I find that when I'm building or developing a course, it can be a pain to have to have to log in as a test student, and then log out and back in as myself.
I know what you about to say, just use two different browsers. The problem with this approach is the still existing differences between the way browsers display webpages.
If I have myself enrolled in a course that I am developing, when I click the 'Switch role to' student, Moodle displays the page exactly as a student will see it in that browser, hiding all editing options, conditional release items and displays buttons that only students will see. When I want to continue editing, I just click the 'Return to my normal role' and I'm back to my normal access.
A workflow that works for me