Dear 7sage diary,

I just took PT 68. Holy moly, those last two logic games were quite something.

Haven't done any BR for the test yet so don't spoil too much.

Anyways, I remember complaining about my drastic score drop after taking PT 70. My score for this test (68) is now a one point improvement from my highest score; therefore, a drastic improvement from the most recent score of PT 70.

From this I learned that proper sleep and pacing through each question (meaning not rushing through the first 8-9ish questions as if they afford that kind of treatment) is more ideal than before when I would speed through while sleep-deprived. I didn't get to a couple questions each LR section, but I tend to skip those parallel reasoning questions until I have time. If not, I would just guess based on stimulus concluding word strength. So I'll probably work on those too.

It's quite irritating though. I'm currently spending a huge amount of time on full proofing, but this PT threw me curveball LGs. I ended up not getting to finish the final game. I scored like -7 on this LG section. If only I had gotten -1 or 2 on LG and scored one and/or two each on each of the other sections, I'd break through to my target score.

Overall, can't complain. I only just started full proofing 3 weeks ago and this has been my most successful PT. 1 point increase is a blessing tbh. Feels like I'm doing something right.

Hopefully I can get to a 7 point increase by hopefully Dec or Feb.

Sincerely,

Me.

How was the LG experience for you in PT 68?

Just did an RC drill of PT 53.

Actually not bad considering RC is my most least practiced section. 20/27.

Stats were:

-5 Infer questions

-2 Application questions

Majority were in the final section. I wouldn't attribute it to rushing because I had a good 12.30ish minutes to complete the final reading section alone, so I felt decent on time. The questions themselves were quite difficult. I also feel like application questions have a dimension similar to inference questions in that you aren't directly finding concrete reference to the passage, and if you are, then it's not as explicit as you wish it to be.

How do you generally approach inference questions? Some tips would be lovely.

Thx

My priority school is UW.

My GPA is quite mediocre (3.57cumul/3.7 degree)

I’m aiming for 165-167. Am I not doing myself any favors with that expectation for that school?

Prep Test 70 really smashed me in the teeth. Timed, it demolished me. So far, during blind review, it's eating me away. I just BRed both LR sections and got a combined -13.

Only got -6 on RC timed which is odd because RC is my weakness. Haven't BRed RC or LG yet, but man, so for me, PT70 is humbling me just when I thought I was improving steadily.

So I haven't experienced burnout yet and I've been pushing myself hours and hours and hours to reach my limit of studying until I can't. I notice that my competitive nature and the fact that I haven't hit my projected score has overridden potential burnout. I'm sure I will burnout soon, but I'm liking that my motivation is currently there. Hopefully it is because I'm aiming higher each time.

Hoping for an extremely productive 2 months before the test.

Need that 10 point jump!

So I haven't gotten my score, but I'm quite confident that I didn't do as well as I had hoped. I've registered for the Dec test already and I guess I'm currently taking the week off (3 days left) before I get back into it.

I've been actually consistently studying and doing full BRs. I've noticed I've been increasing as of late. 151 to 155 to 157. I've had sporadic studying for the past year and didn't see much of any improvement, but I feel like continually doing it though I've had the flu for the last two weeks has given me hope that I can reach the 170s by the Dec. test.

This test is not series of peaks and valleys but a long, brutal ascent.

I will say that stamina is a huge thing. I do decent the first two sections. Then when the sniffles and mucus start by section 3, then I start doubting myself in my thinking. Staying healthy and alert seems like huge things we can possibly be taken for granted.

I tend to do a full review rather than a blind review because I hate using test time to figure out whether I am convinced of my answer or not.

I know it's more time-taking when you're reviewing questions, but do you think it has similar benefits to blind review?