I've been making a big mistake with RCs for some time. And it's to do them as a normal task. This ends up doing them the same way while dreaming, and the will probably succeed (meaning the reality check passes, this is, you are NOT dreaming).

When doing an RC you have to REALLY doubt you are in the real world, meaning you have to think there is a high possibility of being dreaming, specially knowing how normal everything looks inside, but weird and absurd once you wake up.

A couple weeks ago I had this strange situation. I went to my mom's to have lunch. I usually call using the outside ringer and she replies "yes?", and after saying "it's me", she opens the door. Then I just take the elevator and go up home. This day I arrived at the out door and... guess what. It was ANOTHER door. I was like... wtf... anyway, I ringed, no one replied and the door opened. While I was walking towards the elevator I had this strange feeling... I went inside, pushed 7th floor and... all this silence... the new door... no-one replying the ringer... I even felt a bit dizzy. I seriously though of being dreaming. I looked at my hands, tried to breath holding my nose... every test was positive, I HAD to be awake.

And I was... this day I learned how a reality test should feel. You have to stop for a moment and look around you, think hard if something is not normal, also remember yourself that inside dreams things always look normal, and again think, remember what you did that morning, how you arrived there, look at your hands...

Lately, with the help of a cellphone app which does notifications, I started doing a couple of RCs from time to time, one of them being look at my hands. Yesterday I woke up and stood up from bed, and suddenly I remembered my RCs... I looked at my hand, it looked normal. But I though.. "hey, do it correctly"... Thought it could really be a dream. Looked at my other hand... 6 fingers! I counted to make sure... yeah... 6 fingers. Anyway it was one of my shitty short LDs, and lasted only some seconds, the time it took me to walk to the living room and explore a bit while trying to stabilize with no luck.

So yea, looking at your hands from time to time, BUT doing it properly, may help you. Also my advice is everytime you wake up you do a RC, so you will catch all false awakenings.

Good luck!