I think momentum is key in RC. Instead of a skipping strategy and trying to accomplish timing goals, keep up the momentum and catch yourself when you have to return to the passage to answer a question. If you film yourself on RC you can use timestamps to mark how long it takes you to read the passage initially, and how long you spend on each question. The ones where you spend 45+ seconds you may notice yourself stalling. Circle and move on. Keep up the momentum.

Congratulations on your PT scores! I think you will feel comfortable with the materials as you take more PTs and do more BR. During the actual PT you need to maintain momentum and there are going to be some questions you only have a fuzzy understanding of what's going on. Circle those for BR and then use your time in BR to fully analyze the stuff going on in the stimulus and in each correct and incorrect answer.

I don't think you need to re-learn any of the material unless you still don't understand a particular question type during BR when timing isn't an issue. Keep doing what you're doing and don't sacrifice the quality of your BR and you're going to be just fine.

One thing you should consider once you've taken more PTs is to do a group BR call or work with other students scoring lower than you. Explaining your reasoning coherently to someone else may help you understand the questions in a way that builds on your intuitive understanding.

Whatever schedule you decide should prioritize quality studying over quantity. That being said, try to do LG every day. Get into a routine where you do a full section of LG every day, and BR the other sections/redo games you are struggling with in the evenings or something. If you identify weaknesses with certain LR/RC question types or your timing, practice in a way that addresses those weaknesses. By the weekend you could take a new PT and relax/repeat some old LG games.

Yes keep doing blind review. Every time you miss a question timed or during BR is another opportunity to hone in on why, which will help you continue improving. Also, I thought BR was one of the best confidence boosters for me in the week leading up to test day. I knew my timed score would fluctuate, but that if I took the time to dive deep into the questions I would figure them out.

I am willing to help you get a good idea of the type of work you need to do to reach your goal. Tutoring isn't for everyone. There are many great tutors on this site and elsewhere, but if you want some free help before you decide if you need to hire someone let me know!

@ seems like you’re making the right decision. Both sleeping on it and leaning towards the cancel if you don’t think you were ready.

Just keep practicing. Do all your drills/sections timed, and focus on good timing/skipping, but before you score the section you should spend a couple of hours blind reviewing. Write out explanations for your thought process and label the premises and the conclusion during review. You can also try purchasing The Loophole our other books to help you understand the question types better.

What helped me get over the last hurdle was blind review calls. You can go super in depth on your own and still not see something that someone else sees in an incorrect answer choice. Also, explaining your reasoning to someone else really tests your understanding and helps with confidence. Keep working on games every day to keep that skill up and focus on LR for drills, mixing in RC here and there. After a few days of drills and blind review calls work through a fresh PT and repeat. Now is a good time to make sure your diet and exercise/sleep schedule are optimal.

Have you been scoring near what you want to score on your practice tests? If you’re in the ballpark definitely keep your score. I’m assuming you’re applying to a Canadian school since US schools do not average scores.

Review and drills are less intensive than a full PT schedule and will keep you sharp. If you don’t study at all you might get anxious. I just suggest easing up a bit.

The question you referred to is a bit more descriptive, so I can see how you may have had a lapse in concentration or weren't connecting with the answer choices for some reason. When that happens it is best to circle and move on. Come back with fresh eyes if you have time. Getting that question right in 2.6 minutes is bad enough, but getting it wrong because you still weren't understanding it and couldn't move on to the next question is a real area to focus on going forward.

My biggest issue was breaking bad timing habits, and I recognized that it was hard for me to move on from questions I wasn't understanding because I was able to figure it out given enough time. Skip and try to get a second pass at those questions.

Also, the difficulty level of the question is irrelevant if you misread the stimulus or misunderstand the argument structure. Easy questions become impossible because you are not seeing the flaw or whatever the question type may be. This happens because of simple reading errors, lack of focus, whatever. Again, skip and come back to it later on.

Take the week to recharge and if you take a PT, only take one! Spend some time doing drills and focusing on good timing. Blind review thoroughly. Do a couple of games each day as a warmup. You will probably perform better if you are sharp but rested, so lighten up on the prep and focus more on rest and wellness.

The key is to keep an open mind. If you aren't ready for the January test, the upside is that you can keep studying and improving. You aren't being unrealistic thinking that score jump is possible, but you need to be prepared to keep moving forward if it doesn't happen. Don't lost hope. Delaying isn't the end of the road, it's actually an opportunity to continue improving. Putting too much pressure on yourself for one test that is 2 months away is only going to negatively impact your results.

Can't wait for more content. Very excited! Thank you

Also, you can move onto a new PT when you feel you’ve addressed some of the weak areas in your game and you expect your timed score performance to improve. I went from trying to do 3 PTs per week to doing 1 per week and saw much better results. If you start using good timing strategies and extremely thorough blind review practices early on you will avoid developing bad habits that can stall your progress.

Drill first. Before you score the blind review, make sure you write out explanations for LR/RC answers.

Reflect on what went well and what didn’t, both timed and untimed. For any missed question write down why you missed it, whether it was because of a misunderstanding of the question stem or you incorrectly identified the wrong conclusion, or just a simple misread.

Work on timing for all 3 section types, and blind review those timed practice sets. For LG and RC use a stopwatch to keep track of your time on an individual game/passage, and for LR practice doing 5 questions in 5 minutes. Progress up to 15 questions in 15 minutes. Also, return to the core curriculum for question types you seem to be missing regularly.

@ said:

@ aww... beat me to it :( saw yours after I posted comment and page refreshed.

That’s ok. When I was studying I tried to respond to as many of these questions as I could. Explaining difficult questions helps you improve!

Awesome!

D is wrong because it is inaccurate. The argument doesn’t presume all reworked music is always published on the internet.

If D was changed to say that it overlooks the possibility that reworks could be published in a non-internet medium (like a CD) it would still be wrong because the conclusion is specifically talking about music on the internet. The reason I bring up this hypothetical is because it is kind of a negation of what D is saying.

This question tests your ability to quickly identify that percentages of people doing an activity =/= volume of said activity.

Congrats!!!

I think it is wise to continue practicing, but at a more relaxed pace. Focus on review and timing, and in the week before the actual test cut back a lot. Make sure to stay hydrated and get lots of sleep starting now.

Last week just do some LG and light drills. Mostly focus on eating well, sleeping well, staying hydrated, and light exercise. Go into test day fresh and rested!

I promise after returning to a particular game after a month of doing 100 other games you won’t remember the questions. You may remember the best way to setup the game board, but I think it becomes more of an intuitive reaction to the games you see—both repeat and fresh—rather than memorizing the game.

LR seems to be your biggest weakness right now from the latest PTs. Keep doing LG every day and try to do 2-3 RC passages of RC at least every other day (with blind review). Spend the rest of your time doing LR and review each question (even the ones you are confident about). Make sure your skipping strategy is solid and keep at it!

@ said:

But timing in RC is more passage-based and thus, in my opinion, more similar to LG with respect to timing.

100%

You never know how long a passage should take and you want to spend enough time on the passages that require more time without sacrificing time on the shorter passages (rushing). It's sort of like doing the work up front in LG so the questions go really quick. If you run into a tough LG/RC question and cannot get to the answer quickly after doing the work up front, definitely skip and keep up the momentum. You can't really say that you need to be finished with 2 games or 2 RC passages in the first 15 minutes because you never know which order the difficult games/passages will be in, and a lot of that time is spent setting up the game or reading the passage.