TLC Exam Day Checklist

The night before

Do not take a full practice test the night before. It changes nothing about what you know and it costs you sleep, which does change how you perform.

Instead, read through your list of figures you previously guessed at, confirm the test centre address and appointment time, and work out the journey with a real margin — New York traffic does not care about your appointment. Then stop and get a normal night's sleep.

• Confirm the test centre address, date and appointment time.
• Plan the journey with a generous margin, including a fallback route.
• Check the identification requirements and put the documents somewhere you cannot forget them.
• Read your guessed-figures list once. No new material.

What to bring

Bring valid identification that meets the test provider's requirements, your appointment confirmation, and anything the provider specifically told you to bring. Identification rules are set by the test vendor and are enforced strictly — an expired document is a wasted trip.

Because those requirements can change, read the confirmation you were sent rather than relying on what someone told you. If anything is ambiguous, contact the provider before the day rather than arguing at the desk.

Arrive early enough to stop rushing

Test centres have a check-in process, and arriving with minutes to spare means starting the exam with your pulse up. That costs marks in the first ten questions, which are usually easy marks.

Aim to arrive well ahead, accept that you will wait, and treat the wait as part of the plan rather than wasted time.

Pacing: ninety seconds a question

Eighty questions in two hours is ninety seconds each on average. Rules questions take far less; a geography question where you have to picture a route can take far more. The average only works if you let the easy ones be quick.

Check your position against the clock a few times — roughly a quarter of the way through, halfway, and three-quarters. If you are behind, the fix is to speed up on the questions you know, not to start skipping.

What to do when a question stops you

Apply a rule mechanically rather than deciding in the moment. If you cannot see a route to the answer within about a minute, select the best option available, flag the question, and move on.

Never leave a question without an answer selected. An unanswered question scores zero with certainty; a considered guess does not. Coming back at the end with fresh eyes and a settled pulse is far more productive than grinding while the clock runs.

Read the question, then read it again

A meaningful share of lost marks comes from misreading rather than not knowing. Words like 'not', 'except', 'first' and 'must' change the answer completely, and they are easy to skim past under pressure.

On any question where two options both look right, go back and re-read the question stem. Usually one word in it decides between them.

Use the time at the end

If you finish with time remaining, do not leave. Go back to the flagged questions first, then to any question where you felt uncertain.

Change an answer only when you have a specific reason — you misread the question, or you have now remembered the rule. Changing answers on a vague feeling tends to cost more than it gains.

• Return to flagged questions first.
• Re-read the stem before changing anything.
• Change an answer only for a specific, articulable reason.
• Confirm no question is left unanswered before you submit.

Afterwards

Whatever the result, keep the rest of your application moving. If you passed, the remaining requirements still have deadlines inside the same 90-day window. If you did not, you have something valuable: real evidence of how you perform under exam conditions, and a retake that fits inside the window because you booked early.

Check the current retake and rescheduling rules with the TLC or the test provider rather than relying on secondhand accounts — those details change.