fell apart during my PT yesterday... feeling hopeless!

Thank you!! 😋

@isojess1 I'm going to work on that this week! I appreciate your response :)

@VanillaCat Okay this helped it click for me. I had a hard time with AC C because I made the assumption that success implied success or popularity among the public (which isn't addressed), not success in achieving its goal. It felt a little out of left field but this helped, thank you!

Note to self: READ THE QUESTION CORRECTLY!!!

@JacobBaska I appreciate your response, thank you!

I'm not good at RC by any means, but I've recently gone from -10+ regularly to -4 and -5 on my most recent PTs. The biggest change I've implemented is a longer read. I'm consistently reading for 3-3.5 min, sometimes more. Before, I was trying to speed through my reads in 2.5 min. I highlight every new perspective and any shift in attitude, usually just the first few words or the whole sentence. That way if you have to go back to the passage, you've narrowed down what you need to reread. But also, I've been doing at least 1-2 timed passages every day for the past month (when I'm not doing a section or PT). The repetition has taught my brain how to predict the questions and know what information I need to remember. I've been able to shift from a more passive read to an interactive read. I hope this helps!

@draikavu Of course! I can't BR right after the PT, my brain is so fried at that point. I'll usually go to the gym, have a meal, and then dive in.

@draikavu If you start Blind Review then you can go to the three dots and exit without submitting the full PT. I usually take a few hours before diving into BR.

@koi Correct! And I got a response back from that email :)

@koi I basically just asked for them to reconsider the reversal and to consider an opt in system for this cycle. I emphasized that apps are already open, so it's unfair to drastically change so many people's applications once again. I also mentioned that other people feel the same way. I've already heard of multiple people emailing about this.

I also reached out to my community college and asked about the possibility of changing my transcript to pass/fail. I'm really hoping that will do something as those grades are from 8+ years ago :/

@svlss I emailed them last night and already got a response just restating their decision. I know there are other people reaching out, so hopefully they'll consider changing it to an opt in system. It's more so frustrating because applications have already opened and people have already started hearing back. To make such a big change that can drastically affect people's applications so late is ridiculous. And even if people wait until the implementation next year, there's no guarantee they won't reverse it again.

Well this just ruined my day. They really got my hopes up, but looks like all my target schools just turned to reaches :/

@Raniah Blind Review has been my holy grail up until this point. My last three PTs I have BR'd 173, 175, and 172, so now I'm having more of a timing or focus issue than a content issue. For this PT, I did warm up drills before I started and I think that helped me immensely. I did 5 easy LR questions and 1 easy RC passage before I pressed start. I felt more confident and focused. This past week I did one full LR section that was untimed. I picked apart every single question to increase my prediction skills without the stress of a clock. I could see myself implementing those strategies on this PT. For RC, I stuck to timed passages (at least one a day) and I think I'm finally finding out what works for me with highlighting, low res, etc. Things started clicking!

@Peter888 this is very helpful thank you for sharing! did you book 4 separate essay workshops or did you have a package?

I'm in the same position and made a post a few days ago. A 7Sage instructor commented a video that I found super super helpful. I tagged you in it!

@MarcusB From your discussion post.

@SeanStrauss I hope it went well! I'm going to try focusing on that this week. I wonder if my timing issue is due to a lack of predictions. I spend a lot of time in the ACs.

@MichaelWright This is very helpful, thank you so much!!

@y00nislee Glad to know I’m not alone but it’s a frustrating place to be! I’m trying to balance timed and untimed practice. I do untimed drills and timed full sections/PTS. My blind review will take me 3-4 hours after my timed pass for full PTs. During BR, I’m trying to focus on breaking down every part of each question and each AC. I’ve been using the notes feature and will take detailed notes for each flagged question. Then, after submitting, I’ll review those questions to see if there’s further action I need to take.

Speed and stamina feel like my enemy right now. My timed single sections during the week have significantly better performance than my weekend PT. And my untimed drills have been improving, specifically in RC (enemies to lovers path please). I like the idea of covering the timer for untimed work. Sometimes I catch myself glancing at the clock and doing mental math of how long I’ve taken, how long I should take, the full overthinking spiral. I’m going to try that out this week, thank you!

Good luck to you too! The raw score is frustrating but the BR score is promising. We’ve got this :)