HELP my scores seem to be reverting with later PTs

graceolyman

I've been doing straight PTs/BRing for about a month now. I'm planning on taking the August test so am now taking tests from the 72-81 range and then will take some newer ones after that. I've been really struggling with the tests in this range. I've been averaging 169-172, but now I've gotten several scores in the 164-167 range. I'm looking for advice on how to get out of this slump and get back to my normal range especially since I want to score 170+ on test day. Any advice would be appreciated!!

OneFortyDotSix

I noticed the same thing happened to me. They changed a couple things on the newer tests - they started mixing up the games a bit more adding unusual game types, and also distributed the difficulty of LR questions a bit more so they don't all show up later in the section.

For the latter you may need to pay careful attention to adjust pacing/timing accordingly, to make sure you're not rushing through tough questions thinking they're "supposed" to be the easy ones.

For the former, the best way I learned to deal with the unusual games was to just practice the games from pt's 65-80 taking each section timed and then BR'ing after. I left 80 and up untouched so I can preserve those for PT's. For the unusual games the same processes of diagramming/making inferences apply - best thing you can do is not be "thrown" when you see an unusual game, but take a deep breath and approach it like you would any other.

Remember you have the faculties and the requisite mental agility from your practice of traditional games to perform just as well on the unusual ones