To anyone that is about to have their CFI checkride, I just had mine 2 days ago and these are some things that I feel helped me pass.

1) Come in early. I arrived to the airport around 45 minutes before my scheduled time. I wanted to make sure I had all of my lesson plans, notes, documents, publications, and everything in between organized and ready in case it was asked for. This made the initial process go much faster and the DPE seemed to really appreciate it. This should really be done for every single checkride.

2) Dress the part. As covered in the FOI, professionalism is a big responsibility as an instructor. It is not necessary to show up in a suit. However, I think it would be wise to at least be in a pressed shirt and tie. The DPE commented on it and mentioned it showed that I was taking this seriously and professionally.

3) On the flight portion, talk alot. You will be doing all the flying to commercial standards but talk your way through everything. It is a hard concept to treat someone with more experience than you as someone with no flying experience whatsoever. For every movement and maneuver, talk and talk some more. They are in fact looking to see if you can fly and talk. If you get off of your altitude or heading, talk about why it happened and how you can fix it then correct.

4) Keep the conversation moving. The ground will cover alot of information. Most likely the DPE will use some topics as a "learning moment". Ask questions and seriously try to learn from it. Ask the DPE to explain and elaborate on the info also. Keep notes and show them you enjoy learning/talking about aviation.

These are just a few things I took away from my experience. The day itself was from 8 am to 5:30 pm. An extremely long, but incredibly rewarding day. Personally, I loved my experience and have little to no complaints (except 25 knot crosswinds). If anyone wants to talk more about this, feel free to PM. Just wanted to show some thoughts!