Diff between PTs and test day Forum

[PrideandGlory1776]

I would highly recommend you give yourself only 34 minutes to take practice tests because between when they call it and the fact that you have to finish before they call time otherwise you get 0 points really costs you a solid minute. I think that minute cost me about 1 question per section.

[Jeffort]

Although there are various different reasons some people score lower on test day than on PTs, one really common and frequently ignored reason is that some peoples PT scores are slightly inflated due to not strictly and consistently sticking to the full harshness of test day conditions with all PTs in every way. It's natural to take a few small liberties on timed PTs and cut yourself a little slack here and there, such as taking an extra 15-60 seconds to finish reading the ACs of the last question to make final selection even though time technically ran out but counting the point in calculating score. That alone could net four more raw points per test than you would have gotten with a proctor staring at you in the test room and cause a significant test day drop from say a 170 to a 167 or something similar. Those little tiny corners cut that aren't possible on test day which people forgive on PTs cuz wanting to focus on successes and improvement rather than harsh facts of reality are a big factor in test day score drops for many test takers.

Honest review and assessment of true score/ability range is really important to make sure you don't head into test day thinking you're a higher scoring person that you actually are. It still amazes me how often lots of students are dishonest with themselves with PT evaluations in order to make themselves feel better and see improvement/target range for ego gratification purposes.

[paglababa]

Test day nerves. Was pting at 175-178 but dropped 4 points game day. Felt my brain was mushy during LR...went -7 in that one sectiom