Before taking a driving test, it’s likely that you’ll drive a few of the prospective routes with your instructor. This is the same principle as doing a past paper - what you’re doing is familiarising yourself with the situation, so when you walk in on exam day, you’ll be comfortable and ready for the conditions that you’ll face during your test.
1. Pick one day and follow your prospective exam day routine.
Think of this as a rehearsal to the main event. Theatre actors would never go on stage without a full run-through, so why not pick a day to do a run-through of your own. Think about; what you will eat for dinner, for breakfast, your bedtime, when you’ll wake up and when your exam will be. Play it out to see how you perform under these conditions.
2. Break the exam down into chunks if you have to
If you don’t have three straight hours in one day to do a full exam, why not take the questions from an exam and do them over a few days. Figure out exactly how much time you would split for each one in the exam, and just do one question in this time. As long as you are setting parameters for yourself, you will see the same effect as what you might expect on exam day.
3. Set up a desk as if you were in an exam hall
Try and put yourself in the mindset of an exam day by going through the motions of what you’ll experience on the day. Find a suitable place, put your phone away at the beginning, set yourself a time limit and manage your time to stick to it. All this practise will mean that when it comes to exam day, it will feel familiar and therefore you will be more relaxed.
4. Get someone to invigilate you
If you struggle to set yourself these conditions, why not ask a parent, teacher or friend to set them for you? This will force you to replicate the conditions without any possibility for distractions to creep in. Putting yourself under exam conditions is a great way to get yourself ready for what you’ll face on exam day.
Getting ready for an exam can be as simple as preparing yourself for the mindset you’ll face on the day. Running through this situation at home will get you in right
