Appendix E — Test day
Before Exam Day Scout out the location. Directions. Parking. Restrooms. Food and drink. Grass area: sun, background, shelter from wind. Find out if water is available for the roll casts. If there is, practice the roll cast on water and the grass. Sort your equipment out the night before. Clean the fly line, add and stretch new leader and tie-on new yarn.
Exam Day Make sure you arrive early to set up and warm up. Keep a positive attitude. If you have a pretest routine, stick to it. Give the examiners space before the Exam. They often need to meet to get themselves organized, especially at events with several candidates.
Setting the Casting Course Examiners may have set up a course. Review it with them. If you are not happy with it, indicate that you’d like to change it. Examiners are very agreeable to changing the course to your liking, other than changing distances. Make sure the cones are the way you want them, often the way in which you practice. If you want to use your own gear, say so. If you set up your own course, walk through it with the examiners. Pay careful attention to background and wind. Make very sure you can see your front and back loops.
Wind Direction Getting this right is critical. When testing the best wind direction for all casters is when the wind is blowing from the non-casting arm side. Most also prefer it to be slightly from the back. Practice to see what you prefer and make sure the course is set up with your preferred wind direction. Remember you can change direction if conditions change.
During the Exam Trust your training and preparation and try as much as possible to relax. Your examiners know most candidates will start off a bit nervous and will do their best to help you over any initial nervousness. They will first run you through how your assessment will work, as they do with all FFI Exams.
Exhibit a positive, can-do, confident, and keen-to-learn attitude. Don’t hesitate to call for a break. Unless you need to say something, don’t. Avoid volunteering things and offering gratuitous opinions. Stick to the task at hand. Use as few words as possible when answering questions. Answers should be concise and accurate. If your examiners want more, they will ask. It’s a good idea to make sure you are clear with your examiners whether you are answering a question or speaking as you would to a student or to another instructor.
Do-Overs Do-overs can result from examiners just needing to take another look. But it is more likely that they may have seen something that does not meet Task requirements. They are generally
supposed to let you know why they are asking to see the cast again. If you think your cast may not have met task requirements, think very hard about what the problem might be before casting again. In your mental review, consider the scoring boxes, which contain many of the most common problems candidates encounter. If, however, you are sure you made a good cast just relax and do it again.
Listen closely and be very attentive to direct and indirect prompts from the examiners. They can’t tell you how to fix things, but they can sometimes give prompts or ask helpful questions. As examples, “How might you fix a student’s wide back cast?”, “What is good tracking?” Alternatively, they might offer a reminder of a task’s expectations, and follow with a repeat request. These prompts should be sending you a very loud and clear message of what the examiners want to see done differently.
Mistakes We all from time to time make truly horrible casts that fail entirely. If this happens, you can deploy your sense of humor and proactively turn it into a teaching moment. Let your examiners know what happened and how you plan to fix it.
After the Exam Some of the FFI’s most able and experienced instructors have spent a lot of time watching very carefully and taking extensive notes on your performance. This is a gold mine of information that you should take advantage of, win, lose or draw.
If you passed, you should make every effort to get feedback while the team is still there, and their memories are fresh. Some examiners are a bit reluctant to point out things a passing candidates can improve on for fear of dampening a successful experience. So just ask. Be sure to get a photo of you with the examiners and a photo of the last page of your exam. Review the paperwork process with your examiners.
If you did not pass, above all, make every effort to be calm, receptive and professional. Take a deep breath, a drink of water and perhaps a moment to yourself, if needed. Examiners know how hard it is to fail. They will review the exam with you and should send notes a few weeks after the exam. Stay in touch with them and be sure you understand where the improvement needs to be made. It is the wish of your examiners that you give it try again when ready and pass.