Sage advice from flyingforfun.
I did my CPL recently (having amassed quite a few hours before taking the test) and you should plan the flight etc as you would NORMALLY do it. The examiner (who also instructed me in the CPL) explained that he was to act as a passenger and was to be treated as such. Therefore I checked the weather, area forecast etc and it was to be marginal at our destination. I advised him before the flight that we may have to divert or return to the field if weather conditions deteriorated. He agreed and off we went. I was quite prepared to come back or divert (as you always should be) in the event of weather. I can tell you that (as we talked after the flight test), had I continued into imc or near IMC to complete the flight, I would have failed. The main goal of the test is the safe and satisfactory conduct of the flight, the examiner wants to know that, should a real passenger come to you and ask to be taken point X, this will happen safely, and this includes avoiding IMC and diverting.
I treated my examiner like a passenger so much, I even handed him a map and asked that he help with the navigation. He simply stared back at me stoney faced, but did smile a little. ;-)
Dont try to pass, make saftey your priority and the rest will take care of itself.
