Oral Technique
Another trick, that I know personally from other situations (job interview) is to ASK questions -- sometimes they will give away the answer or at LEAST the "direction" they want you to take with an answer.

Many people just give up with a simple "I don't know" 
-- first ask for a re-statement (except for the VERY simplest questions) or explanation of how you should approach the question and answer.
Herb Martin

Dudley on Checkride (Opinion)
I'll give you one of the most important tips you will ever get on passing a check ride with a good examiner. 
--When you make a mistake, and you WILL make a mistake, tell the examiner immediately what you did wrong and correct it yourself. 
--A good examiner will watch and wait for these mistakes to happen. They want to see how you correct and fly out of an error
--More importantly, they want to see how much TIME it takes for you to recognize the error and begin corrective action. 
--Nothing bugs an examiner more than having an examinee fly a "perfect" flight test. 
--They don't learn much about you that way. So expect to make mistakes, and be quick to recognize and correct them. 
--The DE will treat you the same regardless of the hours you have..

The checkride itself will involve a full range of PTS maneuvers for the ratings you hold. Private, commercial and instrument requirements can be required during the flight. Not only will you be required to fly the plane, you will be expected to get and follow ATC clearances while maintaining the proper terrain and cloud separation as well as knowing the airspace requirements for where you fly. Expect to be exposed to the most demanding situations that the examiner can dream up. This will not be a fun time of your life. However it comes out positively or negatively, it will be remembered.
Dudley A. Henriques

Checkride #1
What a month. After a 10 month break in flying due to work, I started flying again last September. Only flew 17hrs in three months, but my instructor was confident that I was more than ready to take the checkride. Before the ride, I did not get a chance to study a whole lot, and was worried about not passing the oral....but I was fairly comfortable with my flying, stalls being my forte.

Got to the airport early on December 3rd and checked the maintenance logs.

DE arrives and we start on the oral. Aside for a few prompts here and there, the oral part goes amazingly smooth. DE says that I seem to know enough and let's go fly. We go out, I pre-flight the plane (no comments), and we strap ourselves in. Taxi, runup, takeoff all go fine and I follow my cross-country plan. He has me deviate to nearby airport and everything's going fine. Asks me to do steep turns to the left and right, and I absolutely nail them. DE compliments me on "excellent" steep turns. Has me put on foggles and track to a nearby VOR. With the foggles on, he then has me do a few turns, and then unusual attitudes.

Up to this point everything looks just great. He has me take off the foggles. We do slow flight, and then he asks me for a power on stall. The wing drops considerably, and even though I recover my confidence is shaken. He then has me do a power-on stall in a right hand turn, and this one is worse...now I'm stressing out. He then asks for a power-off stall (looking for improvement), but by this time I'm not thinking, and the airplane goes through a quarter turn spin when I recover. Then he says the dreaded words "I think you need more practice in stalls, let's go back". I am shattered. My mind reels, but I fly normally and enter the pattern, and make very nice normal landing, smooth and straight down the center line. DE says "nice landing". We go in, and he writes out the pink slip. I am humiliated, ashamed, and angry at myself. The DE is very nice and understanding. He seems just as broken up at having to fail me.

The next week I go up with my instructor, and my confidence in stalls is gone. It's so bad that I don't even let the airplane break before I let the nose down. We do softs and shorts and then end the lesson. At this point, I'm doubting my abilities to be a pilot, and postpone lessons a couple of times making excuses about work, even though I could have flown.

I finally decide that I've invested too much time, effort and money into this to give up...plus, I really like flying. So I schedule a lesson, go to the airport and spend an hour and a half with the instructor doing nothing but stalls...my confidence starts creeping back. We do few landings and call it a day.

A month after my initial bust, I find myself back at the airport, ready to "finish" the ride. I'm really concerned about my lack of practice with ground reference maneuvers. I pre-flight the plane before the DE arrives, and he says he does not need to see me do a pre-flight. We do a short field take-off and head to the practice area. He has me do a power off stall, and it goes fine. "That's the way to do 'em" is his comment. He then has me do a power on and that goes fine. Next is again a power off, but in a left hand turn. Miracle of miracles, I recover flawlessly. He then has me descend and show him an S-turn. My performance in that, in my opinion, was shameful...and I'm thinking "I can't believe I'm busting a second time". But the DE remains quiet and then asks me for turns around a point. That goes a little better. He then asks me to go back to the airport and go a short field to a stop and then a soft-field takeoff. The landing and takeoff are good. Then he asks me to do a soft-field landing and park the airplane. The soft-field in my opinion was not soft enough, but I at least hold the nose wheel off. I park the plane, and the DE smiles and says "Starting today, you can take passengers". Suddenly all is right with the world.

So after a year and a half, lots of work, money, uncountable weather cancellations, and a busted checkride, I'm a private pilot. All I can say is "What a ride". I'll be starting my instrument rating training soon, and the saga continues.......
Thanks for listening,
-Nadeem

Checkride #2
Well, it was today. After six months, and 78 hours in three different types of airplanes, I blew it.

The oral went great, in fact the D.E. made the statement that it was the best he's seen in quite some while. That was particularly well received, as I was stressing the oral much more than the flight. The D.E. had an appointment at another airport after the hour and a half of oral, and we agreed that I would fly the C-152 over to MYF (from SEE) after noon and we would proceed on the flight portion from there. So far, so good.

Before I left SEE I had to deal with getting fuel out of the 152 for weight and balance, and then oil into it, as it was a quart low, then do a quick trip around the pattern just to warm up. Then, off to MYF. Landed just fine, and taxied to the terminal. Found my D.E. and got briefed, then off we go. First up, Hood work! Whoopee!! He gives me vectors and altitudes for awhile and we finish the hood stuff with some unusual attitude recovery. So far, so good. But, here's where the feces hits the rotary wind turbine. Right after taking off the hood, he say's "Take me to Oceanside". I'm at 2500' just off the coast, heading roughly northbound. In my myopic haste to get the time and distance estimate correct, I totally spaced on the fact that I was about a quarter mile away from the Palomar Class D. As soon as I saw the lake, I firewalled the throttle and climbed to 3000', but it was too late. Nicked the upper corner of the Class D. Dammmmmm. And after I worked so hard at making sure I stayed clear of the San Diego Class Bravo!

He didn't say anything, and I mentioned that I thought I was late in catching it, but we went on. Steep turns were O.k., turns around a point and S turns were too. We flew back to MYF and skirted the Class B, during which time he tried the distraction - talking about a favorite place to eat...But, I made it by with out a second Airspace violation for one day. But, I wasn't done yet!

We shot a few landings with a fair crosswind, and I blew the traffic pattern altitude for the runway we were using. I was too low. Hmmmm. I knew that I was unfamiliar with MYF. I had only flown in there four times in six months, and today was the fourth!. But, this was too easy. Anyone can read the Flight Guide or AFD and get the altitude for "Both" runways, not just the one I just landed on an hour ago. I could see right away that I needed to get ahead of these things. Felt pretty stupid for making such easy goofs.

So, today's lesson is, do my homework, and don't let anything get me behind the plane. I could have circled while I calculated exactly where I was, and how long it would take to get to OCN. Maybe long enough to see the blue segmented circle on the chart - dead ahead. I damn well could have cracked the AFD open a little wider and found the TPA for 28L too. Seems like rookie mistakes, and until now, I didn't really look upon myself as belonging in the rookie standings. Hmmmmm.

So after I collected my pink slip, I preflighted my 152, and flew back to SEE. My instructor was there and we discussed this whole thing in some minute detail. Then we got back into the plane and went out and flew the pattern for some "remedial" practice. (my words, not my CFI's). After another hour of ground, he signed off the 8710 for the retry. I only hope that the scheduling works out so that we can finish this up while I'm still in the good graces of the D.E.

I couldn't have asked for a better D.E. Very personable, and reasonable. Obviously my performance as a whole today earned the outcome I received. With the exception of the two little issues above, I wouldn't change anything about this whole experience. Well, maybe the fact that I didn't sleep at all last night, and that I didn't eat anything all day today. Those I would change too.

All in all, the entire experience was a good one. Even though I'm still a "Student" and not a "Private" pilot. I learned first hand, that I've got more to learn. Lots more. But, I'm going to be a better pilot because of it.  Well worth the price of admission, if you ask me.

Sorry for the ridiculously long post. I've been lurking here for awhile and thought that this experience might be of some value to another student. I would suggest that you don't stress over the checkride too much. The world really doesn't stop turning when you don't make it on the first try. Heck, sometimes you actually learn a valuable lesson in the mean time. I did.
Thanks all, and happy flying!
Jerry