Be over-prepared. The stress of three MCI examiners will blow up any spare margin, so you need to pass at 90 percent.

What the instructor says

• A good day is not the plan. You cannot be at 80 percent and hope to perform at 90. If you think you will need a good day to pass, you will not have one.
• Weather is part of the test. Practice in 30 to 40 mph wind, including the tasks you hate. At a West Yellowstone test in early September (he thinks 2013 or 2014) it was 15 mph, snow and a 36 degree high; the passers had practiced in those conditions, and bluebird-only practice is a recipe for absolute failure.
• Wind is a choice. The test says you can change directions any time, so turn and keep the wind off your casting shoulder; he has seen 25 mph on test day.
• The order can change. The wind task (task 22 on this site; the video calls it task 21) may start with a headwind or tailwind, and task 8 may come fast, slow, medium rather than slow, medium, fast; practice every order.

Putting it to work

1. Get a pretest from someone told not to be nice: pretty good is a euphemism for you are really crappy.
2. Pass the 36-question written test first — 30 correct is the pass mark, so you can miss six. If you fail it you can still take the performance exam that day, though the written has to be retaken within a year.

Source

From the FFI CI walkthrough series by Dayle Mazzarella (Chapter 3 — FFI Casting Instructor Certification Tasks, Fly Fishing Coach International), lesson 1 part 1, 00:01:18 and 00:08:43, lesson 1 part 2, 00:07:24, lesson 1 part 3, 00:06:55 and 00:08:15, and lesson 14 part 2, 00:05:59. See the video library for the series and the CI exam section for the tasks; terms follow the FFI Fly Casting Definitions.