Food, breaks and the 225 minutes: managing your body during the exam.
Whether to take a break, what to eat beforehand, caffeine, and what to do when your attention drifts around item 120.
By Dr. Andrew Wichterman · September 19, 2026 · 5 min read · Updated October 22, 2026
Four hours is a long time to concentrate. The exam tests knowledge, but fatigue, hunger and a full bladder will affect the score if you have not planned for them. The plan is short.
Breakfast
Eat what you normally eat, two hours before the start, with protein in it. Do not try a new meal on exam day. Skipping breakfast to avoid needing the bathroom trades a small inconvenience for a real drop in attention at hour three.
Caffeine
If you drink coffee daily, drink your usual amount at your usual time. Do not add more; extra caffeine raises anxiety more than alertness. If you do not drink it, do not start.
Breaks
The scheduled 15-minute break after item 100 does not count against your 225 minutes, so take it; the time away usually buys back attention for the second half. Any other break at a Pearson VUE center is allowed after checking out with the proctor, but the clock keeps running. If you test online, the scheduled break is the only one; leaving your seat at any other time ends the exam.
The pacing math
Two hundred items in 225 minutes is sixty-seven seconds each. Nobody paces by the item; you pace by checkpoint. At item 50 you should be at or under 55 minutes; at item 100, under 110; at item 150, under 165. Write those three numbers on the whiteboard or note sheet the center gives you in the first thirty seconds, and look at the clock only when you cross a checkpoint. Checking the time every few items costs attention and feeds anxiety; checking it four times costs nothing.
If you are behind at a checkpoint, do not speed up across the board. Find the items you have flagged, make a decision on each, and stop flagging for the next fifty. Most candidates who run out of time did not read slowly; they revisited. If you are well ahead, that is usually a sign you are skimming the stems, and the fix is to read the final sentence of each stem twice before looking at the options. A first pass that finishes with twenty minutes left is about right; it leaves time to return to a handful of flags, not to second-guess the exam.
Check-in, and what to bring
Arrive thirty minutes early. Check-in at a testing center involves two IDs (a government-issued photo ID whose name matches your registration exactly, plus a second ID with your name and either a signature or a photo), a photograph, usually a palm-vein or similar biometric scan, and a locker for everything you own: phone, watch, wallet, jacket, snacks. You will be asked to turn out your pockets. A late arrival can forfeit the appointment and the fee, and the stress of nearly missing it follows you into the first twenty items.
Bring both IDs, your confirmation, and a light snack and water to leave in the locker for the break. Bring your medication if you take any during the day and leave it in the locker; you may take it during the break without asking. Anything you need at your desk needs approval through the accommodations process weeks ahead, unless it is on Pearson VUE's comfort-aid list. Leave the notes at home. Reviewing in the parking lot does not raise scores and it does raise heart rates. The only thing worth looking at before you walk in is the three checkpoint times.
The attention dip
Almost everyone experiences a dip somewhere between items 100 and 140. Recognize it rather than fighting it. Sit back, close your eyes for twenty seconds, breathe slowly, roll your shoulders, and then read the next stem out loud in your head. The dip passes in a few items.
When anxiety spikes
There will be a stretch of items where you feel you know nothing. Everyone has it, because the exam samples a profession and no one knows the whole profession. The thought that follows, "I am failing this," is a cognitive distortion of exactly the kind the exam asks you to identify in clients, and the response is the same: notice it, label it, return to the stem. Three or four slow breaths, out longer than in, bring the heart rate down enough to read.
Then apply a rule you decided in advance: on any item where you cannot eliminate down to two options in ninety seconds, pick the most conservative, client-centered option, flag it, and move. Deciding the rule now means you do not have to decide it while anxious. Most candidates who fail by a few points lost them to time, not to the items they did not know. Protect the items you do know by keeping your attention on them.
Water and clothing
Water is usually not allowed at your desk; drink beforehand and at the break. Wear layers; testing rooms are unpredictable, and being cold is distracting. Nothing in your pockets. Check what your center permits in a locker.
The night before
A normal night of sleep, not an early one. The research is unambiguous that sleep matters more for retrieval than the last two hours of review. If you cannot sleep, rest anyway; lying quietly is far better than getting up to study.
None of this is complicated. It is simply worth deciding in advance, so that on the day you are thinking about counseling theory and not about coffee.