Is it a good idea to do the CC twice before starting to PT?

thisissparta

Hey everyone, I was listening to Sage Nicole's webinar on her 18 point increase, and she mentioned that she was solely doing the CC for several months (about 6-8 months, I think) before PTing. She found this approach extremely effectual. While I don't think I quite have as much time to dedicate to redoing the CC for that many months, I am considering re-doing the entire thing at least once before PTing. I'm curious if anyone else has done this? If so, would you recommend taking such an approach? Did you find it effective?

Would also like to hear everyone else's thoughts on this.

PS: Please note, I'm referring to redoing the CC on top of/before Sage Josh's recommended Post-CC strategies. I don't intend to cut out the latter strategy from my prep.

Alex

I don't necessarily think that's your best use of time. I would go through once, do your best to understand everything you can, but plan to have to return to the CC to review, a lot ...

The CC is meant to be continuously returned to. So plan on going back through most of it at some point. I think it would be more useful to wait until you know what specific problem areas you need to review and keep hammering down on.

Exceptions: If you took a long break away from studying ( > 3+ months maybe?) it might be useful to go through it again. If you feel like you didn't do such a good job your first time through. When I first signed up for 7Sage I had 2.5 months to study for the next test. So I rushed through the CC, only did some of the lessons on LR and mostly did just the LG lessons. After I decided to postpone, I also decided to start from the beginning and go back through the right way; the way I wish I did from the start.

thisissparta

@"Alex Divine" said:
I don't necessarily think that's your best use of time. I would go through once, do your best to understand everything you can, but plan to have to return to the CC to review, a lot ...

The CC is meant to be continuously returned to. So plan on going back through most of it at some point. I think it would be more useful to wait until you know what specific problem areas you need to review and keep hammering down on.

Exceptions: If you took a long break away from studying ( > 3+ months maybe?) it might be useful to go through it again. If you feel like you didn't do such a good job your first time through. When I first signed up for 7Sage I had 2.5 months to study for the next test. So I rushed through the CC, only did some of the lessons on LR and mostly did just the LG lessons. After I decided to postpone, I also decided to start from the beginning and go back through the right way; the way I wish I did from the start.

Makes perfect sense, @"Alex Divine". It's just that, it's easy to lose track of concepts that you learn early on in CC. Plus, my personal philosophy/approach has always been that when new concepts are introduced, you need to expose yourself at least twice to the material in order for it to begin settling/sinking in your mind. Logic still doesn't feel as intuitive as it should, which is why I was flirting with the idea of redoing the CC. I'm still not a 100% sure about this approach, and like you mentioned, it might not be a judicious use of time.

LindsMitch

I guess it depends on when you are wanting to take the test. If you are going for December or even February, maybe going through it all the way again and taking the time to make sure you understand everything thoroughly may not be the best use of your time...but if you aren't testing till June or later...I say why not.

NotMyName

@thisissparta

Logic still doesn't feel as intuitive as it should, which is why I was flirting with the idea of redoing the CC. I'm still not a 100% sure about this approach, and like you mentioned, it might not be a judicious use of time.

For this, I think foolproofing LG is a great way to reinforce lawgic fundamentals. all those in/out and grouping games really force you see the lawgic as second nature.

On the larger topic, I don't think it's a judicious use of time. This test requires exposure. After the cc, it's time to dive in with an imperfect grasp of concepts. That doesn't mean you start PTing, but definitely start drilling question types and return as needed.

Sami

I think doing core-curriculum twice although worked for Nicole is not a one size fits all rule. One take away from Daniel S's webinar is that each drilling or each review that you do after a PT should be determined by what your weaknesses are. So when you take PT 36 let your analytics determine what you do next. If you are equally bad at everything, do the core curriculum twice. If you think your weaknesses are huge in some areas, do those first. Then take another PT, and let the analytics from that PT determine what you should do next.

So although doing the core-curriculum twice would address every issue you ever have, it may not address the depth of some of your main concerns. For example, your analytics may tell you its actually Strengthen and NA questions you are bad at but if you are focused on doing everything in core-curriculum you may miss out on spending extra time on these areas.

Lastly, our study time is limited. So if you are great lets say at RRE and SA questions and you go through CC for them again, you just might have taken an extra week or two doing things you didn't need to when you could have been spending that time on things that you needed to.

thisissparta

Thanks for the replies @Sami, @jkatz1488 and @LindsMitch! After some contemplation and serious consideration of your comments, I've decided not to do the CC twice. I'll allow PT36 to help me explore my weaknesses and then structure my approach accordingly. Thanks again, everyone!