Regressing on PTs?

KlaraHenry

Hi! I finished the core curriculum about 2 weeks ago and have taken 2 PT's since (36 and 37). For 36, I took it after a full day of work at the end of the week (which was dumb, but I had a busy weekend and wanted to get the test over with!) and could feel myself taking longer to think and not having enough time for some sections. As a result I wasn't super bummed to get a score only a few points higher than my diagnostic back in Feb. However, with 37, I took it early in the morning before work and felt pretty good about it, only to find that I got a point lower than I did on 36. I know two PTs isn't much data to work with, but I'm feeling pretty discouraged and was wondering if anyone else did worse/the same before they got better. I have no idea how many PTs it takes before you see consistent improvement and would love to hear from others. FWIW I'm not taking the test until September so I have some time, but was still really hoping to see noticeable improvement after finishing the curriculum and taking my first few PTs with all that new knowledge.

Should I pause on taking more PTs and go back to the curriculum to review more? Or keep plugging along on PTs and Blind Review?

Edit--thank you all for the in-depth comments and pointers, I feel much better about where I'm at!

NotMyName

This is not out of the ordinary. Believe me, there are lots of folks who have experience exactly this.

I think your right; you should pause on the PTs for now. Have you BRed these tests? If not, that's where you should start. You need to honestly identify and appraise your weaknesses.

The CC is packed with new info and strategies. Consider how much work you've done practicing these strategies and how much work should be expected so that under timed conditions, you can call on any one of these strategies and execute seamlessly. That's what's needed and it's unlikely you are there at this point following the CC.

For LR, I suggest drilling the areas you identify in the BR of these PTs until you feel like you've made some progress, then take a timed section and gauge your progress; repeat that process. For RC, join JYs RC workshops (but consider which PTs your willing to burn as a result) and begin practicing reading for structure on your own with earlier PTs. This can be done untimed. For LG, I'm assuming you haven' foolproofed since you just finished the cc. Unless you are -0/-1 in logic games, this should be prioritized because you can progress much faster in this section than RC/LR.

Use PTs to gauge your progress. I also recommend checking out the webinar on "Post CC Strategies".

Best of luck!

protagonistalex

Something similar happened to me when I started doing the full practice tests. I got a high score on the first one, but after that my numbers kept going down. I was trying to do three a week and quickly learned that's too much for me. Especially if you're working full time, two a week is probably the maximum you can do without diminishing returns. Since you're taking the test in September, you could go even slower.

I also want to echo the importance of blind review and reviewing missed questions and difficult games/reading passages. If you're just doing practice tests and not taking the time to think about your answers and review your mistakes, you can't really learn from them. The schedule I'm using now is taking the Prep Test in one day, finishing blind review the next, and reviewing relevant parts of the core curriculum and missed questions the day after that.

Mastery takes time. Sometimes you just need to be patient while your brain absorbs what you've learned and can do it intuitively.

NotMyName

I also want to echo the importance of blind review and reviewing missed questions and difficult games/reading passages. If you're just doing practice tests and not taking the time to think about your answers and review your mistakes, you can't really learn from them.

Exactly. Taking a PT is not really studying -- it's a test. BR and drilling is where most learning takes place. Some topics like timing/skipping, bubbling, etc can only be practiced in timed sections or full PTs, but that should come after the fundamentals.

keets993

100% agree with what others have said, stop PT-ing for now. Your BR score will tell you more about whether you've absorbed anything (and you will have) during CC or not. Taking more PT's right away won't help because there's too many variables. You can't 100% sure say that it's because of timing, a flaw in your understanding of a certain q-type, what aspect of RC or LG you struggle with.

If you haven't fool proofed games yet, you should start that. You should also try doing untimed and timed sections of LR from the earlier PT's. The more empirical data you have, the more you can figure out. For example, if your BR or untimed scores are better than timed scores then there's also a timing issue because you haven't figured out how to strategize yet. Are you circling questions for BR because you didn't understand the q-stem, the stimulus, or the answer choice? That will also help you figure out what you should focus on. Is it more difficult (4-5 star) questions or easier ones that you struggle with, do you get them correct on BR, is there a specific q-type you struggle with? Answers to these questions can illustrate what areas you need to focus on drilling before you take more PTs and implementing the application will help with your overall PT score. It might also be that you don't have enough exposure, for example, you understand NA questions and how to tackle them and the easier NA questions but you might struggle with the more difficult NA questions because you haven't had exposure to as many difficult ones as the easier ones.

You can do similar things for RC where you come up with low-res summaries, understand what each question type is asking of you. You need practice to increase your mental stamina and your strategy too. Are you someone that needs lots of notation in RC passage or will that detract from your learning? I used to mark up the context, premise, and conclusion of LR stimulus all the time while I was going through the CC but now I've internalized it for the most part. I'll come back to it during BR if it's a question where I felt I didn't 100% grasp the stimulus, and write out what flaws the argument makes, things that I can infer, what trap answer choices I would make if I was the one that wrote that question.

As @NotMyName states, you should check out JY's RC seminars and the webinar on post CC strategies.

Good luck, you got this!

KlaraHenry

Thanks so much! this totally makes sense

Cant Get Right

Yeah, as others have stated, nothing to worry about. I could talk a lot about how to transition from CC into taking PT’s. If that’s something you’d be interested in, check out my webinar on exactly that: https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies/

Leah M B

Everyone here gave wonderful tips. But just reassuring you, it is perfectly normal! I think my first PT after the cc only was like 1-2 points different from before the cc and I was bummed! And after that, my PTs were wildly inconsistent. Repetition and in-depth studying/reviewing brought both increases and consistency. It's a slow process, and very early for you! Just give yourself time to absorb it.