How to warm up on exam day

[Boardz]

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Anyone else find that it takes 10 or 15 questions or so to actually warm up? I've noticed that consistently, my first couple of questions I find very difficult to do, no matter their actual difficulty.

Anyone?

 

[Phloston]

My plan will be to do a strong set of push-ups and take a hot shower, then have conversation with my dad, who will be driving me to the testing centre. I think being interactive will both wake us up and cool the nerves.

I'm also going to pack like four Red Bulls and caffeine pills. I think being anything less than 110% awake on exam day is unacceptable considering we put so much time into prep, and I actually do think being wide-awake is the key to not making stupid mistakes.

 

[Belleza156]

Careful with those caffeine pills, they can make you nauseous and give you a bad headache and stomach. I am not a fan.

Well I find that I am not 100% during the morning so I scheduled my exam for 2pm. There shouldn't be any reason I don't get at least 8 hours of sleep the night before. If I feel relatively at ease I may even go do a bikram yoga session in the morning, TBD.

Definitely have ready 2 days in advance the permit and ID they require. Hell I may even put it in the car ahead of time in case I were to forget it, which could be likely. I will be taking FA of course, because I will be cramming in info during those breaks. Maybe not all of them but def for a few. Coffee, lots of water...at least 4 bottles if I'm going to be there for 8 hours. And tons of snack from Fresh N Easy so I don't get distracted by my stomach grumbling.

Not much else I can think of to do for the big day.

 

[Phloston]

I didn't even know you could schedule an exam that late. That's pretty awesome actually. Probably depends on the specific testing centre/location.

But that actually sounds like the smartest idea --> 2pm. That way, you can toss and turn all morning and get all of that extra REM. Yummy.

 

[Dallas]

Yeah but because you spend so much time and effort pouring yourself into preparation for this exam your scumbag brain turns around and makes you anxious and nervous so you cant sleep before and render you less than your 100%.

Damn scumbag brain.

 

[kmb1908]

or to beat the "warm up phase" you could just do a few questions before you got to the center so your brain isn't cold. Better than spazzing out on caffiene and red bulls.

 

[Phloston]

Given that I'm generally nocturnal, and my December 21st appointment was for 8:30am, I've decided to move up my test date by one week. I will now be sitting Step1 on December 14th at 12:30pm (that was the only appointment date among various testing centres that didn't force an 8 or 8:30am test time). Ridiculously enough, I believe that an extra couple hours of sleep are worth way more than an extra week of study. In the end, I might also possibly be glad I got it done a week earlier (that means an extra week of holiday vacation!).

Nevertheless, I'm still going to pack multiple Red Bulls and caffeine pills.

 

[Dallas]

Be wary of things you are changing for test day.

One thing marathon running taught me is never try new things on race day.

That means, I do qbanks at the same time of day as im going to take the real test in.
I eat, drink and take the same amount of caffeine during practice runs as I would on the real thing.

So if u pack on the red bulls during self assessments then by all means do it on test day, but be careful, you might become too jittery and it might annoy you or throw you off since its unfamiliar (and affect your score) if youre not used to it before the real exam.