By Trevor S. Mitchell, CAE | ARMA International
In reflecting back, the day of the exam was very similar to the days I played sports in high school. It was as much about being in the right mental and physical state as it was about the exam itself. The night before I had a good meal, didn’t study anything, had everything ready to go, and went to bed at a normal time.
The next morning I woke up, had a good breakfast, and didn’t focus on the exam at all. All of my study material was packed up. I knew at that point that reviewing it anymore was only going to make things worse, not better. I continually repeated to myself that I knew the information, I had done everything that I could to prepare, and that I was going to do my best. On the drive over to the exam site I had the music on and made sure each song had a positive, uplifting beat to keep me focused.
When I arrived at the testing center, I got myself situated and familiar with the location. I made sure I was relaxed and ready. At no point did I ever let negative thoughts come in to my mind. I knew that would be my downfall if I did. I completed the exam in 3 of the 4 allotted hours. I marked all over that booklet to better help me dissect the questions. I would skip questions if I was having issues understanding what they were asking. I marked certain questions if I thought that more than one answer was too close and wanted to verify it. I took the opportunity to challenge two questions that I thought were “poor” and needed to be reworked. There were times where I would just close my eyes for a minute to rest and refocus. I knew from the pre-tests that after a certain point I would need to have these mini breaks to be successful.
After the exam I knew that I did the best that I could and there was nothing else I could have done differently. I took a little bit of time to reflect on the questions and wondered if I had answered them correctly. This was a good exercise as it allowed me to wind down from the exam. There were times were I would go back and forth between “I know I passed” to “I know I failed”. I quickly stopped this or it was going to make the next 8 weeks drag on worse than I was already anticipating for them to be. It was now time to wait.
Contact Trevor S. Mitchell, CAE
trevor.mitchell@armaintl.org
CAE slam book 