8 Tips for Taking Your State Board Exam

Congratulations you are getting ready to take your licensing exams!!! For some of you this means taking just a written exam and for others it means taking both a written and practical. Follow these tips to help prepare yourself.

1. Trust! Trust that you know the information. You been through at least 1,000 hours, and in some states more, of school. You know this! You got this!
2. Focus on the things that you are unsure of. Look over the chapters or topics that you know well, but don’t spend all your time on them. You’ll want to budget most of your study time on the topics that you struggle with.
3. Create ways to remember the technical words. One that always worked for my students is: The radial bone, nerve, and artery are located on the thumb side of the arm because you need your thumb to turn up the radio in your car! (at least you used to, but it still works!)

4.  Make the difficult words easier. Pick one part of the word to focus on. For example the word: Onychcryptosis, or ingrown nail. If you remember that Onyx=nails, osis=disease or disorder, then you only have to focus on the middle section of the word, in this case crypt=ingrown. Another way to make technical words easier is to assign them an acronym. For example, let’s take the word sternocleidomastoideus (the muscle that stretches from the back of the ear, along the side of the neck to the collar bone and helps move the head up, down and side to side). As long as you can associate the word and the definition to an acronym, like SCM, you’ll be able to remember it. You could even try making the hard words fun. One technique that I used to help my students remember (and say) Pseudomonas Aeruginosa was to hold their pen like a wand and say it like it was a spell from the movie Harry Potter.
5. Arrive early!! You can never anticipate a traffic accident or traffic delays. Leave yourself more than enough time to arrive 30 minutes early to the testing site. This is critical because if you’re late you will be denied entry and you’ll have to start the process all over again. This includes paying for the test again.

6. Pack ahead of time! Pack your kit the week before you are scheduled to take your practical exam. This will alleviate the stress of packing last minute and it gives you time to replace any items that may need replacing.
7. Get plenty of rest. You may be tempted to go with friends, but you should relax and unwind instead. Passing this test is what stands between you and your future career. Take this responsibility seriously and get to sleep at a reasonable hour.
8. Eat a good breakfast. You think better when you’re not hungry. Plus no one wants to pass out, so fuel up before you go!

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