I was born and raised in Japan which means English is not my first language. I am a single mother of a 7 year-old boy whose father has minimal involvement in his life which means I have him almost all the time, probably like 98%. My biggest challenge was to find the time to study. I work full time. My son is still needy so it was impossible to study at home when he is with me at home. (I tried a few times, but he would come to get my attention every five minutes saying “I’m hungry” or something.) I took every opportunity to study no matter where it was and what time it was. I studied at the PlayPlace at McDonald’s many times while he was playing there. I studied sitting on a bench at the playground while he was playing. I woke up 4 in the morning while my son was still sleeping until he wakes up at 6:30 am. I asked my friends to watch my son so that I can study. I took some days off to just take the full mock exams because it was the only way for me to secure the whole four hours with no distractions. It took me five months to finish the whole program. I know it is probably longer than what the most people would take, but that’s what I needed. I needed to reschedule my exam date one time because I was not ready a month ago. I’m glad I rescheduled it. I know I wouldn’t have passed if it was a month ago. I utilized the TDC coach whenever I was not clear about anything. Some questions were really hard for me to understand due to my limited English knowledge and my cultural background differences, but Heidi always helped me out. Thank you Heidi for answering all my questions with clear explanations and rationales. It really helped me to attack the exam correctly. I went over the half mock exams and the full ones about three times each. I came to the point where I was able to pick up some key words in the question stem and guess the right answer without reading the answer options. I listened to the final pep talk four times within the last 48 hours prior to my exam. I followed what Amanda said; had a walk with my son the day before the exam, had a hot steamy bath to relax, had a good sleep (although I woke up 3AM and studied for a few hours), had a good breakfast (carbs and protein) and had some fruits right before the exam. Because I didn’t want to be in rush I arrived at the test center an hour prior to my test time. I was able to review for the last time in my car while waiting. During the exam, I was allowed to have some cough drops. It really helped me to get through the whole exam. Although I did not step out of the testing room, I closed my eyes for a minute to reset my mind after question 86. On the white board, I wrote 2 columns of numbers; one indicating question numbers, and the other is for the time remaining. They were 43, 86, 129, and 170 (question numbers) and 184, 128, 72, and 15 (minutes remaining). I checked these numbers frequently to pace myself. I tried to have 15 minutes left after I answered all the questions and I did pretty well. I had about 12 minutes left when I finished the last question. I did not have enough time to check all the answers that I marked. I probably checked 10 or so and changed 2 or 3 answers. Throughout the exam I told myself to “stay focused and present”. It helped me a lot to keep moving. There are some questions that I had no idea what the right answer was but I stayed calm. I didn’t panic. This program works. I truly believe that if I can pass it you guys can pass too! I wish the best for all of you.
LCSW