Plateauing at low 160s

eastring

Hi all,

I've been taking a mixture of recent tests (60s-70s) and with some exceptions of outliers on lower 60s tests (165~167), I've been consistently getting the same scores 162 or 163 for almost a month now. I don't know how I'm not improving much nowadays but I find that the LG sections on the most recent ones are way harder than on the old ones. I used to get 0~3 wrong but now I get 4~6 wrong. Also, it seems like when I do well on LRs, I bomb RC and vice versa. I heard that people tend to drop few scores on the real one, and I'm afraid I'll follow that path. I took #71 today at my test centre with a friend who will also be taking the Oct exam and I scored 163 again. Now that there's only a few weeks left until the exam day, I'm feeling some pressure and burnout. My goal used to be 165 but I feel like I might not be able to reach that goal.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Ron Swanson

I posted about this same exact problem the other day. For my last 10 PTs, all in late 50s-late 60s, I've been pretty stagnant at 163. As @GordonBombay put it, we may have peaked in terms of skill as far as the October exam is concerned. I think our best strategy for gaining a few more points will be fine tuning timing strategies and maintaining fundamentals.

It'll be important for people in our position to combat burnout and avoid the trap of taking a PT almost everyday in efforts to brute force improvement. Take the most recent PTs (71-75) over the next 2 weeks and BR them as best you can. On in between days drill what you need to work on.

Also, to address RC, I feel that it's a common opinion that it has increased in difficulty in later exams. Kinda sucks but we have to roll with the punches

Trust your abilities, stay consistent, and go get em on gameday

eastring

@"Ron Swanson" What kind of timing strategies are you trying out? I tend to run out of time for RCs, pretty much leaving the fourth passage blank. I sometimes miss 1-2 questions on LRs depending on their difficulty levels.

Ron Swanson

Here's how I approach each section as far as timing goes:

LG: I assume you've thoroughly drilled different game types and are familiar with JY's timing recommendations for various game types/difficulty levels. It's important to know which game types are your strongest and attack them right away so you give yourself adequate time for the longer, more difficult questions.

LR: Keep moving and make sure you're through the first 15 in 15 minutes. Read the question stem before the stimulus, and if you can't grasp the stimulus fully on your first read, circle the question and come back. The idea is to see every question, pinpoint the easier ones, and ensure you're getting those correct. For the handful of remaining difficult questions, you'll hopefully have some breathing room to attack them using POE.

RC: This section has frustrated me most in the recent PTs. In older tests I could go -2 on RC which was a big boost to my score, now I tend to go between -5 and -7. For timing here, it's all about maintaining focus when you're reading the passage. Understand how the arguments and paragraphs flow into each other. This step is crucial, because once you hit the questions, you can't afford to sink time into going back to reread chunks of the passage. As a general rule in RC, you have 8:45 per passage if you want to complete all 4. If you realize you're burning tons of time on one passage, move on. Some people advocate the strategy of doing the passages in order of the number of questions they have, but I tend not to follow this unless one passage has 8 questions and another has 5; use your judgement.

Luckily there's 2 weeks until the test and you'll likely have 5-6 PTs to get your timing down and be comfortable with it entering game day