why can't i break into the 160's

nattasha14

I'm REALLY struggling from moving from a 159 to a 160. I've done drills, PT's and I hit a 158-159 and then drop down. I honestly can't understand why. When I look through my wrong answers it's usually one's which JY describes as "really easy to get incorrect" because of trap answers, but I don't know how to walk myself out of the traps!! and they tend to be the second most popular answer choice. I get on average -7 to -11 in each section with RC being the hardest for me.

any tips to break this ASAP??

Matt Sorr

To break into the 160s as quickly as possible, I think drilling LG would likely be the best route for you. If you're averaging 7 to 11 missed questions in LG, you're missing some questions that could definitely become "freebies" once you get more comfortable with the common game types. If you've never "fool proofed" LG, check out the video in the core curriculum about what it is. Different people get comfortable with LG at different speeds, of course, but with consistent fool proofing over an extended period of time I guarantee you'll see improvement.

As for LR, if there's any discernible trend with the questions you're missing (like question type), then perhaps revisit the core curriculum videos covering that question type and make some drills that exclusively work on that question type. Also, if you're not doing it yet, I'd highly advise you make an LR missed question journal. It doesn't have to be fancy, just make sure you're noting what PT, section, and question it was, what answer you chose, why you chose it and why it's wrong, and why the correct answer is correct. Even if you don't go back to review the questions much, forcing yourself to articulate your thinking will help a bunch. Finally, I'd also recommend looking up time management strategies for LR. Often, just learning where to invest your time can net you multiple points in LR.

For RC, check out the curriculum videos if you haven't. The RC section is relatively short since it's mostly built around drilling. RC is typically the section where people have to try out different things to see what works for them. I've found 7Sage's approach to be useful, but also don't hesitate to Google different RC strategies and resources. I've also found a wrong answer journal for RC to be useful. Ultimately, however, I think most would agree that, regardless of your strategy, RC requires a bunch of reps. Sure, you must dissect questions in review, but you've also got to just do enough sections to start getting a "feel" for the questions and answers. Because RC is usually so time restricted, that intuitive "feel" for questions is necessary to do really well, as you just won't have time to do a deep dive on answers within the 35 minute restraint.

I hope this helps a bit and best of luck! If you've already scored 158 or 159, you can absolutely get into the 160s consistently.

nattasha14

thank you so much!! i appreciate this