An old trick in a 172 is to move the pitch trim wheel two turns nose up as you roll in...this will prevent having to hold a lot of backpressure, which can goof you up.

By two turns, I mean grab the wheel at the top, and move it down as far as it will go without letting go of it. Repeat.

The only catch is that you have to un-trim it when the turn is finished.

I may be weird, but I always work better by reference to the instruments...I look outside just enough so as not to annoy the examiner...