switching question type LR

esteerose

I have noticed that when I try and switch question types a bunch..i.e. take a practice test, that I do much worse than if i can do 2 or three of the same type then move to the next question type, like in the lesson. Has anyone tried to mark the question types first? I know it would be a time sink though..

PS I timed myself marking the question type and it took me 2:30.

Sami

@esteerose said:
Has anyone tried to mark the question types first?

So, I for the most part do mark the question type and when I have seen myself on the video it only takes me a second to mark it. "NA" for necessary, a "+" for stregnthening, a "W" for weakening. So maybe you could speed up the process?

I know some people don't do the marking. But for some reason, I find marking a question type helps me to focus on the task I need to do in a stimulus and to avoid silly mistake.

So its up to you. Not everyone does it. : )

esteerose

@Sami Do you mark them just before you do each, or mark them all before you start? It took me 2:30 total to mark every question in the section. I'm thinking about doing that before I even begin reading any of the stims.

Sami

I just mark them up as I answer each question. I think there is a difference between reading each question and marking it up vs just marking up a question. We all have to read the question stem to answer the question, but the "act of marking" shouldn't take more than a second or two. If you read all 25 questions and mark them up I can see why that can take about 2 minutes.

But if you mark the entire section up and then start to do questions, don't you still have to first see what question type it is? So in addition to 2:30 sec you use about :25 seconds as well (this is assuming that it takes you one second to you see your markup and then start reading the stimulus). That brings a total time to 3 minutes. Why not just do it question by question as you go, this way you are not doing anything twice and using less time.

Alex

@Sami said:
So, I for the most part do mark the question type and when I have seen myself on the video it only takes me a second to mark it. "NA" for necessary, a "+" for stregnthening, a "W" for weakening. So maybe you could speed up the process?

I know some people don't do the marking. But for some reason, I find marking a question type helps me to focus on the task I need to do in a stimulus and to avoid silly mistake.

So its up to you. Not everyone does it. : )

I definitely have found myself doing this! I love the "+" for Strengthen! I'm going to implement that. Although, I generally do this during BR/untimed drilling.

@esteerose I do think it is a bit of a time sink, so I'm not sure if it is a useful habit past when you learning the question types.

Cant Get Right

2:30 is a LOT of time, so for that kind of time investment you better be getting huge returns. I just don't see that happening here. Learning to shift gears from question to question is a big part of taking the test. Drill sections until you get comfortable, then when you get back to PTing it should become an increasingly natural part of the process.

esteerose

ok thanks guys, I will just have to practice switching because yea 2 mins is a lot of time. Also, I noticed that after I marked up the section, there were not many repeats in the one section..this was for PT 77.

tanes256

@esteerose I got in a habit of marking during PT because that's what I do during BR. In the beginning there were certain questions that I was having trouble recognizing so I would write what I thought the question was prior to reading and attempting the question during BR. I have not noticed that it has affected my time though. I would have to agree with those above and say that marking all questions first and then going back is not a good strategy. Doing the same question types is effective but if you see that switching is continuing to hinder you I would suggest drilling with maybe 2 different question types and then adding more types as you get comfortable with it. Even if you run out of time during your drills make yourself do it because you'll have to be able to do it for the real deal.