PT 144: Score 159. Too many PT's are frying my brain it seems, meaning that they're getting a little counterproductive. Going to review wrong answer journal today and do the BR for PT 144 tomorrow. Possibly PT two days from today. Going to explore avenue of using tutoring depending on how next PT goes.
2
9 comments
You may need to slow down my friend, PT’s are great but you also need time to learn how to answer your weak questions and review your wrong answers, as well as give your brain a break. You also don’t want to run out of PT’s.
I wouldn't do more PTs until you aren't struggling with any type of question at all in timed drills. You should push off your test date if you feel like you need to anxiously rush to get to the level of proficiency you want (if you can push it off).
Will keep that in mind. Thx.
I’m not sure when you plan on applying but also keep in mind that you don’t want to burn through all your PTs
I'll keep that in mind. Thx
Record keeping purposes. Always open to tips.
I think doing a PT every couple of days might not be the most beneficial. It seems like you don’t do significantly worse in the latter half of the test, based on your other posts, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about stamina right now.
Arguably, the greatest benefits are going to come from focused and intentional drilling. Look at which questions you’re spending a lot of time on. If you’re gunning for a 170+, you ideally want to be able to do the first 10 in 10 minutes and the first 15 in 15 minutes, or around there, while rarely missing anything below a Level 3. If you get anything between Levels 1–3, you want to “perfect” those as best as possible.
You also want to get very familiar with the traps you fall for and what makes a question difficult. For example, this test has made me SO wary of strong language. It always takes me a second to get grounded in an SA question because those usually require a strong answer choice. Or, for MBT, they’ll add every quantifier known to man, and for Flaw questions, they’ll throw in other things to distract you. But if you focus on the structure, you’ll generally be okay.
You should have an approach for every question type, and if someone were to ask you how to approach a particular question, there should be no hesitation in your response.
I recognize that some of this may sound intense, but it truly is a marathon. You’ll get to a place where a lot of this becomes second nature, and you’ll begin to anticipate the traps before you even see them.
Anyways, I’m by no means an expert, but these are some of the things that helped me bridge the gap between my actual score and my BR score. Take/leave what works for you! Good luck with everything — you got this!!
Thank you very much for the elaborate comment. I completely agree with getting down to a strategy per question type and per question type w/reasoning used in the passage. I'm in a weird spot where I have to build up skills to answer in time, build stamina to take four sections, and also brush up on fundamentals. I'll take your advice and just really hone in on the question types for now. I don't think more PT's will be useful for me at this very moment anyway—I felt myself blanking out several times yesterday and today while taking the PT's. Best of luck to the both of us.
I think a lot of people say this, but it really can’t be overstated, imo! The speed WILL come with time. Focus on accuracy first, and speed will just happen naturally. I didn’t even really focus on speed, tbh—it was just a natural progression!
You just have to trust yourself and the process!!! Foundations are key and should be the priority, if you ask me!
I know your BR is pretty high, which suggests that the foundations are already there. Does it take you a while to review your work, or do you usually see your mistake right away? I find that to be pretty telling, too.