Can anyone tell me why this might be happening?

sydneyr85

So, I always do really great in practice and drills, but everytime I take a prep test I just dont do well. I will go through 30 questions timed and get nearly every single one right while I am drilling different things, but then I sit down to do a whole prep test and get way too many wrong even though I know what I have to do. Has this happened to anyone else? Any tips? I feel like maybe I am not taking the prep tests as seriously as I should and not acting as if they are the real thing to really see where I am at.

arianaazami

A full prep-test is significantly more cognitively demanding compared to drills spaced out in time.

Tip: Really focus on time management, give each questions your best attempt and move on. Work to spread out your mental energy across the whole test.

NNNNJJJJ

Different reasons for different sections, in my experience.

LG: I might not be the most efficient on easy games, leaving me with less-than-enough time for hard LGs. Or I might panic when I see a miscellaneous LG just because it's unfamiliar.

LR: the biggest gap for me between drilling vs. actual PTs. I had (and still kind of have) a big fear of LR so the mental block is a big thing. Switching between question types, and having to identify the question type on the fly (rather than picking NA pset 4 and going into it knowing you don't have to identify the question type) is hard for me. Also, the mental fatigue of encountering 25+ unique stimuli and having the difficulty ramp up at the end.

RC: again, the mental fatigue and panicking when I see a hard topic

If you can relate to any of these points, maybe you can find it helpful to reflect on how to overcome that challenge.