Changing Right Answers to Wrong During BR

Iron-Han

I found on my first PT that a significant amount of answers I had gotten right during the initial timed test, I later went back and changed to the wrong answer during Blind Review. This wasn't just one or two questions, but many. Does anyone have any experience with this? Not sure how to feel about it, it's definitely not great. I'm not sure if I'm just second guessing myself too much, or if it's a deeper issue. Any advice?

Jonathan Wang

It means you don't get it now and didn't get it the first time around either. Getting it right the first time only means something if it demonstrates that you understand what's happening, and the fact that you got it wrong with more time to think about it suggests that your initial correct choice was not the product of solid reasoning, but instead the result of a guess or a hunch that happened to fall right. So you ought to treat it like you have no idea what's going on and build your understanding of the question from the ground up. De-prioritizing it just because you got lucky in your first pass does you no favors long term.

DivineRaze

@Iron-Han I agree with Jonathan. You have to really ask yourself why you picked it the first time, and why you changed it the second time. Sometimes stress can make you say "Theres noway it was that easy" but you had it right the first time.

mixedlaw

This used to happen to me as well (not on PTs but on problem sets) and I realized it was because I was BRing the questions incorrectly. What do you mean when you say Blind Review? If you mean just revisiting the question and choosing a new answer, that could be your problem. When you Blind Review a question, practice writing out an explanation about why each wrong answer choice is wrong and why each right answer choice is right. 9 I have a spreadsheet that I use to write out my explanations. Let me know if you'd like a copy of it!) Once I took the time to start doing this, I increased my understanding on a deeper level and never changed a "right" answer to a wrong one again.

1234abcd-1

@mixedlaw Hi! I read your comment and would be interested at looking at your spreadsheet!! I don't think I am doing the BR process well enough, but I have only done 2 PTs so far.

mixedlaw

@ebby_luna I will PM you!

Iron-Han

@mixedlaw I did something similar to a spreadsheet but instead I used a google doc to write down my reasoning for each question. Reading back my reasons for changing answer choices it felt like I didn't believe I got the question right the first time, so I deliberately persuaded myself to believe a different answer choice was right instead. If that make sense? I'm going to see how my next PT/Blind Review goes and then I might take you up on the offer! Thanks!