Same, struggling with these tests in the 150s. If anyone sees anything about how to do better please LMK :(

Hi! Here are a few things that I've found, or have heard from others, to be beneficial:

1. If going quickly/"at time" produces a lot of wrong answers, go slow to go fast. Everyone says that, but it can truly cause a perspective shift, especially in RC where minute details are often the focus of ACs. Read line by line, connect every sentence to what came before and after; read within context, and not focusing on the content so much as the structure of the passage, and how everything serves other pieces (like analyzing the ingredient spread for baking a cake, and then main point q's/etc will ask you to reflect on the cake itself, but usually still in a manner that will highlight prominent ingredients). For LR, also go slow on the stimulus: don't move on to the questions until you know you really understand what it was saying (especially when the language is super convoluted, repeating it to yourself in your head in a manner that helps you better make sense of it). Have an idea of what the right answer may be when you go into the questions sometimes. Practicing asking yourself helps build the muscle, too!

2. Drill targeted weaknesses, or go back to the core curriculum/foundations for question types that you struggle with most -- and get at finding these weaknesses through #3,

3. Thorough blind review of every PT and section. This is tedious, but keeping a wrong answer journal of everything you get wrong, asking yourself why you gravitated towards the wrong answer, what was correct about the right one that you didn't realize, etc., really helps in the long run, and you'll find yourself avoiding similar mistakes.

4. Be mindful of the circumstances in which you're practicing. Often times, long evenings after work, or bright and early in the morning, I wouldn't perform at my best, and would get super upset about it, not being pragmatic about the circumstances in which I was doing prep.

Hang in there, you've got it! Be kind to yourself and keep focusing on q-types and general things that you find yourself still stuck on. Ask yourself why you got the ones you got wrong, wrong; believe in the fact that next time, it won't happen again. Rooting for you!

Hi! wondering if you have advice on timing/not missing small details in RC/generally staying grounded despite test pressure

Hi!! Yes, let's make a chat!

Hi! Sending you luck and warmth here, friend, and do not panic. This happens to almost all of us for a number of different reasons.

For one, maybe you've taken these PTs in different conditions - tired, stressed, etc. It sucks how much these auxiliary things impact our performance but they really do! As another note, were they older vs. newer PTs? Were they featuring more or less questions of the types that you excel at vs. struggle with? What kinds of mistakes were common to the tests, what was different? This is just another learning experience for your prep, as opposed to proof you've mysteriously gotten worse - we've been there!

Also, usually when we focus on one thing at the "expense" of others (like doing more RC over LR; drilling one type consistently) there can be some fluctuations in other aspects, which as I've seen is also just all part of the process. It will all come together soon!

Would greatly appreciate a lesson like this that more broadly goes into the weeds of something like AC (A) vs (D) on #2 -- like an overarching conditional reasoning primer / the way you guys diagram in Kick It Up, etc!

This is really great, especially for the q types that are most prominent on the exam, and for pre-exam refreshers!!

Would also be really awesome if you guys were to make one about falling for trap answers / times where it's best to let go of the exam's "conventions" and the AC is more outside of the box, if that makes sense!

How are you guys going to be working on this/studying to account for this? I feel like I don't know what to do next/where to go from here, especially since we PT well.

I am curious if you have any advice re: test/performance stress and making sure that your attitude in studying and prep reflects on the real exam, too. I was hoping to do similarly and then sadly fell closer to the baseline on the real deal, and now am wondering if all the hard work was for nothing :(. Do you happen to have any recommendations; perhaps drilling under pressure, etc? Getting good at spotting trap answers under a time crunch?

Would greatly appreciate genuinely any advice!

Have been doing the same, to not get too excited on the off chance my experimental has been really bad and could've been the scored one! Following this