Individual sections vs full length retakes

Pride Only Hurts

I'm gearing up to start incorporating old material into my prep. Since retake PT scores really can't tell you much, I was thinking about simply breaking down my old material by sections I struggled with in the past. For example, instead of retaking a whole PT, I'd take 4 LR sections I struggled with from various PTs and simply retake those. I'm thinking that would bring the most value out of old material.

Anyone else do this? Or anyone think retaking full-length PTs is necessary if you're like me and still have about 10 fresh tests left.

Sami

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:
I'm gearing up to start incorporating old material into my prep. Since retake PT scores really can't tell you much,

I definitely disagree with this part. Retaking, especially the ones you don't remember can tell you a lot. Although, there is a bit of inflation because of subject matter familiarity, if you don't remember the answer outright you still have to think about the issues in the stimulus. As such, they can provide valuable learning material without burning through the new PT's outright.

If you only have 10 fresh tests left, you can use the early ones from 40's-60's for section drilling, while 70 and up for full PT's. But let your weaknesses guide how you use the retakes. For example, if you need to work on LR section strategy then do a section. If you need to test out how you would do on a full PT, you can retake a PT first before taking a fresh PT.

Regis_Phalange63

@Sami said:

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:
I'm gearing up to start incorporating old material into my prep. Since retake PT scores really can't tell you much,

I definitely disagree with this part. Retaking, especially the ones you don't remember can tell you a lot. Although, there is a bit of inflation because of subject matter familiarity, if you don't remember the answer outright you still have to think about the issues in the stimulus. As such, they can provide valuable learning material without burning through the new PT's outright.

If you only have 10 fresh tests left, you can use the early ones from 40's-60's for section drilling, while 70 and up for full PT's. But let your weaknesses guide how you use the retakes. For example, if you need to work on LR section strategy then do a section. If you need to test out how you would do on a full PT, you can retake a PT first before taking a fresh PT.

Hi @Sami ,
I've never spoken to you directly before but since I've read so many wonderful things about you, I would like to ask you one non-personal(or is it?!) question: approx. which full PTs(you can just ballpark by throwing in PT ranges) do you think you have taken only once or twice or thrice or even four times thus far in your journey? I know you've been studying for quite some time and I think I've benefited a lot from doing many section/PT retakes in terms of much faster/better pattern recognition so I'm very curious. I'm preparing for a retake with 25+ fresh PTs(not really touched the 70s and 80s!) left. So if you could roughly break down your PTs like the following, I would greatly appreciate it
i.e) Leading up to 1st test: PT 40~70 once
Leading up to 2nd test: 70~79 twice, 80~85 once
Thank you in advance!

Pride Only Hurts

If you only have 10 fresh tests left, you can use the early ones from 40's-60's for section drilling, while 70 and up for full PT's. But let your weaknesses guide how you use the retakes. For example, if you need to work on LR section strategy then do a section. If you need to test out how you would do on a full PT, you can retake a PT first before taking a fresh PT.

Great advice as always. Certainly don’t remember anything older than PT60. So your right the inflation is minimal there (especially since I didn’t BR the old material.)