The Official October 2015 Study Group Forum

TheProdigal · Post by **TheProdigal** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 9:47 am

Happy studying, everyone. Hopefully I can get something in this afternoon.

Until then, my son's third birthday party awaits.

mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:17 am

Today's plan:
-Review PT 74
-Take 72 untimed, essentially treating it as drilling (maybe I should just take this timed? I don't know. I feel like going through the newer stuff slowly could be good for me. I also don't want to take a timed PT at all today.)
-Review PT 72

ETA: For all of those freaking out as much as me: The SO forced me to have a relaxing night last night and I think it helped. I woke up this morning with a positive attitude and a genuine belief that my last score was because of stress/burnout. If anyone hasn't taken just a few hours off, I highly suggest it.

gamerish · Post by **gamerish** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:32 am

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appind · Post by **appind** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:33 am

it seems doing 75 (which i don't have) is better than 73, 74 (both i have). is it worth buying at this point and from where?

PoopNpants wrote:
appind wrote:
PoopNpants wrote:Feel like anything betwen 165-175 wouldn't shock me in a week. Is it normal to have such a variance?
is this range on fresh timed modern tests? if not, then may be it's not the range that you should consider unless you have no recent fresh tests left.
Yep, I'm talking about fresh practice tests 4 section done consecutively

that's a very wide range. which ones you got 175 on and which ones were 165? some tests are harder to score high on.

mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:35 am

gamerish wrote:
mist4bison wrote:Today's plan:
-Review PT 74
-Take 72 untimed, essentially treating it as drilling (maybe I should just take this timed? I don't know. I feel like going through the newer stuff slowly could be good for me. I also don't want to take a timed PT at all today.)
-Review PT 72

ETA: For all of those freaking out as much as me: The SO forced me to have a relaxing night last night and I think it helped. I woke up this morning with a positive attitude and a genuine belief that my last score was because of stress/burnout. If anyone hasn't taken just a few hours off, I highly suggest it.
I would pull it into separate sections and take them timed. The content itself isn't too terrible if you actually have time to sort through it all but seeing all this new stuff and having to deal with it on a limited time basis is essential to its difficulty so I think you'd be cheating yourself by not taking it timed.

I hadn't even thought of doing the sections timed and separating them. Thanks. I think I'll do that, since I just feel sitting through a full PT isn't really an option today mentally, if that makes sense.

gamerish · Post by **gamerish** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:36 am

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The Abyss · Post by **The Abyss** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:02 am

gamerish wrote:Drilling a couple misc games before jumping into timed sections today. If we HAVE to get a weird game type on Saturday, I hope it's a circle game.

mist4bison wrote:I hadn't even thought of doing the sections timed and separating them. Thanks. I think I'll do that, since I just feel sitting through a full PT isn't really an option today mentally, if that makes sense.
No it makes total sense. One section into PT39 a few weeks back I knew I just wasn't feeling it so I stopped taking it as a full test and just pulled it into timed sections instead. Probably averted a disaster.

I did the same last night for PT 70.

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:11 am

How many of you listen to music while studying?

gamerish · Post by **gamerish** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:13 am

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mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:05 pm

Reviewing PT 74 and have been using the Manhattan forums. The question I was curious about (74-1-23) wasn't on there, so I made an account and, even though still confused, wrote out the explanation. Wow. I always just circle words or write one word answers for why something is wrong, but writing it out fully really, really helped.

Also, no music for me. I've never been able to study with music, though. I always have background noise from my whiny dog and loud roommate, so I think I' be fine on test day.

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:05 pm

Anybody changing their diet or workout schedule for this final week? I think I'm going to do my normal workouts, but eat whatever I want.

mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:11 pm

RZ5646 wrote:Anybody changing their diet or workout schedule for this final week? I think I'm going to do my normal workouts, but eat whatever I want.

I don't think it would be good to switch it up a ton (i.e., suddenly working out or suddenly eating a lot differently). I stopped working out to study, so I won't be doing that haha. I mainly eat oatmeal, meat, veggies, fruit, and the occasional protein bar so I'll just keep doing that. I also just drink tea and water, so nothing to cut out there.

gamerish · Post by **gamerish** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:19 pm

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nlee10 · Post by **nlee10** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:26 pm

RZ5646 wrote:Anybody changing their diet or workout schedule for this final week? I think I'm going to do my normal workouts, but eat whatever I want.

If you're going to change your diet, at least go towards healthier foods rather than fast food or local joints.

I'm keeping my workouts the same intensity and maybe just upping my calories 200-300 calories for the week.
A huge influx of calories can make you feel sluggish and you don't want that either.

nlee10 · Post by **nlee10** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:27 pm

mist4bison wrote:I mainly eat oatmeal, meat, veggies, fruit, and the occasional protein bar so I'll just keep doing that. I also just drink tea and water, so nothing to cut out there.

Sounds like my diet.

204Wpg · Post by **204Wpg** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:32 pm

RZ5646 wrote:Anybody changing their diet or workout schedule for this final week? I think I'm going to do my normal workouts, but eat whatever I want.

Yeah, I think I'm in the same boat as everyone else haha, no big changes here - been working out and eating well consistently since last December so no reason to change it up, my thinking is the body doesn't love change, so better to play it safe.

On the topic of health, I did get a nice little runny nose these past couple days and made it super annoying to write my PT this morning (ended up only doing a 4 section instead of throwing a fifth in). I'm kinda glad I have it now though cause it'll likely be gone by Saturday and I rarely get two in a row

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:34 pm

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204Wpg · Post by **204Wpg** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:35 pm

Did PT 63 this morning (saving 75 for tomorrow and 74 for Tuesday), only as a 4-section timed PT. Pretty happy with a 174 but would reeeeeeally like to break a couple of 175s on these last couple PTs this week. 175+ is my goal for next weekend so it would be nice lol.

PT 63, though:
LR1: -3
LG: -0
LR2: -1
RC: -2

Really couldn't have hoped for much better on anything but the LR1, would have killed for a -2 on that to hit 175 haha but such is life. Tomorrow's anew day, and I'm going with a friend to the room where we'll be writing to do it all under test day conditions. Looking forward to that!

nlee10 · Post by **nlee10** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:36 pm

204Wpg wrote: On the topic of health, I did get a nice little runny nose these past couple days and made it super annoying to write my PT this morning (ended up only doing a 4 section instead of throwing a fifth in). I'm kinda glad I have it now though cause it'll likely be gone by Saturday and I rarely get two in a row

Get it out of your system now. I was still recovering from a cold during my first take and it sucked. I wasn't that guy who was sniffling but I felt congested.

seashell.economy · Post by **seashell.economy** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:37 pm

theugg wrote:On my break for PT 74. LG was easy but RC was brutal! They're so tricky on these questions! I barely make time every time and I'm a pretty fast reader.

I thought LG was alright - but the last question on the last game - a rule substitution question - I just gave up on. Rule substitutions are always guessing games for me. Don't even know how to approach it and since there is usually just one on every test I let it slide...

chalky · Post by **chalky** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:43 pm

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mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:48 pm

seashell.economy wrote:
theugg wrote:On my break for PT 74. LG was easy but RC was brutal! They're so tricky on these questions! I barely make time every time and I'm a pretty fast reader.
I thought LG was alright - but the last question on the last game - a rule substitution question - I just gave up on. Rule substitutions are always guessing games for me. Don't even know how to approach it and since there is usually just one on every test I let it slide...

I actually just spent a few mins figuring that one out. I spent probably 4-5 minutes on it when I was PTing and was convinced C and E were identical. totally didn't take into account that when you have an unless "or" statement, it becomes an if not "and" statement. Kind of glad I made the mistake now, because that's one I won't make on test day now!

Ugg, RC killed me too with timing. I ended up having to guess on almost an entire passage, so I missed 4 there and 3 other places. Reviewing a those now. Yippee.

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:53 pm

Finally got around to scoring PT 62... thankfully I only missed one non-LG question, so even with my LG meltdown I managed 173.

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 1:14 pm

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3pianists · Post by **3pianists** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 1:52 pm

Just took PT 57 in a cafe in my school's engineering complex. People at some sort of workshop thing kept drifting through, and they would all give me these incredibly pitying looks. I didn't think I looked that pathetic, but...