[Accountingbeans]

Just curious, what’s everyone’s routine the morning of exam day? Eat anything specific? Specifically, Any last minute studying?

It’s always a debate for me if I want to study that morning. My anxiety says to look over a few things, but my heart says I did what I could and just relax. I have a 1.5 hour drive ahead of me tomorrow at 9, contemplating listening to ninja audio on the drive or just jamming out to music to loosen up and free my mind a bit.

What do you think?

Newbie
BEC- August 31

[Namstut]

I am not a morning person so I always schedule my exams later in the day. My exam is tomorrow at 1 PM so I am planning on flipping through my notes one last time so the images engrave into my brain. I hydrate throughout the morning but then stay away from fluids at least an hour before I head out to the exam to avoid having to take a break in the middle of the exam. My drive to Prometrics is only 15 minutes so I listen to the music or call my mom. 🙂

Good luck to you tomorrow!

AUD 7/6/16 Passed
BEC 9/3/16
FAR TBD
REG TBD

[krstnam]

I struggle in the morning but I find I get my best work done between 10am-noon. It's the 7am-9am,that kills me. So my first 3 exams were scheduled for afternoon exams. Yesterday I had my first 8am exam and I'm going to schedule my AUD exam for the morning too.

I drive to the neighborhood of the testing center. Go to Panera, get a sammich and iced tea, memorize the last simplest 15 or so formulas and just relax, I listen to instrumental Hawaiian folk music while reviewing. I call my dad on the way from Panera to the testing center and he prays that I stay focused and remain clam and get questions I know the answers to. I then call my mom, she tells me how wonderful I am and then I test. 🙂 it worked 2/3 times so far.

[Anonymous]

Studying for an exam on the day of the exam isn't a good idea. If you don't know everything by 1-2 days before, you're not going to know it on exam day. Last-minute cramming is almost never desirable. You need to have it in long/longer-term memory. P.P.P.P.P….Prior Planning Precedes Perfect Performance (or, Prior *Studying* precedes perfect performance.)
P.P.P.P.P.P (Poor Planning Precedes Piss-Poor Performance.) Get your studying done by the day before and then you will have fewer or no nerves or anxiety on exam day.

[Anonymous]

All my testing centers are at least a good 30-90 minutes away.

As far as habits, I usually get myself one of those 5-hour energy shots and take it once I get to Prometric. During studying I like to exercise or have coffee or something to get me pumped for a few hours, but on test day I feel like the 5-hour energy shots give me a little extra focus.

That's pretty much it. I am usually studying right up to when I put my belongings away in the Prometric lockers, but compared to others I think I have very little nervousness and anxiety. My mentality is usually either “I either know it or I don't”, so I'm pretty calm and cool as a cucumber.

[Namstut]

@crazyleon, I see your point about not studying up until the last minute but everyone is different and it does not work for everyone. For me personally, I looked up a few formulas that I was having a very hard remembering (BEC) right before the exam and they pretty much got photographed in my memory. I got MCQs on 3 of those formulas and had I not reviewed them moments before I probably would not be able to recall them. But that's my personal experience and how my brain works. 🙂

AUD 7/6/16 Passed
BEC 9/3/16
FAR TBD
REG TBD

[ultrarunner]

I believe in the last min. cram. I usually took the exam in the afternoon, so I could study in the morning. However, I had to do it early morning due to scheduling for my last exam. I got up very early and studied before going to the Prometric. Afterwards, I went to work 🙂 Anyway, cramming worked for me. Everyone is different though….

FAR 72,67,79 (Roger+Wiley test bank)11/15
AUD 80 (Roger)10/15
BEC 80 (Roger)4/16
REG 63,78 (Roger+Ninja MCQs)5/16

[Anonymous]

@namstut – love the profile pic!! Yes, of course, it's different for everyone. It depends totally on the person, like just about everything else in this life. I never got anything out of cramming. I did it in high school and it never worked, so never tried doing it again. If you're gonna go over anything on/the day before the exam, review flash cards or some pages of notes that you may have taken that are perhaps more important than the rest and likely to be forgotten. But, by all means, trying to re-read the textbook the day before the exam, or even a week, is not going to really work for 99% of people. Your learning has to be done quite awhile before taking the exam. I'm taking AUD next month. I will finish all the MCQ and reading and stuff this month and will use April (until April 29th) to go back over everything a million times. But that's just me.

This actually reminds me of something I heard about quite awhile ago – there was a test-taker who took the first 10 minutes (designated for reading the welcome screens at Prometric) to write down a bunch of formulas on the white boards. He tried to spew everything he'd memorized and it totally backfired…his exam time expired after 10 minutes were up. He couldn't even take it! I hope he went back to NASBA and asked for and got a free test due to “technical problems.” The lesson of course is that you have to have everything in your head well before the test. If you do, you don't have to do crazy things like he did. Even if he got a free test, it was probably not taken for a month or two or three after that and…I'm sure he forgot everything he'd memorized.

[mckan514w]

I am a total morning person so have taken all of my exams in the morning- I sit for FAR this morning at 7:30am…. I always wake up about 2 hours before exam have my coffee and eat a little bit of breakfast- I normally am not a breakfast eater but I try to force something down me and then will write down what I would take in with me if I were allowed a cheat sheet just to reinforce what I think I need to remember… then i am off. I like the mornings because it doesn't give me too much time to think about things.

and they ask me why I drink...

FAR- 61-next time I'll ask for lube instead of a calculator
REG-75- Never been so happy to see such a low grade
BEC- 8/11
AUD- 9/2

[rb2017]

My testing center is an over an hour away too – I put on Ninja Audio lectures on the drive and can 100% say that there have been questions I wouldn't have remembered had I not listened to the audio right beforehand! Pretty sure that's how I got up to the 75 on FAR haha. I also drive up there super early and take back roads (my entire drive is cornfields) so there is less going on to distract me.
I get to the Starbucks in town of my testing center a few hours earl before my test and study very general concepts. I'll give myself 15 minutes to listen to music right before the test to calm my nerves and rock out haha. Everyone is different though – good luck!

[danko1983]

i try to take the exam in the afternoon if i can. last minute cramming is big for me (not for lack of studying either, i have adhd and also… i dunno if the correct term is cognitive recognition, but i don't process things as fast as the normal person). i remember back in sat prep being told it's good for your brain to watch an very intelligent movie the night before something like this (my go to is “primer” available on netflix, it's short and maybe one of the most complex movies ever made. seriously, there's charts on the internet trying to explain it). i also stay up late the night before (basically the last few weeks to month before the exam), so i wake up from my nap as i like to call it, make a cup of green tea, study for a bit, shower, cram in as much as i can before i have to go (only have a 10-15 minute commute) and cram in the parking lot before i have to go in. i try to not eat much or drink a ton because of time constraints but since i get time and a half i don't worry as much as i used to about it. good luck to everyone in the next few days!

BEC - exp 2/28/13 (crap)
AUD - exp 11/30/13

[Anonymous]

I took three exams so far and have stuck to the same routine for all!

I scheduled my very first exam at 8am (test center is 15 minutes away) and got there around 7:20 to take a few bites of my PBJ sandwich while reviewing notes. Reviewing notes is not really to study but to refresh myself on formulas I may forget and to just get my brain running. I passed and did the same for the next two exams – passed all three on the first try! For more detail, I also wore leggings, sweatshirt, hair up for all three exams. Will be doing the same for exam four just cause I feel that morning routine is my luck now 🙂

[LD]

@accountingbeans just a thought, I always schedule my exam later in the day and call to see if they'll take me earlier. the four times I've gone I've never been denied, I tested at 3 different testing centers. I feel like there's always a chance you could take it earlier if you wanted to, but never later if you have a morning appointment, so it's better to have it later in the day in my opinion. also I also have a hour and a half drive to my centers, and always listen to audio on my way. I think it helps.

[Author]

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