BR

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  drbrown2 Alum Member

  May 2019 edited May 2019 2227 karma

  When you BR do you review every question? In LR you should only BR questions you circle (not 100% sure about correct answer, or not 100% sure about eliminating incorrect answer). That way if you miss one you didn't BR, you can take special note of that question and figure out where you misread/misunderstood.

  As for the strategy, it seems like you want to spend less time reviewing so you have more time for an additional test? The PTs themselves are just a precursor to BR. What I mean by that is that taking a PT can help you practice timing strategies and gets you extra reps with RC passages and games and all that, but you have to review the tests to improve. If you have the time to take 3 tests and review them all, great!

  I am personally doing 2 tests per week and working on drills in between to focus on a few different things. First, I want to stay on top of LG so I do a couple of sections every day from the LG bundle, mixing in some games from PTs I've taken. Second, I want to continue to work on my timing in LR and skipping discipline so I take individual LR sections and work on maintaining a good rhythm. Third, I want RC to feel more natural so I am doing timed sections with intense/thorough review. I feel like I gain more from identifying areas I want to work on and going and drilling those areas than I would from getting an extra PT in.

  It seems like you are on a good path and you have a decent amount of time before July. You know yourself best, so come up with a plan that will suit your needs best and stick to it. If you aren't consistently reaching BR 175+ I would focus on BR so you have that room for improvement. A timed 170+ is great, but spend enough time with the RC passages and LR so you can solve the 5 star questions that trip you up on the real thing. Best of luck to you!

  tldr: You know yourself best, so come up with a plan and stick to it. Don't neglect BR/drills though!
• Madssssss L. Alum Member

  May 2019 124 karma

  Thank you soo much for your comment! This is really helpful.

  In response to your question about BR, I got through all of the questions, and rework the ones that were hard. Some I circled while taking the PT, others not. Should I be completely re-taking, blank, the test again as a BR? I've seen and gone through many variations of BR, but I think the one JY advocates does attend, at least in some detail, to each question.

  I do have a question for you, because your drilling practices seem great. Are you using clean sections for RC and LR as you take timed sections and review thoroughly?

  And do you have any advice for nailing those 5 star questions? Some of them I answer no problem, but nevertheless the ones I am getting wrong (for example, on PT 77, which I just graded) are only 5 star ones.
• drbrown2 Alum Member

  May 2019 2227 karma

  @"Madssssss L." said:

  And do you have any advice for nailing those 5 star questions? Some of them I answer no problem, but nevertheless the ones I am getting wrong (for example, on PT 77, which I just graded) are only 5 star ones.

  I think the 5 star questions are hard because of the presence of attractive wrong answer choices, complicated argument structure, subtle correct answers, subtle assumptions, etc. During review address all of those things. Usually when I get a question wrong it is because I got stumped or fooled. If I am stumped, my best guess is usually wrong because if I even slightly pick up on the key to the question the subtle answers call to me. Really it just takes looking at the questions from a different point of view. During the timed test that may or may not happen, but what I am working on is limiting the time I spend on those questions because if I am stumped I am pretty much not getting it right. Spend more time on other hard questions that you can get right with enough time to work it out.

  @"Madssssss L." said:

  Should I be completely re-taking, blank, the test again as a BR? I've seen and gone through many variations of BR, but I think the one JY advocates does attend, at least in some detail, to each question.

  I print out the pages of the LR questions I circled and only do those to avoid reviewing questions I was clear on during timed conditions but actually didn't understand. You can learn a lot by making mistakes on easy questions. If I got it wrong, before I watch the video I'll break the question down to the best of my ability. For LG, you should redo the games and time yourself, and then compare that to J.Y.'s video explanations and timing markers. For RC, I follow @"Accounts Playable" BR template and summarize the paragraphs, write down the Main Point, the tone, the various viewpoints, the purpose, and the structure (how each paragraph relates to or builds to the main point). Then I go through the questions again. I don't necessarily use clean copies for RC review, but it's probably a good idea.

  @"Madssssss L." said:

  I do have a question for you, because your drilling practices seem great. Are you using clean sections for RC and LR as you take timed sections and review thoroughly?

  Yes I do clean sections from PTs 1-35, PT A, B, C, whatever I haven't done yet. I realize some questions from 1-35 are used for the CC, but I'm really focusing on timing and approach during those drills. If you don't have access to all those tests with the Starter account you can just use the earlier 10 Actual books. Blind review of those sections further improves my understanding of the things being tested, which helps with accuracy and speed.

  All of these approaches are described in detail in one of the early 7sage podcast episodes featuring @"Accounts Playable". I am trying to model my review and practice based on his approach. I used to be very results oriented and would take PTs to see what my score was, but I'm gaining consistency in my timed scores only now that I review more thoroughly. Now I only care about my BR score, which helps take some of the pressure off any individual PT and keeps me from checking my score right away.
• drbrown2 Alum Member

  May 2019 2227 karma

  One more note on review...

  If you are able to record yourself with your phone doing a PT or a timed practice section, you can record how long it takes you to get through each question. Sometimes early questions in LR are not necessarily tricky and you may be tempted to skip review, but if you can see how long it took you to do the "easy" question you may want to take another look just to figure out what gave you pause. This is really valuable on RC. If you read the passage quickly but got stuck a bunch of times on questions, you'll see how much time those questions actually eat up. That may help you decide to do more work up front on the initial read, or to skip a hard RC question to bank more time for a later passage.

  All this stuff takes so much time. If you are able to do 3 PTs a week and utilize all these review approaches, awesome! Like I said earlier, I am working through 2 PTs per week and believe that for me quality > quantity.
• Madssssss L. Alum Member

  May 2019 124 karma

  @drbrown2 Wow, thank you thank you thank you. This is all so so helpful. I will definitely be integrating a lot of these tips and methods pertaining to review, and think you're on the mark 110% about quality > quantity.
  Unfortunately, I only have the Starter 7Sage and have been doing my PTs straight in the 10 Actuals books (72-81 underway currently, next is 62-71). I am living in the MENA region, and don't have access to printers/scanners, so I haven't been able to get clean copies of the PTs/ their sections for BR. I typically just go over everything on the already-marked/underlined/circled questions. Which likely isn't great for true BR, because it contorts my thinking to argue with and/or against my previous insights/instincts. Unlike how you recommended "looking at the questions from a different point of view," unfortunately.. Anything you would recommend, then, with my situation?

  If you don't mind sharing, what are your scores like? Not that my reception of your (incredible) advice changes based on the numbers, but curiosity is a killer.
• Madssssss L. Alum Member

  May 2019 124 karma

  Two other small questions----
  In using PTs PTs 1-35, do you feel like you're not focusing on the more recent types of questions which are more prevalent in PTs 70-on? And what are PTs A, B, C/ how can I have them?
  And-- give me the logistics of filming yourself? I'm working with an iphone 5. What is your filming position, etc.?
• drbrown2 Alum Member

  May 2019 2227 karma

  @"Madssssss L." said:

  If you don't mind sharing, what are your scores like? Not that my reception of your (incredible) advice changes based on the numbers, but curiosity is a killer.

  So my most recent scores are all 167-169 with a 171, but that is largely due to improved timing and more consistency on games. My BR score has been between 174 and 179 since way back in October before the November test, but I took a break after committing to taking the test again this cycle. I am not sharing all this advice because I am scoring at a different level than you, but I know from personal experience how ineffectively I used to review this test. Now that I've personally implemented the BR approach I've shared with you and everyone else who has been asking about it lately, I've become way more consistent. Still have a lot of work to do to avoid making stupid mistakes, get from -2/3 LG average to -0, and further improve my timing so I can get a better look at the hardest questions.

  @"Madssssss L." said:
  Two other small questions----
  In using PTs PTs 1-35, do you feel like you're not focusing on the more recent types of questions which are more prevalent in PTs 70-on? And what are PTs A, B, C/ how can I have them?
  And-- give me the logistics of filming yourself? I'm working with an iphone 5. What is your filming position, etc.?

  I'm not worried about how recent those practice sections are because I am just trying to get a feeling for seeing 25 questions in 25 minutes. As for PTs A, B, C, I'm not sure if you can purchase them directly through 7sage.

  For filming myself, I use my iPhone (6) and I have a small tripod with bendable legs you can find on amazon for pretty cheap. Storage can be an issue if you have an older iPhone. Might just be able to film one section at a time. After I blind review and before I look at the answers I just review the footage with a stopwatch and record the times for each question on the 1st pass, 2nd pass, etc. I make notes where I think I've cost myself time unnecessarily, and whenever I sink a lot of time into an easy question I'll review it whether or not I've circled it.

  @"Madssssss L." said:
  Unlike how you recommended "looking at the questions from a different point of view," unfortunately.. Anything you would recommend, then, with my situation?

  This would take more work, but you could type out the stimulus of a difficult question, type out your simplified summary of what that says, label the argument parts, and write out explanations for why each answer is wrong or right before you look at the answers. If you can also include a "fix" for certain wrong answers that would make them right that would be really good too, especially for parallel questions.

  Obviously you wouldn't do that with RC, but I don't print out second copies of RC for review. I type out all the things I mentioned above and look at the questions again while ignoring what I marked on the test.
• Madssssss L. Alum Member

  May 2019 124 karma

  @drbrown2 Thank you so much!! I so appreciate you sharing all of your insights. As mentioned, I didn't mean to inquire about your numbers to discount your wisdom-- it has already influenced my study techniques. I am going to be markedly more lenient on myself about sheer amount of PTs attempted (per week), and much more diligent about the review. I created a whole google sheet for LR question diagramming/dissecting for BR (for the 70% more difficult LR misses I make). Hopefully this practice helps me to feel that the "difficult" questions are nothing more monstrous than the first 10 in the section.

  Thank you--- sooo much. For this advice and time you've taken to write it out/share/etc. It is appreciated. Best of luck to you!