Advice for the final push?

Comments

• TinaTheLlama Member

  November 2017 edited November 2017 91 karma

  I know i'll be drilling games! As I just experienced on my last PT, a silly rule translation error can ruin the whole section (and test). I'm not PTing as high as you are but improvement in LG has been the lead on my scores. A single game is like a 4-5 point final score difference.
• LivePumpkin Free Trial Member

  November 2017 270 karma

  Slightly unrelated, but do you feel you run out of time in LR too? Or are you generally finishing with time to spare? Maybe reflecting on that could give good insight into improving speed? Also, do you have any skipping strategies you use? Maybe altering those could affect speed too!
• Leah M B Alum Member ⭐

  November 2017 8392 karma

  @LivePumpkin said:
  Slightly unrelated, but do you feel you run out of time in LR too? Or are you generally finishing with time to spare? Maybe reflecting on that could give good insight into improving speed? Also, do you have any skipping strategies you use? Maybe altering those could affect speed too!

  LR, I normally finish with a couple minutes to spare. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Rarely don't get to every question though.

  I do sort of have a skipping strategy. I don't skip many questions, but for example, if I'm running low on time for LG I'll skip rule substitution questions. I do occasionally skip on LR but not really on RC at all.

  And @TinaTheLlama, yeah I definitely think I need to work on games more. It's so frustrating when I feel like I can do them all confidently but just not fast enough. Ugh. I think at least part of it is that I'm a perfectionist and second guess myself a lot. Need to learn to trust that I know how to do these, haha. My nature is to want to make absolutely sure I'm correct, so sometimes double check things when I should just move on.
• David_with_the_Food_Poisoning Member

  November 2017 11 karma

  Hi Leah!

  Do you have a general strategy going into RC sections? Are the questions you've been missing in RC consistently in a single passage or spread across evenly throughout the entire section? How long do you spend reading the passage vs. reading questions? Personally, I had found that my errors clustered around single passages (even though I was finishing with time to spare!). To improve, I focused on developing a better reading strategy to make sure I fully comprehended the section before moving on.

  Your absolutely stellar BR score indicates that you don't have issues with understanding and you clearly know the core concepts, but that competency with the material might be the bigger problem. Develop confidence and internalize that timing!

  I agree with @TinaTheLlama that you should be focusing more on LG. It's definitely more bang for your buck with two weeks left. See if there is anything in the analytics that tell you if you're missing specific game types or question types that you can drill on.

  If you want to go with the RC route, I recommend that you drill individual RC sections (newer ones, at least within the past decade, if you haven't used them---they tend to test on broader, perspective questions).
• Leah M B Alum Member ⭐

  November 2017 8392 karma

  @David_with_the_Food_Poisoning said:
  Hi Leah!

  Do you have a general strategy going into RC sections? Are the questions you've been missing in RC consistently in a single passage or spread across evenly throughout the entire section? How long do you spend reading the passage vs. reading questions? Personally, I had found that my errors clustered around single passages (even though I was finishing with time to spare!). To improve, I focused on developing a better reading strategy to make sure I fully comprehended the section before moving on.

  Your absolutely stellar BR score indicates that you don't have issues with understanding and you clearly know the core concepts, but that competency with the material might be the bigger problem. Develop confidence and internalize that timing!

  I agree with @TinaTheLlama that you should be focusing more on LG. It's definitely more bang for your buck with two weeks left. See if there is anything in the analytics that tell you if you're missing specific game types or question types that you can drill on.

  If you want to go with the RC route, I recommend that you drill individual RC sections (newer ones, at least within the past decade, if you haven't used them---they tend to test on broader, perspective questions).

  Thanks so much! Some really good food for thought here.

  Looking back on my RC sections, it looks like my missed questions tend to be spread out. Sometimes it is 1 passage, but more often it's 2 or 3 questions in multiple passages. I do know for sure that a weakness is any of the inferring perspective questions. The vast majority of questions I miss are that type. I think the hard thing about drilling RC is it's tough to practice just 1 question type since it's grouped by passages? I haven't recorded myself yet, so I might try that at least for a couple RC passages to see if it is that I'm spending too much time reading or with the questions.

  I don't really have a particular strategy for RC. Any tips for that or skipping strategy would be welcome!

  I think for the time being, I'm going to focus on LG and someone else suggested some tips like a speed reading app to increase overall reading speed. The limited time before Dec 2 and of course this holiday weekend are going to really be tough to have as much study time as I'd like. I'm re-taking in February too though so there will be some time before then.

  Thanks again!