On Rituals

Oy vey, last weekend was not my best weekend.  I did poorly on one half of a practice test and didn't do as well as I had hoped on the official CFA institute mock exam.  I scored exactly a 70%, so didn't do awful, but I was hoping to score a bit higher so I'd feel like I have a bit of a margin for error going into the exam (they don't tell you what you need to pass, but allegedly if you score 70 or above, you pass). 

So my confidence is a bit really shaken...  I know I couldn't have studied any harder than I have so I am trying to trust that it's enough to pass... 

So much of this process feels out of my control, so to give myself the sense of being a bit more in control of things, I rely on some test rituals.  So what are my rituals?

- On exam day, I will wear the same dress, cardigan, and shoes as I wore last year.  The shoes actually should be thrown away as they are not looking so great, but I am keeping them just to wear on CFA exam day.
- I'll wear the horse shoe good luck necklace my cousin gave me as a good luck gift before the exam last year.
- I'll use a pink bic mechanical pencil.
- For lunch, I'll eat at the same French restaurant, and the same meal as last year (Nicoise Salad and a fresh-squeezed lemonade).
- After the exam, the post-exam celebratory dinner will be at the same Mexican restaurant.
- On the day I get my exam results (in late July), I'll once again wear my exam day outfit, and I will give my phone to the same friend at work that watched for the email with my results to come across last year.  Having someone else watch for the email helped keep my mind off it (well, sort of). 

Yes, I realize all of this makes me sound like a complete lunatic.  And I recognize the fact that the shoes or dress I wear or the lunch I eat won't make me pass or fail.  My fate will be decided by how hard I've worked to pass... But I guess at this point, I don't really care what people think of these rituals because if it makes me feel better, it's worth it.  Also, I feel a little better/normal knowing that my cousin also has test rituals when she takes board exams for medical school.  I guess the lunacy runs in the family a bit.  ;)

Are you a superstitious person?  Are there any events in your life that require rituals?  Besides the rituals for the CFA, I have some pre-race rituals, like always eating peanut butter on toast with a banana.