Yes it's that time of year again, the fall 2008 Qualifying exams begin in just 8 days!
Everyone is no doubt getting a little nervous and doing some last minute cramming, but hopefully you have covered the bulk of what you need to know by now. To help you to study effectively with your remaining time and to try and calm those nerves here are my top tips for the last week before undertaking the Qualifying exams and for the exam day itself.

1. If you have not already done so the watch the PEBC's new video on the Qualifying Exam Process.
2. Continue studying by all means, but take some good breaks too, especially on the day before the exam. Being tired and stressed will not help you on exam day, even if you know everything in the text books!
3. Cover as many practice questions as you can find and even go back over questions you have already covered. Now is the time to identify those weak areas and those areas where you may have forgotten details.
4. For the OSCE exam, if you have a chance to meet with fellow exam takers to role play scenarios, do so (but don't get caught up in other peoples nerves about the exam....be positive). Make sure you have some lifestyle advice for common scenarios and go through commonly used delivery devices and make sure you effectively can counsel on their use
5. Try and study using the summary notes you have made, if you don't have many notes try making some lists of key points to remember on exam day so you can glance at them the day before and refresh your memory. At this stage reading whole chapters and skipping between reference books will only slow you down and tire you out. Reading the key points and chapter summaries from review texts such as Comprehensive Pharmacy Review and Therapeutic Choices is still a good idea.
6. If you have any burning questions or you are uncertain about something, now is the time to ask. Post a question, about whatever you need to know in the forum and see if we can put your mind at rest.
7. If you really feel under prepared for the exam and do not feel at all confident about your chance of passing, think carefully about taking the exam. If you withdraw at this stage you will lose some of you application fee, however, if you fail the exam then you lose the fee and one of your 3 chances to pass the exam. Please remember though, if you have studied hard and given the preparation your best shot, you will most likely be fine. Nerves are normal and are there to make you perform on the day! ;)
8. Make sure you have all your paperwork for the day of the exam and put them in a safe place (but one you will remember). If something is missing that you need on the day now is the time to contact the PEBC.
9. Bring as little as possible with you on the day of the exam. Most items will have to be left outside of the exam hall anyway. On the day of the OSCE snacks and juice are provided.
10. In the exam hall listen carefully to everything the exam staff tell you. Don't do anything until they instruct you to do so.
11. When doing the exam paper read questions carefully and if at first you don't know mark the question on the exam paper (not the mcq sheet!) and come back to it later. Getting bogged down and worried by hard exam questions will do you no favours, give yourself a boost and get the easier questions done. Knowing you have a good portion of the paper answered will help you focus and allow you to spend a little more time to spend on the harder questions. Remember also some of those hard questions may be pre-test questions and not count toward your mark...but don't count on that!
12. Don't forget if the everyone finds the paper very hard, it might just be a hard paper. The PEBC takes this in to account when setting the passing grade for that particular paper.
13. After the exam...forget about it. Doing a post-mortem of what happened will not change your result and will inevitably make you more nervous about the results. If you have more exams ahead of you concentrate on those and start with a clean slate. If one exam didn't go according to plan you may be able to make up for it in the next exam.
14. Remember, discussing exam questions and content if forbidden by the PEBC, so do not get yourself in trouble after the exam!
15. Expect to spend some time in a holding room after the exam. This is done to allow the next round of exam takers in to the building or to make sure other exam takers throughout the country can not be contacted by those who have just finished the exam.
16. Find out where your exam centre is and at what time your exam starts. Plan your journey and allow adequate time for unexpected hold ups.
17. Most importantly of all...relax, breathe and remember you are a pharmacist, exams are not new to you...this is just another exam!

I hope this helps you all. If anyone has any other tips they would like to share please feel free to comment below.
Best of luck to you all and I hope you will all come back to the site and let us all know how you get on.
Mat
(Siteadmin)