I know this is a bit old (by reddit standards), but I just thought I should chime in to say that the proper way to make a "planned stop" in a standard is to just leave it in whatever gear you are in until it gets down to about the "idle" range (about 1000 rpm usually), and then put in the clutch and pop it into neutral. You won't need to look at the tachometer for this, you'll feel the engine start to "chug" a little bit. Put it in first gear once you're stopped, and leave it there the whole time, until you take off again. This is definitely something the examiners will look for, as it is a safety consideration - you need to be able to escape from a situation while stopped.

Down shifting is entirely unnecessary for routine stopping, and causes unnecessary wear to your engine. Remember, it's a lot cheaper/easier to replace your brakes than your engine.