How do you overcome inconsistency?

RyanazR

Hi there! I am 2 weeks out from test day, and I am still experiencing widespread inconsistency, or random inconsistencies at times. My past 10 tests have been 176-170-166-165-170-168-168-169-170-168, and today, I got 161 on PT85, my worst in a long time. For those of you who are consistent in your scores, how do you do it? My BR has generally put me in the low 170s, but I don't get why sometimes my mind just completely blank and.I hit rock bottom.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

asdf12345

I think your real range is somewhere around high 160s to low 170s. 85 and 86 are known to be weird tests especially for LR. I see some similarities between 72.85. and 86. My scores are similar to yours and I absolutely bombed 86 and 85 was slightly better. The test is really about luck unfortunately. If you get a PT that matches your skill set well, then you’ll get a good score. If not, then you won’t do as well. Just gotta pray the Jan test fits your skill set. Also, the order in which you take the sections matters, at least for me. I consistently do better when it’s LG, LR, RC rather than RC first.

Don’t stress too much and rest up. Gotta be in good condition physically for the test.

RyanazR

@asdf12345 thank you so much! I noticed that you broke past your plateau. How did you do it haha, especially with RC - that is what is holding me back. Also, I concur with your point about RC starting first: if it is first for me I end up not doing as well generally.

asdf12345

@ryanazr95 Manhattan Prep’s RC book helped me out a lot. I was ranging from -4 to -6/-7 rc at my worst and that was what prevented me from getting over the 170 mark. The book explains different types of wrong ACs and also teaches you how to read more actively. I also pay a lot more attention to the first and last sentences of each paragraph, skipping a lot of unnecessary details. Once you have a clear structure of the author’s argument, it’s not that difficult to figure out the details as you do the questions.

Definitely prepare for some hard sections though. I’m usually very good at LG but I was completely thrown off by the 3rd game in 77 the other day and ended up back at 169 with lg -4 lr -3 rc-3. So even if you’re good at a section keep working on the hard qs.

whatsmyname

Practice, exposure to question types, reflection