The Day before the Exam

Get a good night’s rest - I remember blowing a sure 90 in an exam because I mistook m/sec with ft/sec in the test questions. What I ended up with was a failing score on the exam, a sure chance of failing the class and a valuable lesson of never taking an exam while I was tired.

Here in lies the importance of making a schedule and sticking to it. If you don’t stick to it you’ll end up cramming, and when you cram you end up worrying that you haven’t studied enough. When you enter that exam room you should be worrying about what the questions will be and not that plus the thought that “I haven’t studied enough”.

During the Exam

Come on time, Come prepared - Come on time is self explanatory, come prepared means you bring two pencils instead of one, your calculator has fresh batteries in them, you didn’t forget to bring your exam documents and ID’s, etc etc etc.

Pay Attention - when the facilitator is talking so that you don’t fail the exam on a technicality for not following the rules.

Follow the instructions on the questionnaire and the test rules Don’t be a hardcase, when the exam rules state that your calculator shouldn’t be a scientific one, don’t bring a scientific. When they say 10 minute break, don’t come back 5 minutes late. When they say shade properly and use mongol #2 pencil, then do it. When the questions says that there are two answers from 4 choices be sure to shade 2 answers and not just one, etc etc etc.

Write Legibly - its sad when you learn that you failed the exam because your answers weren’t easily understood by the machine reader or the examiner who will grade your exam. Worse still if they didn’t understand the spelling of your name or your address.

Learn to Move on to the Next Question - board exams are usually time limited and the exam questions aren’t arranged on increasing difficulty. If you are stuck on a question that you can’t answer right away, move on to the next question and just come back for that one when you have time. Most exams carry just one point for each correct answer, so if you answer more easy questions than difficult ones, that could spell the difference to getting a passing grade.

Make an “Educated” Guess - for multiple choice questions that you don’t know the answer for, try to make an educated guess by eliminating the possible answers that don’t fit the question. For example if you meet a question that has A,B,C,D for choices but you know that it isn’t answerable by choice A and C then you only have to take a guess between B and D. Which gives you a 50% chance of getting the right answer. Way better than a 25% chance right?

Remember to take a break - when the proctor gives you time to go to the bathroom, take it even if you do not have a full bladder. This way you won’t be needing to go to the bathroom when you aren’t allowed to. If time is permitting, take time out to rest from the exam when you feel tired or your body feels strained from being hunched over for such a long time. A few seconds of rest could help recharge you to continue the exam.

Intake food and water - if the proctor allows you to drink and eat while taking the exam go ahead. Just make sure to prioritize taking the exam and not eating. It was recommended to me before to take chocolates to keep my brain alert, but I couldn’t tell whether it was working or not.

Be sure to take in water to stay hydrated, but not too much that you will be inconvenienced by a full bladder. Also try to select a drink that isn’t a diuretic, because it will have you going to the bathroom often, such as tea and coffee.

Preferably also you would like to take in light foods so that you wont’ become sleepy come digestion time. During lunch breaks in between exams I took a light meal because of the same reason of not wanting to be sleepy come afternoon.

Review Your Answers - if there is still time remaining, try to go back to review your answers. Who knows you could get a few more points in for correcting your wrong answers.

After the Exam

Move On - if you still have an exam for the following day, don’t’ get stuck on trying to figure out how your faired in the day’s exam because there are still tomorrow’s test to worry about.

Everybody Fails now and then - I had a friend who was often at the dean’s list of the class, yet on his first take of the board exam he failed. Just because you are smart it doesn’t mean you are going to succeed. Being better prepared by covering all the bases and exam topics will give you an equal shot with the smartest guy in class in getting a passing grade.

The thing to remember after you failed is not to dwell on it. Move on and try again.

In Closing

Passing Board Exams will never really guarantee you success in life as with having a high IQ. But the great thing about having a professional title is that you can wear it as a badge on your sleeve. It’s an acknowledgement by a governing body that you are qualified for your position. So for me, though having a license never guarantees your success, I feel that it does increases one’s chances for success.

Having these titles can open doors of opportunity for you. But its still up to you working hard so that you can stay there once they let you in.

Good Luck:-)

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