I took Level 1 last December and passed. One of the best pieces of advice I got, was if you are not pressed for time, about 2 hours into each section, take a bathroom break. Even if you don’t have to go, just go in and throw some water on your face. Wait 3 or 4 minutes outside the bathroom and just regain your composure before going back to the test. Especially in the afternoon, you will be mentally exhausted and will have a hard time concentrating. Just taking a few minutes away from the test will do wonders to regain your focus. Hope you are all well prepared and best of luck next weekend.
IMHO I don’t think taking 2 minutes to walk around an airport hanger to find a bathroom you don’t need, only to wait there for 4 minutes doing nothing and then taking 2 minutes to walk back to your seat is an efficient use of your time. In that time you wasted, other candidates would be able answer 5-6 questions, or at least put much more thought into 2 or 3. It’s a competition, remember that. Lance Armstrong doesn’t pull over on the Tour de France to snap some pictures of the coastline because it will mentally recharge him, and hes only got one ball!
While i do see your point, matt, i think you are comparing apples to oranges with LA. Everyone in that room has 3 hours to finish this exam. The person who finishes first doesn’t get a gold star for it. And while you may see all of us as your “competition”, you may not want to look at it that way. The time I have spent on this forum has benefited me through reading other peoples thoughts. And has benefited others by them reading mine. Remember, no one who has scored higher then a 70% has ever failed L1. So while you may be rooting for all of us here to fail in order to lower that curve. We are all here rooting for everyone to score above 70 to increase the pass rate. Just my thoughts. Good luck to everyone come Saturday.
Maybe things were different for me because I could finish 120 questions in 90 minutes and do a full review in 45 minutes. That gave me 45 minutes of discretional time. The one thing I underestimated about the exam, is how mentally tired you get in the afternoon after +4 hours of intense mental exercise. I took many mocks and did well on all of them. However, I could barely focus in the afternoon. Also, exam isn’t a competition. They use the Angoff method to score exams, so it’s not based on the curve or how other people taking the test do. However, if you want to ignore my advice fine, but I still strongly recommend it. Signed, Guy who got all >70’s on the Level 1 test when the pass rate was historically low
Spartan, I’m not hoping anyone fails. I’ve benefited a lot from this forum and I’ve contributed a lot too. I am going to call a spade a spade, and at the end of the day you are competing against every other candidate out there, like it or not that is a fact. Job71188, if you can finish each section in 1/2 the required time god bless you. Not many others will be in the same position, hence they won’t be able to take that free time. That being said if you are one of the few who can finish the exam in 1/2 the allocated time, I take back my previous statement, splash all the water on your face you want!
I’m going to go to the bathroom and pull the fire alarm to put me and everyone else back on equal footing for time.