Mark from Idaho is absolutely right they you should not try to prepare for a neuro-psych. There is also not one standard test, so the experience does vary from person to person.

That said, one thing that is universal are "forced memory" tests to weed out malingers. I know you aren't faking, so this won't be an issue for you. Just don't be surprised if the opening questions are so easy, you're thinking, "Why am I here?"

As you shouldn't prepare for the neuro-psych, and the testing is different from patient to patient, I debated about whether or not to provide you with a snapshot of my experience. In the end, I figured, you asked, and it might help allay your anxieties. Besides, you can always look it up on Wikipedia. So here goes...

My neuropsychologist was wonderful and really determined to get an accurate picture of how I was doing, especially compared to old me. She said that was important because, as I was very high functioning before my mva, she suspected I might test "average" in some places, leaving my insurer to claim I wasn't injured seriously.

To make sure that didn't happen, in addition to providing copies of ALL of my medical records, she asked me to have friends and relatives send in written statements about me, before and after my TBI. I wasn't to see any of their submissions, so they could be candid, without hurting my feelings. She interviewed my husband and young daughter. She also asked for all of my school transcripts, work evaluations, IQ tests, etc... By the time this was done, she had a good picture of premorbid me, which helped her put my test results into perspective.

Tests do vary from patient to patient. Firstly, what you're asked depends on your age and education level, so you can be measured against your peers. No one expects an 85 year old to process information as quickly as someone four decades younger. The testers also have many, many tests to choose from. They often select which to administer, based on the subjects education, job, mechanism of injury, etc...

In my case, my test was oriented to a younger adult with degrees, and post graduate degrees, in both arts and math.

I was tested on my general knowledge: "Who was Abraham Lincoln?" "What is a sentence?" "How many continents are there?" "Provided the definition of the following words, etc... " (I was a published writer.)

As my day job involved mathematics, I was also asked to answer high level questions in algebra and calculus. For those, I was given pencil and paper. I was also asked simple math questions, orally. (Yeah, that went great. I'd forgotten the first number before the doctor got to the end of the question. )

The tester read out long, random lists of numbers and asked me to repeat the ones I could remember. I felt flustered and thought I was just blurting out numbers I was picking out of the air. Turns out I was giving them ALL back, but in exactly reverse order. Weird.

I also remember doing a peg board test, being asked to spot patterns, tested on facial recognition, being asked to recall lists of objects, being asked to draw pictures, taking the word/colour quiz to access impulsiveness, being asked, throughout the other tests, to recall details from a story that had been read to me at the beginning. There was a lot of other stuff, too - I was there all day.

The testing was grueling. Mark from Idaho mentioned that sometimes tired patients are allowed to take rests. Aside from a short lunch, my neuro-psychologist wouldn't permit me any breaks.

She said that, as my job required me to make decisions based on complicated calculations, under pressure, in real time, for prolonged periods, it was important to access my ability to maintain focus and accuracy. If I couldn't do that (turned out I wasn't even in the ballpark's parking lot ) there was noway the insurance company could argue that I could return to a career, where even small errors, or moments of hesitation, could have catastrophic consequences.

A few weeks after the testing, I had a three hour interview to discuss her conclusions (yes, they were devastating) and was given a written report.