How do you get more out of your practice exams?

A practice exam mostly shows you what you don’t know yet. Use the result as a list of topics that still need work, not as a grade.

Take your first practice exam too early

Take a full practice exam as soon as you have covered two or three topics. Your score will probably be low. That’s fine, because you use this first exam to see what is still coming.

What it gives you:

You know how the questions are asked, long before things get tense.
You see which topics are still ahead, and how many there are.
A low first score doesn’t hurt now. The same score two days before your exam does.

Read the explanation for the questions you got right too

Most people only read the explanation for their mistakes. But a guess that happened to be right is a gap in your knowledge too. It just doesn’t show up as a mistake in your result.

So also go over the questions where you hesitated. Could you explain why your answer was right? If not, that topic goes on your review list.

Repeat the topic, not the exam

If you trip up on one topic, go back to that topic in the course. Taking a second practice exam straight away just shows the same mistake again, with different pictures.

The order that works: take an exam → group your mistakes by topic → go through the weakest topic again → only then take a new exam.

Spread them out, and save a few

Don’t use up all your practice exams in one week. That causes two problems:

You start recognising questions instead of situations. You remember “for this picture it’s B”, not the rule behind it. In the exam you get different pictures.
You have nothing left in reserve. Keep a handful of exams for the last week before your exam date, so you still practise with questions you haven’t seen.

One per session is enough

Two or three practice exams in a row tell you little. You get tired, read faster and make mistakes you wouldn’t make when rested. Then you are measuring your concentration, not your knowledge.

One exam, followed by calmly going through the explanations, gives you more than three on autopilot.

When are you ready?

Not after one good score. Look at the pattern:

Do your last exams go well consistently, or does it change a lot from one to the next?
Are your remaining mistakes spread out, or is one topic still causing trouble every time?
When you get one wrong, can you explain straight away what you did wrong?

If your scores are consistently good and you can explain your mistakes, you can think about booking an exam date. If your results keep changing, or you keep making mistakes in the same topic, practise that first.

What practice exams are not

They are not a copy of the real exam, and they don’t predict your result. They are meant to prepare you for the CBR theory exam, with the same format and time pressure. They are not real CBR exam questions. So learn the rules behind the questions, not just the answers.

Remember this

Start your first exam early.
Read the explanation for right answers you hesitated over too.
Repeat the topic, not the exam.
Spread them out, and save a few for the last week.
One per session, with the explanations.

Already failed your exam? Here is how to prepare differently for the retake.

Not started yet? View the online theory course.