 In preparing for the RTRP exam, you will be building up your capabilities, your competency as a professional tax return preparer, from where you are currently to a higher qualified and more confident services provider. This is very good for you and for your current and future clients. However, you know that any process of change from one point to a better one has its challenges and a price. In this case, one of the prices to pay is to prepare for and pass the competency exam. Preparing for and passing any competency exam to obtain a professional credential requires an investment in time, money and effort. When considering your goal of passing the RTRP competency exam, accept the fact that you must look at the exam preparation process as you would any task with a set deadline. Meaning that, for a few weeks you will be dealing with more than just your job commitments. For a few weeks you will be living a "high-season" of your job. Also, accept the fact that some obstacles will get on your way. An obstacle can be a personal situation or event (health, money, family or other issues) that will prevent you from staying focused on preparing for your exam. Another obstacle can be just your attitude. But fear not! As long as you do not let your obstacles convert into excuses, a way to overcome them often shows up by itself. So, how can you make it happen? Our prescription is: decide that you can do it, have a plan, and commit to your plan. We call that our DPC formula and our DPC formula is full-proof against failure! It works like this! DECIDE: Decide firmly that you will pass the RTRP exam on your first attempt. A clear-cut decision makes all the difference. Taking an exam is the kind of experience that you want to enjoy just once. PLAN: A scheduled daily study plan, for the time you consider necessary to prepare for the exam, will help you organize and optimize your available time. Just like a job commitment! But the good part is, this plan is for just a few weeks! COMMIT: A commitment is much more than just a wish. If you only wish to pass the exam, you will easily convert obstacles into excuses. If you are committed to pass the exam, you will go around, over, under, or through the obstacles and you will make it happen. You become obsessed with obtaining the result you planned to obtain and won't "negotiate" that result with any obstacle that may stand in your way. Being committed means you will do whatever it takes to pass the RTRP exam on your first attempt. The last piece of our equation has to do with how you approach your exam day experience. I try to recall what really makes a person feel nervous, anxious and worried about exam day. One thing is the simple fact of having the person's knowledge being tested on a huge amount of information. The best way to confront and overcome this worry is just by thinking that exam day is the culmination of a long work project whose end you are happy to have in sight. You want nothing to prevent you from performing at your very best and show, in the result, a solid return on all the effort you put forth in the preparation. The worse thing that can happen is, after investing all that time and sustained effort for an extended preparation period, you cannot take the exam. Exam day is what you have been preparing for. Welcome the exam day with great joy, make peace with the idea that you will be testing your knowledge successfully and be happy to have the opportunity to successfully complete the exam process. Another exam takers' concern is the fear of forgetting what they have studied. If you understood the content of the material you studied, you won't forget it. You just need to work on being relaxed and focus and your ability to recall will be there when you need it. Keep this thought on your mind: "Only calm, focused and concentrated people pass their exams". Another important source of fears is the thought of having questions that you do not know the answers for. Accept, from the beginning of your preparation process, that there may be questions you do not know anything about. Make peace with the fact that you do not have to know everything (nobody does). Among the 120 questions in the RTRP exam maybe there is more than one question for which you will not be sure about the correct answer. What to do? If you read a question, and think you do not know the answer, just think to yourself "Aha! Here is the question I was not sure about". Give it your best guess and then move on with the test. Don't let exam nervousness or anxiety cheat you out of a passing score. You will not want to do this to yourself. Give no thought to your unfounded fears. Visit the testing room before your exam day if this is your first time as an exam taker at Prometric. Remember, worries won't help you pass the exam and nervousness won't answer the questions for you in the testing room. Focus on multiplying your energy Sustaining a high level of energy, engagement, and enthusiasm in our day-to-day living is a learnable skill according to Brendon Burchard in his book "The Charge, Activating the 10 Human Drives that make You Feel Alive", which is a book a highly recommend to you for your preparation or post-exam reading. In this book the author says " Only the failure to strategically control the content of your consciousness keeps you from feeling the consistent internal charge of being fully alive, engaged, connected, and fulfilled. The good news is you now hold in your hand a very strategic book." Why this is important for RTRP exam candidates? It is because as the RTRP competency exam is for multi-role adults who usually have several windows of life competing for their attention and time simultaneously, being fully energized by taking care of that "internal charge" is crucial for effectiveness and productivity in any of those roles. Enjoying the blessing of being energized, engaged, and enthusiastic requires some work and commitment and the first step is awareness. So, taking action toward raising your energy to a higher level is just a matter of going throughr the day being aware about your energy level. Begin by asking your-self these three questions suggested by the author of the book mentioned above: "How in control of your life do you feel today, on a scale of one to ten, with ten representing being in total control? How in control of your mind, emotions, and experiences do you feel, right now? How in control are you of the immediate world around you, today?" Read the entire article here | 
