Reviewing and testing recall can be vicious

After months of reading you’re ready to test what you learned. You’ll do mock exams — some do 2 some 5 and others 10.

Whatever the number of mocks you do, I’ll guarantee that you pay attention to the number you get right.

That’s wrong.

The purpose of mocks is to pay attention to the ones you get wrong — and the go about correcting the knowledge deficiency.

Discovering the percent of questions you are able to answer in an untimed low-stress environment is not the goal of the mocks. Especially for the first few.

Discovering what you don’t yet know so you can focus the rest of your review.

That’s the goal. Learn what you don’t know then master what you don’t know.

(Want to know how effective your current study approach is? Take a 2-minute survey and get your score.)

The true simulated mock exam? Take that one under test-timed conditions and that’s the only one that the score might matter. The score on that one might give you some idea of how much you know.

And that might matter if you have time left to improve your knowledge, to make the score better. Improving knowledge is the only goal of doing the mocks. Use the process to fill in the gaps left by just reading the material.

Then get some sleep, eat a good meal, and show up on exam day refreshed and ready to recall what you’ve learned.

(Candidates who study together pass together. Try our free matching service to find your passing partner.)