I hooked my first T-6 checkride, up to that point in my short aviation career that was the first thing I hooked. Next ride went fine, and so did the next phase. Come end of block I got so nervous about my next check ride, and after my first hook I was sweating bullets, and not my normal relaxed self, mentally it messed with me, and sure enough I hooked the next one. 3rd checkride I flew with a great IP, who was a total bro in the brief and not asshole like the previous two I had. It got me to relax, which paid off, once we got in the air the airport I was going to for my instrument checkride had shut down, I heard ATC tell this to someone a couple minutes ahead of me and made the decision to go to my back up plan. Worked out fine. For awhile I always got super nervous for a checkride, more than most people, especially considering I’m pretty laid back most of the time. That mostly is gone now many years later, but to get over that anxiety I realized the biggest thing is just to relax and have fun. Fly it like you stole it everyday, find some good pump up songs or airplane porn videos and take a 5 minute pump up session before each flight, get stoked to go fly, and don’t sweat it. As said above, if you are struggling a bit CAP isn’t a bad thing for you. Hopefully they get you with some great IPs that can get you the tools you need for success.
Also, what Danger said about the pitch and power, makes life hella of a lot easier, once you get it down you can look like boss and shack your perimeters everytime. I do not recommend the VSI/roll indicator thing, never had heard of that before, not sure if he is serious or trolling. Only time I ever look at VSI is during a decent to gauge if I want to increase or decrease my rate to make a point, also helpful for a nice stable non precision step down. Other than that a pretty much forget it’s there 95% of the time