Foolproof Method

Comments

• fycw2068 Alum Member

  November 2018 edited November 2018 404 karma

  I think it's incredibly rare, but I think it happens. I don't know if these were totally new games, but PT 72 game 4 (Sept 2014) and PT 67 game 4 (Oct 2012) were 2 out of the 30 or so PTs that I've taken that were pretty WTF for me, and I didn't come across games that were similar to it in other PTs.

  With that said, I'm not sure if you have a "what to do when I get stuck" plan, but here's mine in case it's helpful:

  1. I literally mouth to myself "don't freak out". For me, that's been incredibly helpful in keeping my emotions and thoughts in check for anything confusing that I come across (and not just for LG!).

  2. I allow myself to ignore time constraints and re-read the game slowly and carefully, even if I'm running behind. In doing this, I have often realized I missed a key word or was able to make sense of convoluted language. (I also do this with tricky RC paragraphs).

  3. If after re-reading I still have no clue, I look at the questions and answer options and look for clues there. In the case of PT 72, I wasn't sure if variables could be used only once OR if they could be used more than once/not at all, so I looked at the questions and felt fairly confident that variables could be used multiple times or not at all.
     In the case of PT 67, I wasn't sure how to even go about drawing a game board, so I used the answer options in the first question of the game to quickly draw out a few different game board styles/set ups. Then I went back to the stim/rules to pick out the game board set up that I felt would work the best. This process helped me better understand characteristics of the game.

  4. If I still have no clue, I fill in answer option "B" for all the questions and move on. If it's the final game and I've completed all the other games, I go back to double check my work or revisit flagged questions. My personal goal for LG (-3) is less than the number of questions in a game (5-7) so it becomes imperative that I have -0 on all the other sections.

  5. With any remaining time, I pick out question types that feel familiar and try my best to solve it.

  If you don't have a "stuck" plan or want to change up an existing one, be sure to practice them and really become comfortable with them. Whenever I created a new plan and tried it for the first time (like a plan for what to do when I get stuck on a LR-SA question), it'd always be a huge time kill or it would really mess me up because I wouldn't quite remember what all the steps were and it'd cause me to panic. 2 days should be enough time to create and adopt plans to become second nature, and might be an effective way to prepare for the test.

  Good luck!
• MissChanandler Alum Member Sage ⭐

  November 2018 3256 karma

  I don't think so. Certainly some games mirror previous games more closely, but I doubt they'll come up with a game where none of your previous foolproofing would help with making inferences. The inferences might not be exactly the same, and you might not be as prepared as you would on a more standard game, but I don't think it'll ever just flat out not be applicable.
• redshift Alum Member

  November 2018 261 karma

  It’s a phase you’ll overcome with enough practice. As you foolproof games, you’ll inevitably run into games from PT70+, and a good deal of those have random games. The initial shock factor wears off and, after foolproofing them, you realize that you can solve any game with the foundational skills you develop through foolproofing. Through foolproofing, you’ll notice that things like random games start to scare you less.

  I went from a consistent -12 on games to -2 on my latest PT using foolproofing (PT81). If only there existed something similar for LR lol