Test day can be extremely nerve wrecking, especially if you’re taking your exam in the evening! Here are some tips that worked for me on test day and may help those who are taking their test in the evening.
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1. Rest
Make sure you are well rested. If you were too nervous to get a full 8 hours (or 6 if you’re like me) of sleep, make sure you take a power-nap at least 2 hours before your exam. If you are traveling a long distance to the Prometric center, get there an hour early and sneak in a nap.
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2. Plan Ahead
Free up your morning and afternoon ahead of time. You want to preserve as much energy as possible for the exam, this means you shouldn’t plan any extreme events the morning/afternoon of the exam. For example, I usually go running in the morning, but on test day I decided to just take a walk instead. This allowed me to preserve a huge amount of energy for the exam.
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3. Eat Well
Make sure you eat well throughout the day. Try eating a large breakfast and light lunch, I found that this helped me keep alert throughout the evening (this may not work for everyone). Don’t eat too much right before the exam! Eating a large meal before the exam may cause you to become tired or nauseous during the exam.
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4. Break Up the Review Sessions
Lightly review for about 1 hour in the morning and again in the afternoon. I am a visual learner so I decided to watch OT miri videos for 1 hour in the morning (without taking notes, just watching) and again for another hour in the afternoon.
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5. Practice Positive Affirmations
Practice some positive affirmations throughout the day up until your exam and even throughout your exam if needed. “I can. I will. I must” is one the affirmations I kept telling myself throughout the day. I also watched motivational videos before going inside the Prometric center to give me an extra boost of confidence (I listened to Eric Thomas for motivation).