Skipping question types

emmorens

Has anyone ever skipped specific question types and seen success?

I just took PT 79 and struggled with the LR mostly because there were a lot of NA, MSS and MBT questions - these ones generally take me longer because they are so easy to mess up.

I was thinking of completely skipping all these questions for my next timed section and coming back to them as I feel like it would save me a ton of stress and time. Was wondering what other peoples thoughts/experiences are with planning question types that you generally skip and do last for the sake of time?

Law and Yoda

I think everyone here will give you different advice because what may work for one person doesn't work for another right? So I'll share what I do but know that it may not work for you or just not make sense! I have general rule of thumb for skipping, 1) If the stimulus and AC are extremely long I'm moving on because I don't want to take the time to read all of that when I can maybe read 2 questions in that same amount of time. 2) I skip PF / PMOR because they tend to require a lot of time and are the most difficult (to me). I have definitely seen the pros and cons of doing this. The pros to me skipping this certain Q type is I can put my energy in other questions I have a better shot at getting correct. The con to this is I sometimes miss an easy PF / PMOR because I read the stem and say "Oh crap, PF moving on." What I've now tried to do is read the first line of the stimulus and determine whether or not I can grasp it and if not then skip it. To be honest, I don't recommend skipping certain Q types unless you truly struggle with it time and time again and are missing them every single time. Take PTs that you've done already and try this method of picking certain Q types to skip and see how it works, that way you aren't wasting PT material but still get to try this method! Best of luck

emmorens

@"Law and Yoda" Thanks so much for the advice! I'm still trying to find a skipping strategy that works, as I find that the minute I don't 'resonate' with a stimulus, it impacts my confidence, panic starts to set in and I'm not able to think as critically as I usually can. That's why I figured skipping questions that intimidate me and leaving optimal time at the end may help?

I will definitely take your advice and practice this on a PT I've already used. Thanks so much

Law and Yoda

@emmorens Yeah definitely try jumping around on older PTs to see what works for you. The only reason I cautioned is because I felt like I psyched myself out seeing a question stem that resembles one of my weaknesses versus just going after it and trying my best. I'm definitely with you on the impact it has on confidence and then that spilling over into other questions. Maybe try skipping the stimulus you don't get right away versus applying it to different Q types. It seems like you already know when a stimulus doesn't click for you and when you may not be able to perform your best so you can always use that as a guideline!

tmac1293

The problem is that with any question type, there are both easy and hard questions. You may be skipping a very easy question with that strategy.