[cpa007]

I have a exam phobia . I do know the material but ,when i sit for the exam i don’t do well. Always ran out of time .Please help me . I cannot perform well when i have clock ticking on my head. Also get nervous. I sat for regulation. some sim i don’t know how to ans and others i could not figure out how to research for them.

HELP HELP!!

[Mjganier]

I would take practice exams to simulate the actual exam process and practice taking the exam and managing your time. Find a quiet place, turn off phones, music, no food or drink and actually simulate the whole process. Take them until you can manage your time and are comfortable with the process itself. I did this with my first exam as I noticed I too had exam jitters and had trouble with time management. Doing this helped greatly and I wasn't nearly as nervous for the actual exams.

FAR 8/18/2014--87
AUD 10/18/2014--78
REG 11/24/2014--76
BEC 2/28/2015--76

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"-Albert Einstein

Study Mats: Cpaexcel study text and EQ, Ninja MCQ, Ninja notes

[PurpleK]

Consider meditation techniques and taking deep breaths. Or workout before your exam. I used to do a 2 hour workout before my exams. Throwing around some heavy weights helped to keep me calm.

[Anonymous]

I am a horrible test taker as well. I find that closing my eyes and taking deep breaths every hour or so during the exam calms me down. Going into the exam with confidence helps too. If you know this stuff, tell yourself that. Believe me, it makes a difference. Taking practice tests to be mindful of your time helps as well. You can do this!!!

[nevertoolate]

My first exam was REG on 11/24. I was nervous going in, but I did something that helped me out. I took those first 10 minutes and read the things they gave me like several times over. I did it on the fly and it seemed to calm me down. I'm sure I would have wasted valuable time if I had just accepted the terms and got right to the exam. I think I will make that my exam day ritual. Read those screens until I calm myself down and not necessarily for the entire 10 minutes.

REG - 68, 81
FAR - June 2016
AUD - 58, 63, 84
BEC - 71, 79

CPAexcel (Gold), Ninja Audio, and Ninja MCQ

"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful"

[Anonymous]

I am right there with PurpleK, I always work out before an exam. Last time I went to yoga.

Plus you feel refreshed and your bodies metabolism is increased so don't just get all tired and blobby in the chair. I also cut out all alcohol for a week before the exam and eat super crazy healthy (but be sure you are getting all the calories you need so your brain can function).

Also, go look on the internet, maybe even YouTube. There's bound to be some good advice/techniques out there.

One more thing, I take a snack break after each testlet. I have mastered keeping it to four minutes but it gives your brain a minute to reset and you need the calories. I usually bring 200 calorie all natural snack bars but save the highest caloric one after testlet 3 so I can enter the SIMS brain strong.

[cpa007]

Thanks everyone . I will take each and every advice .I think right food,good sleep and of course well preparation counts.

I agree with you.Very appropriate statement !

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“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”-Albert Einstein

All the best to all of you.

[cpa007]

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate your reply. Its my first time posting something .Good luck to each one of you!

[Fanalyst]

I've fortunately never had to deal with test anxiety, but as far as time management goes, I just don't spend a lot of time on any individual question. My flawed logic is, even if I just straight up guess, I have a 25% chance plus a 10%ish chance that it will be a question that isn't counted. I figure spending 30 seconds deciding on which answer to guess with those odds is better than the odds of me miraculously recalling the answer after struggling over the question for 5 minutes.

To each their own, but I absolutely would not suggest taking snack breaks (or any type of break). Even if you swallow your snack whole in one bite, that break sucks valuable Sim minutes from you. Obviously if you are on a good pace and can afford a quick break, it won't kill you, but if you struggle at all with finishing in time I think you should avoid them.

Also, and once again this is just my opinion, I think flagging questions is a waste of time. If you flag every question that you weren't sure about, you're going to freak yourself out when you get to the end of the testlet and have 15 questions flagged. I would only use the flags if you are going to skip a question and come back, but even then…how likely are you to magically remember something that you had no idea about 5 minutes before?

Good luck! Apologies if my advice is total nonsense.

[Anonymous]

You have to be honest with yourself about questions you don't know. I was able to get to a point where if I know for sure that I can't reason through a question, I spend maybe 30 seconds on it and just move on. No flag. Just cut your loss. A lot of times it will be a pre-test question.

[Anonymous]

I agree with @bronxbombers2 completely. You have to be comfortable with simply not knowing some of the answers. Granted, in MC you can usually work it down to the 2 most likely answers even if you don't know the material very well. But if I ever got to that point I didn't even bother trying to back into what the right answer “must” be; I simply picked one and moved on…no flag, like bronx says. If something came up that Becker hadn't even mentioned I all but ignored the question, just assuming it was a proxy question that would not actually be graded.

The beauty with the simulations is that every answer solution is available if you are a savvy enough researcher. And really, that just comes down to searching the correct 2 or 3 words.

Stay calm and remember everyone feels the same way on test day.

[cpa007]

Thanks everyone! Does anyone knows, how much worth research question is? I had 2 last time.

[cpa007]

Hi Mjganier,

Your advise is working ! I am in exam mode now. I was always in study mode and that was causing a problem. thanks for your advise. All the best.

[Jstubb]

I've only taken AUD and passed with 81% using Becker. Time management was the key for me to keep me on track. A friend of mine used the headphones to keep out all distractions for him, even the sound of others typing would distract him.

I allowed only 55 minutes for a MC testlet….personally, I would read the question thoroughly and try to answer correctly, and I ALWAYS made sure to answer on my first read…if I was familiar with the topic, but not quite sure of the answer – I would flag it – and go on to the next q…….in case a later MC helped me or jogged my memory…. which actually did a few times.

If I had no clue whatsoever, I would answer it and go immediately to next q. At the end of 55 minutes….my testlet would be complete and I moved on to the next.

I personally took quick 3-4 min breaks between each one to literally shake off the anxiety and adrenaline, take some serious deep breaths (yoga breathing) to clear my head mentally of how I felt and said a positive mantra – then headed back in to take the next testlet.

This made sure my simulations had at least 60-70 minutes: And knowing how to research using the search engine was the key to quick answering the sims even if they weren't research q's. I searched examples quickly for letters, representations, etc…to ensure the correct wording…..

Much luck!

AUD: Nov2014 81
FAR: Jan2015
BEC: Feb2015
REG: Apr2015
Using Becker

[Anonymous]

This forum is such a great example of how different we all are. I did the exact opposite of everything that Fanalyst said and passed my first three sections the first time. Fanalyst's post is stressing me out.

[Author]

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