Tips for Between PTs

Roy Jacobs

I have been working through my PTs and am getting ready to ramp up for the October test. After each one I do a thorough Blind Review, score, watch explanations and go over the material for the types of questions I had problems with. While each one of my tests sees my score reach a new high in at least 1 category my overall score is moving up slowly because I will miss question types that I previously hadn't had trouble with. Does anybody have any tips for a good overall review of the material between PTs?

Pacifico

I think what you're already doing is great and is pretty much what I do, plus I do the BR calls. While my LG and RC are pretty stabilized in a combined -4 to -7 range depending on stupid mistakes and passages that do or don't jive with me, my LR fluctuates based on stupid mistakes and consistency in the application of my skills. So I was having some NA/SA/PF issues lately and really honed in on those and then for some reason my PSA game was really off on my last PT but I crushed the other stuff. For me the biggest thing is to really have an understanding of why you screwed up when you did. If it was a stupid mistake/misread then don't sweat it too much. If you didn't apply your skills, ask yourself why not? Did you get distracted? Were you tired? Were you overconfident to do something on intuition when you should have diagrammed or otherwise worked something out in writing?

If you have effective strategies for each question type, it's really a matter of applying those strategies consistently (e.g.- always negating to check an NA answer). I find that after a string of questions where I quickly get the answer, I start to get overconfident and think I can push through without relying on my fundamentals and that gets me into trouble because that's when you are really prone to fall for trap answers, especially if you stop reading every AC.

TL;DR: Just keep doing what you're doing and make sure you're learning the lessons from those shifts in what you get wrong.