268. How to Shift RD Exam Mindset

Hey Rd2Bs, welcome back to another episode of Dietetics with Dana. I'm your host,

Dana Fryer, and this is my podcast where we talk about all things about becoming a registered

dietitian. Now in today's episode, we're going to be talking about the importance of how you

are talking to yourself when you are studying. The majority of students that I work with

have already taken the exam multiple times, and they've already purchased other programs that

they were hoping would help them, but they're still getting stuck as they're trying to pass our

date exam. And one of the really common things I see with my private tutoring students is the

need to shift how we're talking about the exam. Now what does this mean? It can mean a few things.

Number one, we have to work to just decrease, not get rid of, but decrease our annoyance with the

exam. We need to sit with it. It sucks. This is annoying. We are hoping there's going to be changes

coming soon, especially with the 2027 exam, but for right now, we have to kind of play by their

rules and work to get this exam behind us. So especially if you find that when you go to sit down

to study, you're not having a good attitude about it. And again, I do not need you to be like,

oh my god, Dean, I'm so excited to study. But if you're feeling like you get to your

desk or computer wherever you are, and it's just like dread, we need to be working on that.

And one of the things that you can be doing to help shift how you're feeling about that is to

kind of make yourself a little vision board, really think about like, why are you taking this

exam? Also thinking about how this is just the last piece of the puzzle. You have already done

your undergrad. Most of you guys have done your master's degrees. You've done your dietetic

internship. And this is one final piece that you're not going to let stop you from reaching your

goals of being a registered dietitian. And you also want to be adding in things to help you

realize your progress. You guys know I love tracking your practice questions, also tracking your

confidence. And every single week kind of taking a pause and looking back and saying like, okay,

what did I know this week that I didn't know last week? That can be really, really helpful

in just shifting out from kind of that doom and gloom. And also don't forget to do other things

beyond study for the RD exam, even though you might be saying, Dean, but like, this is my full

priority. I have to do this. Do other things that help you feel joy and also help you to see

you're going to be an amazing dietitian. For some people, this is doing volunteering or

hanging out with friends and family or getting back to an exercise that you enjoy. For others who

want to be focused more on professional building, right? This could be building your Instagram

or linked in or just discussing a topic with someone. But you want to make sure you're taking

that pause and noticing if you're kind of feeling doom and gloom about the exam, knowing, right,

that those feelings are real. But if we get caught in them, it's really hard to pass the exam

if you are not feeling like you can. So that's going to part one of moon watching our attitude

about the exam. And number two is as you're studying, especially as you're going through practice

questions, I want you guys to shift out of the, I don't know. And kind of questioning like,

is this commissary? Is this pancreatitis? Is this class? To more when you're hitting your questions,

start by listing what you do know about about the topic. So maybe you're getting a question

in management. And it's asking you about the functions of management. It's giving you a scenario.

And your initial reaction might be, I don't know which one this is. They're all so close.

Try instead to be saying, okay, this is a question on functions of management, right?

Statement. Okay. The five functions of management are planning, organizing, staffing,

directing, controlling. What do I know about each one is blank, blank, blank, blank, blank.

But trying to phrase it in a little bit more of a statement of what you do know can be really,

really helpful to get you unstuck. So that way, after you're listing, okay, what are the functions

of management? What's going on in each one? You have a much clearer view. And this when you go

through your practice questions this way, this is going to take longer than a question normally would.

And one of the big mistakes that I see people make is they get really, really focused on time

management, which is so important. But your time management improves as your knowledge improves.

So if you're noticing you're going through questions, whether it's in my classes,

pocket prep, all access, e-wrap prep, visual veggies, wherever you're doing questions,

if you're noticing that you are rushing through them a little bit and you're not sure what the

questions asking you, I want you to be trying this in your next set of practice questions of reading

the question, telling me what the topic is, telling me what you know about that topic,

and then telling me what the question is asking. And that can center you a little bit more.

Because especially for you guys who've taken the exam multiple times, that is one of the things

I see people get stuck on. Is there like, but Dean, I know about the topic. But then as soon as I get

into practice questions, it can be really, really tricky. And that's exactly what if you're in my

situational practice question courses, which you can buy standalone or you can get as part of the

membership, that's what I'm teaching you to do. You really need to slow down and focus on showing

yourself what do you know so you can unlock the knowledge. Remember, this exam is spanning like

five to six years of knowledge. It should feel really, really, really different than like a final

exam that you took in grad school, where you know it's on chapters one through five. You need,

as you're setting to work on these techniques to help organize yourself and also work on quickly

pulling up that recall, pulling up what you know about the topic, also shifting to what you do

know, verse, you don't know helps to build that confidence. And remember, when you're thinking

about the RD exam, there's really those three main pillars of course knowledge, which we need to

be about 80% those test taking strategies. So how are you going to be answering the question?

How can you use kind of tips like common sense math and the question to be answering. But also that

that confidence piece and that confidence piece does not need to be oh my goodness, like I'm

the best ever not going to get any of these questions wrong. But the confidence piece does need to be

I have the skills in order to pass this exam. I have the knowledge in order to pass the exam.

This is a hard exam, but I have been preparing for it. And don't forget, go back to episode 234

how to build confidence on the RD exam for more on that topic. But I hope you guys after listening

to this episode are going to work on these techniques to help just shift your mindset about the exam.

Again, this exam sucks and one of my goals with the Instagram with the podcast with the Facebook

page with any of the tutoring programs is to help curate a positive environment where we're

acknowledging stress and testing anxiety and even to like the depression of not passing the exam.

But I'm also giving you guys the tools to be able to put this behind you. So thanks for tuning in

to this episode. And don't forget to check out our website, denajfnutrition.com. And if you

have any questions, you can always reach me out to me directly at denajfnutrition.com.