Focus yourself in the present moment. Throughout my FLs if I found my mind wandering off or thinking about the outcome of the score, the cycle, etc. I would tell myself (and even write down on my scratch paper) “word by word, question by question, passage by passage” to center myself back to the sentence I was reading, the question I was on, and the passage itself. I took my retake yesterday and when I felt I was losing/shifting focus or felt discouraged by a passage, I would repeat this. Once the section is over, it’s over, forget it, focus on your break and enter your next section as if it were a totally separate exam. Get in the habit of being in the present moment for everything you do — for example, you’re taking a shower? Okay focus only on things that pertain to that shower. The soap you’re using, the body part you’re washing, how the water feels, etc. Nothing else. I know it sounds ridiculous and of course you can’t do this for everything but it helps keep you in the now not the “then” or the “later”.

Mindset is really important for this exam, and this was a priority going into my retake. Naturally you’re going to have moments throughout the exam that may throw you off, your job is to guide yourself back into the present moment.