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malfurion wrote:

yinzspurs wrote: This is a good idea. Accounting for every element of the test exactly as it would be. I might try doing some tests in the quiet study of the library as well. Having people around who are also working offers the same sort of distracting things that the exam offers.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the "take your practice test at Starbucks" approach because you really don't hear people talking during the test. But you do hear a lot of little sounds, people shuffling around, the wooden pencils are really scratchy sounding on the shitty paper that the tests are printed on, etc. So a library is closer to the real thing, imo. But the best thing would definitely be if you knew other people studying for the test and you could all take your practice tests together in the same room or something like that.

Yeah, constant noise like a starbucks would be nice compared to the random intermittent sounds that become the only thing you here. Also, when studying in a library, you should feel obligated to tell others that it is a fucking quiet zone and to shut the fuck up. I witnessed so many distractions during my tests by morons who can't seem to follow the simple rules of the library.

I took tons of PTs and kinda neglected RC...as a result one game and one RC threw me off and i bet destroyed the score i was hoping for....ran outa time on last game and passage and was forced to randomly guess, oh well.

MiamiUG wrote:My advice to you is to not get too sucked in to reading this site. Sure, its great to get advice from fellow test takers, especially on a site like this where people take things pretty seriously. The problem is that it can get to your head when you constantly think about how OTHER people prep and how much they stress out before the test. I wouldn't even look at this site the last few weeks before the test; worry about your own abilities and don't read too much into anything you hear on this site.

I agree.

Also, I would (and most likely, will) follow the advice of taking my PTs with an analog watch. I ran out of time on three of the five sections...only finishing one LR early and the experimental LG early. I might also try the sections in 32 minutes approach to remedy this. I would also not get too confident with LG just because I began to own them in the PT 40s and 50s. Do some old/tricky ones in the weeks leading up to the test. I would also more thoroughly review my PTs. I often did them one day after another with only a little review, in order to finish the 25+ that I had planned for myself. I am so disappointed right now. I might have even scored in the low 160s after PTing with a 167/8 average. Blah.

1. Study more with the analog watch v. analog and iPhone

2. Getting every reading comp passage and question answered--I keep averaging 9 min/section

3. Not depending on games so much

Maybe it was just me, but this is something small than I think would have benefited me: packing a better snack/meal during the break. I may be somewhat of an outlier since I'm about 230 pounds and play rugby 6 days a week (and thus have an ungodly metabolism), but not getting enough food really slowed down my brain on the last section. I honestly think I could have done a lot better if I had eaten more.

MiamiUG wrote:My advice to you is to not get too sucked in to reading this site. Sure, its great to get advice from fellow test takers, especially on a site like this where people take things pretty seriously. The problem is that it can get to your head when you constantly think about how OTHER people prep and how much they stress out before the test. I wouldn't even look at this site the last few weeks before the test; worry about your own abilities and don't read too much into anything you hear on this site.

+500

Not really what I would have done differently, per se, but some things that I think were important:

1. Don't get wrapped up in TLS, comparisons can have a negative impact on your performance. Stay confident in YOUR abilities.
2. Practice with an analog watch.
3. REVIEW like it's the most important thing in the world, cause it is.
4. Make sure that, even if you don't get to all of the PTs, you do the notoriously difficult/different things (dinos LG, riddled basins of attraction RC, etc) and understand them
5. Take your time and read slowly. I'm a VERY fast reader and this was a huge challenge for me. My goal was to actually use the time provided for LR, and I noticed a significant increase in my performance when I slowed the hell down.

1) Enlist a small group to take the same PT individually
2) Go to a location with mild distractions
3) Take the test as you would for real (break, 5 sections)
And, most crucially, beforehand agree that A) whoever scores the highest collects X amount of money from everyone else, and B) whoever scores the lowest gets pummelled by the rest.
That should simulate pressure, and coping with pressure is key when taking the real thing.

I would do every single section of LG that has ever been administered, focusing more on the 1-30 PT range. I know that they're outdated and different but they're significantly more difficult than the newer "easier" games. Leading up to the test I was missing 1-3 on the games section on PT's 50-59 so I thought I was set. But, the games section on the June test was brutally different and, depending on how poorly I did, it will determine whether or not I retake in October.

do 32 minute sections. because that's how much time it feels like you have on test day.

Would not have studied In and Out games. Those stupid birds in the forest gave me no edge on test day.

eskimo wrote:Study with your analog watch. Do not use your iPhone. Do not use online-stopwatch.com. Set your analog watch to 12:00:00 before each section, and get used to using it for keeping time.

(Was anyone else surprised that the majority of people in their testing room didn't have watches at all?)

This is definitely great advice!

cmutone wrote:The thing is what screwed me on this test is something that has NEVER screwed me before - losing it on the very first games question. When it didnt come right away after grabbing the rules, I froze. I don't know if this is an eventuality you could prepare yourself for but I wish I had moved more quickly to the second game, I sat there for five minutes panicking. in retrospect, I would've just moved on and gotten more of the last two games which I had to guess on. I came back to game one after doing game two and finished it, but by then I had something like 12 minutes left for the last two games, I was fucked.

Yes! This same EXACT thing happened to me.

LSATNightmares wrote:My problem was anxiety. I studied five months, took 20 PT's timed with experimental sections spliced in there, and took 15 PT's untimed as practice. I was scoring the 170's, and I bombed (like, randomly guessed on 7-8 problems) on today's LG. I couldn't retain my calmness and composure when things weren't going super well. I totally panicked. If I could redo it, I would try -- not sure how, though -- to practice on keeping composure.

This was also my problem - a terrible headtrip. Are you cancelling?

jamlip wrote:Probably could've just dropped acid and tripped balls the entire test. Would've done me just as much good as actually taking it seriously.

Thanks for your refreshing post. This pretty much sums it up.

Trying to keep nerves down and staying calm before and during exam was the key to me feeling good during the exam. I could not even bubble in my name when I began the exam because I was so nervous. But once the test started, I did not even notice anything else going on in the background and I just focused completely on the exam.

During the exam if you are stuck and you are having problems, do not worry about it. It will make things much worse. You can worry about it now, like the rest of us, who are waiting three weeks for their score.

As for studying, I will probably retake in October. The only change I am going to make is to focus on systematically using power scores methods to solve LR problems. Now I kind of just can tell what the answer is and its not an exact science so I got questions wrong on LR that I wouldn't of if I used the PS bible methods. I hope this will allow me to start getting -0 on LR.

Differently:
1. Read more economics articles. This is my weakest area and always something I'd convince myself wouldn't be on the real thing. I'd imagine everyone has their equivalent to economics articles when it comes to RC. Force yourself to do it.
2. Stay off TLS the entire week prior to the test, especially if you're prone to obsessive tendencies.
3. Keep a systematic ledger of difficult questions, not just those missed.

Same:
1. Bomb a games section two weeks prior. Humbled me into studying them again.
2. Get a prescription for sleeping pills. Invaluable in preserving sanity in immediately preceding weeks.
3. Use something similar to this clock: http://www.amazon.com/Sharp-SPC830A-Qua ... 745&sr=1-1
Fairly surprised it was allowed and I was wearing a watch in case, but it was large enough to see at a glance, easy to set quickly, and annoyingly loud which gave me constant stimuli similar to the testing environment during my prep work.