100 Hours (of Studying) to a 180 Forum

[Tiago Splitter]

This thread cracks me up. Last time this guy did one of these threads people said he was spending too much time taking practice tests, and now people are telling him to take more practice tests. I feel for you bud!

My advice would be to just do 2 practice tests a week instead of one. No need to ramp it way up this far out, especially since you already took so many PTs last time you studied. Once the test gets closer you can increase the number of PT as needed.

The truth is that PTs are overrated. You'll gain stamina by taking them, but you won't learn the concepts any better by doing full PTs then you will by doing a bunch of individual questions (or passages or games.)

[NoodleyOne]

This thread cracks me up. Last time this guy did one of these threads people said he was spending too much time taking practice tests, and now people are telling him to take more practice tests. I feel for you bud!

My advice would be to just do 2 practice tests a week instead of one. No need to ramp it way up this far out, especially since you already took so many PTs last time you studied. Once the test gets closer you can increase the number of PT as needed.

The truth is that PTs are overrated. You'll gain stamina by taking them, but you won't learn the concepts any better by doing full PTs then you will by doing a bunch of individual questions (or passages or games.)

I don't think the criticism is not enough PTs. It's not enough study in general. If I recall you nailed the test yourself, and I daresay you spent more than 100 hours on it. Shit, I know I did, and I had a much shorter mountain to climb than this guy.

Here's what I learned as a retaker. You don't want to take a test wishing you had more time, or look at your score and think "if only I had a few months more to study". You want to walk into the test ready for anything they can throw at you, and out of there realizing that you couldn't have worked any harder for whatever score you get. I doubt this guy is going to accomplish that.

[Tiago Splitter]

I know a few people who re-took from the 160s into the 170s. All of them studied a lot less for the retake than they did for the first score. Sometimes it's taking your foot off the gas and relaxing a little that allows for the best test day performance. That said, this only works if you were truly capable of scoring in the 170s the first time around and just had a really rough go of it on test day. The OP has to be honest with himself to figure out if that describes him or not. If his true ability is somewhere in the mid-160s then there are some conceptual issues that need to be worked out, and 100 hours is probably not enough.

[TrialLawyer16]

I know a few people who re-took from the 160s into the 170s. All of them studied a lot less for the retake than they did for the first score. Sometimes it's taking your foot off the gas and relaxing a little that allows for the best test day performance. That said, this only works if you were truly capable of scoring in the 170s the first time around and just had a really rough go of it on test day. The OP has to be honest with himself to figure out if that describes him or not. If his true ability is somewhere in the mid-160s then there are some conceptual issues that need to be worked out, and 100 hours is probably not enough.

+1. IIRC, Crumps only took like two PTs before her retake from a 170 (albeit not a 16X) to a 176. Once you've taken as many tests as Tebow says he has, you should already know what you're weak at and need to improve. Practice tests become less and less important and improving skill should take priority. I don't see anything wrong with 1 PT a week at this stage in the game. Only thing I'd say is that the 2 hours each morning Monday through Friday might not be enough, and only taking an hour to review PTs on Sundays might not be enough. But again, you've taken enough tests to know whether your study plan has you on target to reach your goal if you're truthful with yourself.