoring yourself: All you need is a few key tools.

The wide range of pollutants, particulates, and allergens that can affect indoor air make it difficult to create an all-inclusive list of poor indoor air quality indicators. However, there are circumstances and signs that could indicate poor air quality in your home, including:

RELATED: Mold vs. Mildew: What’s the Difference?

Not every home requires air quality testing for every potential particulate or pollutant. Often, the types of symptoms you experience and the age and location of the home can help you narrow down potential pollutants. Be sure to consult a doctor if you are experiencing health problems that you suspect are related to your home environment. A doctor can help identify and treat health issues related to exposure to mold, radon, and carbon monoxide.

How is air quality measured? Some monitors use electrochemical sensors that detect toxins while others estimate particulate matter (PM) based on the particulates that pass in front of a laser. It depends on the type of monitor you have and what it’s designed to detect.

Air quality testing can detect harmful odorless gasses like carbon monoxide and radon. Depending on the model, they may also detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or pollutants such as airborne particulate matter. More advanced indoor air quality monitors may also measure the room’s humidity and temperature.

Choose a monitor that detects the specific pollutants that concern you. For example, if you live in an area with high air pollution, you’re more likely to need a model that detects particulate matter. Those who live in older homes may want to get a model that detects radon and carbon monoxide (though either can be present in newer homes, too).

Our Recommendation: Temptop M10 Air Quality Monitor – Get it at Amazon for $92.99This portable air quality monitor’s sensors track airborne particulate matter, VOCs, and formaldehyde with a simple display and interface.

Mold tests come in various formats, including swabs, tape strips, air pumps, and petri dish tests. Swabs and tape strip tests collect potential contaminants from a surface like a counter or tabletop. The results from a swab test come within a few minutes, though you may not know the exact type of mold.

Tape strips, air pumps, and petri dish tests require the collected demo be sent to a lab for analysis. While these tests are more accurate than a simple swab test, it can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to get the results. Additionally, petri dish tests can get contaminated from other particles in the air. Tape strips and swabs can also get contaminated by other particles on the tested surface.

Air pumps offer a closed system that’s less likely to get contaminated, though they tend to cost more. Set the mold test up near the home’s ventilation or in the area where you suspect mold or a contaminant. However, always follow the directions on the test kit for the best results.

Our Recommendation: Seeml Labs DIY Mold 3 Test Kit – Get it at Amazon for $32.99 This kit comes with three tests (one swab and two tape strips), which offer same-day (that the results arrive) results from a lab.

RELATED: How to Test for Mold

Radon gas naturally occurs as a byproduct of the breakdown of the uranium found in certain rocks and soil. The gas can seep its way into a home through the foundation until it reaches harmful levels.

Radon tests detect levels of the gas over time. Short-term tests take 90 days or less, while long-term tests can take several months. The results from these tests are usually interpreted by a lab. Continuous tests monitor radon levels at all times and alert you if high levels of radon are detected.

Depending on the type of radon test you use, the testing process may require installing detection sheets or other materials in an area suggested by the manufacturer. The key is to follow the instructions on the test.

Our Recommendation: Airthings 2989 View Radon – Get it at Amazon for $199.99This continuous, battery- or USB-operated radon monitor measures indoor radon levels, temperature, and humidity and integrates with the Airthings mobile app to provide the user remote alerts.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, poisonous gas that causes confusion, dizziness, and headaches before it causes a loss of consciousness and death. Many smoke detectors these days are combination smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. It’s critically important to have both types of detectors in your home, so you’ll want to make sure that your home safety plan monitors both smoke and carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide detectors should be placed outside bedrooms, and anywhere in the house you’d place a smoke detectors. There should be a carbon monoxide detector on each level of the home and near sleeping areas. Carbon monoxide rises with air, so the detector should be placed about 5 feet off the floor on a wall or on the ceiling. Do not put them near a fireplace or open flame.

Our Recommendation: Kidde Nighthawk Carbon Monoxide Detector – Get it at Amazon for $34.99Kidde’s Nighthawk is a reliable, affordable carbon monoxide detector that sounds when CO levels reach unhealthy levels. They like that it has a digital display and multiple power sources, including battery backup, so it will continue functioning during a power outage.

RELATED: 8 Myths About Indoor Air Quality and the Facts You Need to Breathe Easy

Home air quality monitoring devices will alert you if pollutants reach dangerous levels. However, there are many things you can do to prevent levels from reaching dangerous levels in the first place.

• Check your HVAC system to make sure it’s functioning at peak efficiency.

• Increase the airflow in your home by periodically opening the windows and using fans to circulate the air.

• Stay on top of mold removal and prevention around the home. If you find mold, try scrubbing it with a mold-killing cleaner like bleach or borax. For delicate surfaces, you can use dish soap or diluted white vinegar. Unfortunately, you may not be able to remove mold from porous surfaces, and they may need to be replaced.

Carbon monoxide is incredibly dangerous. If you suspect that there’s carbon monoxide in your home in high or low doses, leave at once. Open windows and doors, and get outside into the fresh air. Contact the proper authorities to get you and the home checked for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Prices in this article are accurate as of August 3, 2023.

How They Test Everything They Review

PCMag’s core mission has been to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology by delivering independent reviews of the latest products and services. We've been testing, rating, and recommending technology products based on lab testing for more than 40 years. The rigorous, repeatable testing of more than 1,500 products each year is what gives us the best handle on the full range of the market, and has always set us apart from their competitors.

Shortly after PC Magazine was born in 1982, PC Labs, a mammoth testing lab in New York City, was built. It has taken a variety of forms over the decades, including a 1990s stint associated with Ziff Davis Benchmark Operations (ZDBOp), a division of PCMag’s then-privately held mother company Ziff Davis. In its time, ZDBOp was a key player in the computing industry, devoted to advances in the art of benchmarking and creating tools for the industry to use in assessing PC performance. This was at a time when the early waves of PC clones had come roaring through the market, and the templates for personal computing as they know it today were being cut.

(Photo: Tony Hoffman)

PC Labs has housed, at times, more than 30 technology testers sitting together in that giant temperature-controlled room complete with anti-static flooring, dozens of benches with test beds, running benchmarks on desktops, laptops, PC peripherals and components, so that writers and editors could craft reviews to print in a twice-monthly magazine.

As the technology landscape has evolved, so has their testing. Now, in addition to all forms of PC hardware and software, they cover the full range of consumer technology including categories like smart home devices, digital health and fitness gear, and electric vehicles, all of which require out-of-lab testing. The core of PC Labs still remains in their New York offices, but their testing expertise is far more diffuse, spread across a team of more than 50 analysts, editors, reporters, and contributors across the United States and overseas.

Combined, PC Labs’ on-staff analysts and key contributors can claim, conservatively, more than 600 years of combined experience in their fields. (Add them all together, and you're contemporary with the Middle Ages, the Byzantine empire, and the Incas.) How much genuine testing is that? To take just a simple example: They rate and review about 200 laptops and desktops each year, and each gets a dozen or more benchmark tests, that translates to around 2,500 annual tests run on PCs alone. Data for analysis and product comparisons is not in short supply.

(Photo: Angela Moscaritolo)

When evaluating products, repeatable, defensible benchmark and experiential testing is at the core of what they do. Wherever feasible, these processes are based on step-by-step scripts, exhaustively vetted for meaningful, consistent results. Sometimes, such as in cases of display testing, they use advanced, industry-standard measuring equipment to supplement their findings. In addition, some testing categories are anchored by testbed computers that they use over and over for consistency of results. (They are refreshed, and key products are retested on the new testbeds, when industry changes demand it.)

(Photo: Molly Flores)

Likewise, their scripts are often revised to match current trends in consumer/business PCs and related gear, and follow changes in core technology. When a script changes, products are only directly compared with other products tested on the same script, under the same conditions, for comparability of results.

(Photo: Angela Moscaritolo)

Some of their benchmarking tools are industry standards. For PC testing, for example, the core of their benchmark suite is based on highly regarded tools from Underwriters’ Lab (UL, formerly Futuremark), supplemented heavily by repeatable, usage-representative tests from a host of other sources. In some cases, these tests are internally derived and designed.

Benchmarks and performance numbers only take you so far in finding the right technology. It's important to evaluate factors like value, features, and what it's actually like to use that camera phone in a dim restaurant, wire that video doorbell, or configure that VPN. Luckily, their reviewers rate more products than anyone else, so they're uniquely positioned to give you the full scoop, along with a close look at the competition so you can easily compare all the products you're considering.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

We believe it's essential for their audience to understand how their company earns money. The following statement is at the top of every story on their site:

PCMag reviews products independently, but they may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page.

The editorial team, however, does not handle affiliate commissions in any way. Their reviewers do not know how a particular story is monetized and do not receive any of the commission earned. Reviewers are paid for their work and do not earn bonuses. Sponsored articles exist on this website, but are disclosed as such.

Companies, even those with affiliate relationships with PCMag, or are owned by their parent company do not have any input into review scores or outcomes, and their writers have a collective bargaining agreement that disallows pay-for-play writing. For more, read their editorial mission statement.

The variety of lab and real world testing processes requires an article for each major category they cover, just to scratch the surface of what they do, day in and day out. Scan below for more detailed dives by category into how they test everything they review.

(Photo: Molly Flores)

How They Test Laptops

How They Test Desktop PCs

How They Test SSDs

How They Test Graphics Cards

How They Test Processors

(Photo: Molly Flores)

How They Test Wi-Fi Routers

How They Test Monitors

How They Test Printers

How They Test Scanners

How They Test Projectors

How They Test Hard Drives

(Photo: Weston Almond)

How They Test Phones

How They Test Bluetooth Headsets

How They Test Cellular Modems and Hotspots

How They Test Tablets

How They Test Digital Cameras and Lenses

How They Test Drones

(Photo: Angela Moscaritolo)

How They Test Smart Home Devices

How They Test Robot Vacuums

How They Test Smart Displays

How They Test Smart Fitness Equipment

How They Test Fitness Trackers

(Photo: Molly Flores)

How They Test TVs

How They Test Speakers

How They Test Headphones

How Noise-Cancelling Headphones Work (and How They Test Them)

How They Test VR Headsets

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

How They Test Antivirus and Security Software

How They Test VPNs

How They Collect Malware for Hands-On Antivirus Testing

How They Test Antispam

How They Test Password Managers

How They Test Web Hosting Services

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