Top 10 Things to Do Less than a Month Before the Nursing Board Exam

10. Throw out your books if you haven't yet. Stick to summarized/bullet type reviewers and go crazy.

9. Answer as much practice test questions as humanly possible and know the rationale. Board Exam Compilations in front of the PRC are nothing but crap and should not be purchased unless you're willing to do painstaking research for the correct answer. And you won't even know where to look for the answer key for prioritization/intuition questions the BON are so fond of.

8. Attend all your review classes if you're enrolled. By this time, you'll be feeling the pressure of the looming date you've marked on your calendar since the beginning of this year. This is not the time to be too lazy to get up in the morning or skip afternoon classes because you need to check your Facebook account and serve cooking dishes that are about to spoil in Cafe World.

7. Do not panic and spend all your waking moments memorizing drug side effects, pathophysiology of sorts and that blasted developmental milestones in Pedia. They won't do you good as out of the 100 things you have to memorize, only 2 of those will appear in the exam and I'll bet anything you won't even remember the answer for those that came out. Instead, focus on those practice tests as I've mentioned because you'll remember them better, especially if you got the wrong answer. :)

6. Get some sleep. You look wasted. But sleep at night and not during the day. You're not Edward Cullen. Oh wait, Stephanie Meyer decided to ignore all the common vampire customs when it comes to bloodsuckers and sunlight, hence, Sparkly Edward. Sorry, my bad. (Yes, I hate Twilight. Though, I don't know how I managed to subway my distaste to this list which has nothing to do with the subject matter being discussed.)

5. At the same time, do everything possible to stay awake in after lunch review classes as they tend to go on forever. Every moment counts. Who knows, the one question that could have spelled the difference between pass or fail is the one you didn't hear because you fell asleep. How's that for irony?

4. If your birthday falls within the week before the board exam, take my advice for Obama's sake and celebrate early. My birthday was exactly the day before the exam and, needless to say, I spent the entire day fussing over my uniform, forms, pencils, other things and whether you can bring snacks with you. The answer is a big fat yes, btw.

3. Buy few pencils or gather the ones you have, choose one and have a meaningful and trusting relationship with it. This will help facilitate an emotional bond that will foster good working relationship at the day of the board exam. Seriously. You won't regret it.

2. Do the same with your eraser, sharpener and favorite anting-anting keychain so that on exam day, you'll feel as if you're surrounded by friends cheering for your success. And no, I'm not schizophrenic.

and the No.1 thing to do a month before the Nursing Board Exam is...

1. Start praying. Trust me, even if you're an Atheist or Agnostic you'll believe that there's a higher being capable of doing the impossible. There's got to be.