Help me say goodbye to 168s

Madssssss L.

Hi! I am studying for July 15.
I've taken 9 PTs to date, just begun doing 2 PTs/week (will ramp up to 3 in the month before the test).
Besides PTs/BR, I drill difficult questions with Khan (to simulate digital testing) and 7sage.

I've scored as high as 175, but frustratingly, I'm more often around 168.

I generally average -4 on LR (though this can be affected by mentally weariness/clarity), LG getting to foolproof level (but with miscellaneous misses), and RC -4.

For those consistently in the 170+ range, how do I say goodbye to the 168? And establish 170 as baseline? Would you recommend more or less of something as I continue?

I want to clear 170 on test day, dreaming of NYU ED acceptance. UGPA 4.0 and currently in a MA program in the MENA region.

Any wisdom is welcomed.

CantStopWontStop

I have found test taking technique to primarily be the difference from high 160s to 170s. Learning to manage time (skipping) will make a lot of difference. Do you record your PT's or even sections.
Also, if you have a uGPA of 4.0 DO NOT early decision NYU. With a 170+ and a 4.0 you would get significant money from them that you would be forfeiting by applying early decision. Good luck!

Logic Gainz

Working on this solution like the cure to cancer as we speak.

Pride Only Hurts

The solution is almost certainly in technique. Once you're scoring in the high 160s, chances are you can BR in the mid 170s which means your comprehension is usually not the problem. For me, recording myself really showed me my biggest issues. I tend to only fully skip one or two questions in each LR section but skipping more aggressively now allows me to finish a section in about 26 minutes and gives me enough time to go over the questions I was uncertain about as well as the ones I skipped. Watch JY complete a section and then compare yourself to him. I found JY skipped some questions I considered pretty straightforward, while I sometimes struggled with questions he got in 40 seconds. This is a pretty good way to figure out where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

jmarmaduke96

I will be following this very closely, I am having the exact same trouble. My last 5 PTs have all been in the 167-169 range. I have been becoming somewhat discouraged, because it doesn't seem that my BR is making as much of a difference as it used to. Like @"Pride Only Hurts" said, my BR is generally in the high 170s, so I more or less understand the material. However, I really seem to have run into a wall when it comes to translating that knowledge firmly to sections under timed conditions. Im glad to see I'm not the only one struggling at this plateau!

BlindReviewer

@"Logic Gainz" truth lol

Also stuck in a similar position, and I agree, I think efficiency is key, as well as really deep diving in your BR to find any conceptual mistakes. I think it really just comes down to how fast can you rip apart arguments, and how quickly can you recognize what parts of the stimulus are irrelevant, or what answer choices to drop before becoming invested in them. Recording helps, but I think also just straight up drilling section after section helps as well. You have to raise the bar so it's not just can you get this question right, but can you get this right as fast as possible. I've started being more cognizant of that and writing down questions that I got right but felt like I took too long, and review those.

I do agree it's a frustrating place to be in, and sometimes it feels like there's no way forward because there aren't exactly concrete steps to take. But I think we just have to keep pushing forward with the belief that we can burn these questions into our minds to rip through a new set of questions with sharp efficiency.

Madssssss L.

Wow. Thank you everyone sooooo much. This was so unbelievably helpful. Amazing. Best of luck to all!

shdov426

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:
The solution is almost certainly in technique. Once you're scoring in the high 160s, chances are you can BR in the mid 170s which means your comprehension is usually not the problem. For me, recording myself really showed me my biggest issues. I tend to only fully skip one or two questions in each LR section but skipping more aggressively now allows me to finish a section in about 26 minutes and gives me enough time to go over the questions I was uncertain about as well as the ones I skipped. Watch JY complete a section and then compare yourself to him. I found JY skipped some questions I considered pretty straightforward, while I sometimes struggled with questions he got in 40 seconds. This is a pretty good way to figure out where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

Where can I find video of JY completing a section?

Madssssss L.

Okay, so technique technique technique it's been, and sometimes I'm finishing LR sections with 7 minutes to spare, and still around 168. PLUS RC is misery lately, and I don't feel I ever finish with more than 2 minutes left at the end.
LG foolproof is down. The LR misses are generally questions with a 5/5 star difficulty. RC varies.
Any further advice?

MIT_2017

For RC: try being more confident. I've noticed in the latest PTs that there are many more questions where the correct answer just isn't a great one. RC used to be a ton of info thrown at you, with relatively easy-ish questions. It was really just the time constraint that caused me issues at times. Now, I feel like even after the section, I go back and look at questions and find myself thinking "IDK, I crossed out the other 4 but this answer still doesn't feel great..." and I get the question right. So, not sure if this will help you, but "going with your gut" (provided you're still doing what you need to do in order to give a question your best guess) has helped me in RC, as I've saved 20 seconds here, 30 seconds there, 15 seconds here..... and while I'm certainly not getting -0 every time, I'm usually doing -1 to -3