“I feel like my brain is so full and can’t comprehend anything anymore! I’m so nervous that I feel I am forgetting things. What should I do? Cram more or stop studying? Help me, I want to PASS!”
As the upcoming NPTE exam is soon approaching, I receive panic emails daily similar to the one above. The first thing I always mention to the person is to take a deep breath! I understand there may be some anxiety as to “whether I studied enough” or “there is still so much for me to cover.” With thoughts of doubt, it can increase any test anxiety and begin to feel that someone may not feel ready at all.
In TEP’s course, my recommendation is to stop studying anything new two weeks prior to the actual exam. This is to allow for prior information to actually sink in and be retained. Most of the time, examinees are stressed out or really looking forward to the exam to be over. When someone feels their brain is unable to handle anything new, they’ll mention to me that they read the new information but continue to miss questions on the topic. That’s the time to stop and just review.
The NPTE studying mistake is that I find it’s counterproductive to cram any new information as there will always be “one more thing” to study. With each new topic or subject, there undoubtedly brings up more questions and having the feeling of needing to look this up in another reference. This perpetual looking up can actually do more harm than good up until the last minute.
I mention to TEP’s participants that at some point, you have to just stop, just like you would for an actual treatment session and know that you did the best you could. However much you studied up until this point will just have to do and allow yourself to be relaxed for the upcoming exam. You’ll be able to look up information about a particular topic if you need to once you are practicing and under a more relaxed situation.
“So, what should I be doing these next two weeks?”
Here are some of the recommendations that I have given in TEP’s course for the last two weeks:
- Only review your weakest areas and the most impactful at the beginning of the two weeks
- Review your stronger areas during the second week for reinforcement
- Be sure to have clinical examples for common terminology to help with concepts
- Practice drawing / writing out your brain dump
- No more practice exams to avoid any low scores
Rather than ramp up the studying, it’s best to ramp down and starting preparing mentally as well as physically for the NPTE. At this point in time, I mention to TEP’s participants, it’s about how you can face the NPTE questions as patients and not be scared. That knowing you have the knowledge and can apply clinically helps to increase confidence and be positive towards the actual day. And by using TEP’s exam process, you can be able to read and pick out the answers with ease and avoid overanalyzing. Other resources in the course are the NPTE Readiness, Two Weeks Prior to the Exam on demand videos and the assignment about Proactive Preparation for the Exam situations.