Grade 4 Music Theory - scary!!

On the sixth of November I will be expected to sit the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music Grade 4 Theory of Music examination. You don't even need to open the book to judge how complicated and scary it is. But half the time, when you turn up at the exam, it's proves not to be as complicated as it is in the books. But still, you almost always end up worrying about it 'just in case' - going through scales and and key signatures until you literally know them off by heart, repeating French, German and Italian performance directions until you could be mistaken for a native Swiss, worrying about whether your made up four-bar rhythms are 'musically correct' and 'creative' enough, wondering whether rhythm you just composed for a poem matches with the words... the list is endless!

Basically, music theory is like the 'language' of music - it's the notes and all of its (unnecessary) components and accessories. But passing the Grade 5 Theory exam is required if you want to continue beyond Grade 5 Practical (piano in my case) - so I'm going through each earlier theory grade. Everything under Grade 5 are the basics - the requirements to play good music on any note-based instrument. It's advanced after that: Grades 6-8, then diploma. With only 2½ months left until my Grade 4 Theory exam, I need to excessively start practising! Oh - one more thing: I've also got a Grade 5 piano exam coming up... nahi!