70-80s difficulty/wording change?

asdf12345asdf12345 Member
in General 271 karma

I usually scored in the 169-172 range until the 70s. After moving into the 70s, my scores have dropped a bit. The wording and the difficulty seem different. Is it normal to see a score drop? Help! Freaking out before Jan test 😭

Comments

  • LOWERCASE EVERYTHINGLOWERCASE EVERYTHING Member ⭐
    edited November 2020 1952 karma

    same happened to me. in my opinion, tests in the 70s felt more technical logic (?) (not sure how to describe it). to me, tests in the 80s felt more subtle and it was easier for me to miss or misinterpret certain words; they did flow better and felt more modern-ish; it felt like they also used more synonyms or phrases that carried similar meanings, and i had to be more flexible with the texts and ideas and how they were represented in different ways.

    i also did notice my score drop, but noticed it go back up once i got more used to them. i did not do anything different with them, but i did keep track and compiled certain phrases/words that gave me trouble to look back on.

    good luck!!

    edit: my bad. you were talking about the 70's. not sure if i can give you good tips re: 70's vs older tests.. hopefully someone else can jump in!

  • asdf12345asdf12345 Member
    271 karma

    @"LOWERCASE EVERYTHING"
    Thanks for your input. 80s feel like I need to make more assumptions than would be allowed on earlier tests and 70s feels like they try to hide the answer by stating things in a convoluted way. I’ve only solved 2 PTs in the 70s and 2 in the 80s so I guess i might improve with more practice.

  • SoCal1996SoCal1996 Member
    21 karma

    It's definitely not just you! in my opinion LR in 70s/80s feel different because it's not as cookie cutter and the ACs aren't as clear. I wish I had looked at those LR Qs sooner before my test because the real thing (Nov) was similar. I think practice/familiarity is key. So keep drilling those. You got it!

  • karko2525karko2525 Member
    edited November 2020 620 karma

    @asdf12345 you're definitely not alone! When I got comfortable with the material and exam, the exams in the 60's felt straightforward and dare I say, relatively "easy". However, once I hit the mid 70's/80's I experienced some score drops/ fluctuations. I think the shift from the 60's to 70's/80's is mainly due to the trickiness of the recent LR. The wording and subtly of some of the answers makes it harder to distinguish the right AC from the trap ACs so beware of that. I also noticed that the RC passages got more dense? Not a huge change, but the questions seem to be more detailed and require more inference, but maybe that's just me. The section that gave me the most trouble in the more recent exams is LR (but LR is usually my worst section so keep that in mind). I agree with the other commenters though. The more practice you get with the more recent exams, the better you'll get as you adapt to the wording/ subtle tricks. There also seems to be a mixture of harder and easier exams in the 70's/ 80's. So don't freak out too much! I am sure your score will increase again the more you do. Best of luck!

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