I work fairly long hours and to get the most out of my study time, I have been making liberal use of coffee and red bull. I am sure there are plenty of other guys doing this as well. The problem part is that now I need a coffee first thing in the morning to jump start and then 2 or 3 more during the day. Anybody else worried about this affecting their performance on exam day and any ideas as how to best manage it, i.e. have a coffee before the exam and then one during lunch hour or just go the whole day w/o it. I know this sounds a bit paranoid but I really don’t want to miss the nuances of ‘most likely’ and ‘least likely’ type questions just because I tinkered with my caffeine dosage. I was thinking of getting off caffeine now so that I can get used to going w/o it but then had to go for my morning latte after simply staring a question for 5 mins and not making any sense. Hopefully the testosterone on exam day will make up for the lack of caffeine
my caffeine dosage has increased 3 times in the past couple of months. Its midnight in Chicago and I am craving for coffee. Tried searching on google but theres no 24-hr coffee in suburbs. I am gonna take pack of redbull with me to exam, and drink at least 2 during the break !
Thats what I am thinking…keep a redbull with me and have it during the break.
stay calm, if you have studied over time only then I think you can do it. remember this is a test that only well prepared can pass. study hard now, right now i am panicking cuz i have about 65% of course to go, so concepts are exploding in my head but i am hardly able to retain anything. And if it takes you a coffee to get going in the morning, then do drink coffee on the exam day as well, but do not overdose yourself, and as the day progresses i’d recommend not drinking more coffee. and save the red bull for the evening cocktails. redbull has 3x more caffeine. get used to lots of water. (but not so much that you have to take a leak every .5 hrs). and dont go high on sugar. for exam day i am planning on eating a fruit basket in the morning, and then salad in the afternoon and having water/oj/carrot juice in between.
I take half of a NoDoz pill instead of a cup of coffee. It’s just caffeine, and doesn’t come with the calories of a doubleshot espresso with cream/sugar (and no NASTY coffee breath either!) It absolutely works wonders in the middle of a long study session, and I’m definitely going to take half of one in the morning, and the other half in afternoon. fruit basket in the morning + salad in the afternoon sounds good, but make sure you get some protein in there (i.e. cottage cheese with the fruit), or you’ll be growling like crazy halfway through the morning!
I don’t drink sodas, coffee, red bull or anything with caffeine in it. However, I’m worried about staying awake during the exam. Simply because, I’ve noticed during the past month or so, I’ve been getting extremly sleepy about 1pm. I’ve been waking up early (4am) to study for the past few months and now I wake up automatically. My goal for the next two weeks is to act like everyday is exam day to prepare my body and mind for the duration of the test.
For the Series 7, I slept maybe 2 hours, downed an energy drink before, and during the break. This was hardly needed as the adrenaline kept me going strong. I imagine it the same for the CFA. That being said, I’m bringing a cooler with my lunch, and at least 2 energy drinks for break. My intake has gone from maybe 3 a week to about 2 a day now.
Dont sweat too much guys. Once the adrenaline kicks in, there is no way you will lose focus during the exam.
I will also take a couple of red bulls, and … coca-cola! i noticed that it wakes me up much sooner than rb
I will definitely crush a RB at break
JRado… What are the NoDoz pills that you are talking about? And where can I get them? I usually need coffee to focus, but am afraid to drink before the exam because what I noticed is that I have to run to the bathroom at least twice or even three times during the 180 minute session. Now, I really cant afford to do that when answering 120 questions. I just want to try these pills out… Oh, and hopefully the adrenaline will help me focus.