Post removed. Forum

[CookieDough]

My Trainer should arrive today. Let's do this. My test was 6 points lower than PT. I think nerves hit me hard too. Now I know what to expect and will work on mental state.

In the same boat. How are you planning on working on the nerves? No idea how to keep calm about something that matters this much...

[bbkk]

How does 8 or 9 PM EST work for everyone who wants to review PT 57 on Sunday? I'll talk to Bee and we can figure out a room.

Works for me!

[FlyingNorth]

Checking in. I've done mourning; gotta start studying now.

My Oct score is 10 points lower than my average PT score. I think my major focus now is not learning new stuff, but adjusting my mentality. Anxiety really hit me in Oct. I would not let that happen again.

Something really similar happened to me, and it's totally reflected in my score breakdown. I think the most difficult thing is figuring out how to deal with that right now. What's your game plan?

I wanted to first redo PT 70 and see how much I can get without the anxiety. After that I'll just focus on drilling some difficult questions, and perhaps 2~3 PTs per week.

Also my friend suggested Beta blocker. Have you tried that?

Hmm, I haven't! I might look into this.

Highly suggest this if any of you guys got really anxious on the test and it interfered with your performance. They're an over the counter drug that basically calms you down without clouding your head. My roommate in college took them pretty frequently and he offered them to me before I had to give a huge presentation in one of my classes. It worked like a charm.

[CookieDough]

What kind of drills do people recommend using for RC? 8 minutes per passage? What about LR? I really dont have any LR problems with my approach, just seem to miss something while I'm in auto-pilot, something thats been extremely difficult for me to correct because when I work without timed or just look at questions, I can get em all right.

Edit: I also seem to miss a question or two due to timing on any LR that is above average difficulty and constantly struggle with RC timing.

I suggest giving yourself 30 minute sections to train timing. That and practice will make it go faster. I have the opposite problem and I finish 5-10 minutes early on some sections... Worked out ok in PTs but apparently I needed to slow down for test day.

[NotASpecialSnowflake]

I attribute my low score to test anxiety and burnout (that last month my scores dropped like crazy). I also have a problem with LR and RC. LG is usually solid (-2 or less) but for some reason on test day was a -4 (stress and it was my first section). I'm trying to drill sections in 30 minutes and end with some PT's at 30 minutes as well. Once the proctor called that five minute mark, I wasn't able to do anything productive.

Do you guys recommend 5 section tests or 4 with no break? I've heard that both are good.

And I will be taking PT 57 Saturday morning and Sunday for review sounds great.

[CookieDough]

Also my friend suggested Beta blocker. Have you tried that?

Hmm, I haven't! I might look into this.

Highly suggest this if any of you guys got really anxious on the test and it interfered with your performance. They're an over the counter drug that basically calms you down without clouding your head. My roommate in college took them pretty frequently and he offered them to me before I had to give a huge presentation in one of my classes. It worked like a charm.

Thanks for the advice! Definitely going to look into it. Everything that's been suggested to me irl makes you 'fuzzy' and I'm like "... I require my brain ty."

[brrrrcat]

Retook 70 last night just prove to myself that I'm not the idiot my test day anxiety made me into. Scored 6 points higher than test day. Trainer arrives tomorrow, and I'm also in for reviewing 57 on Sunday. Thx!

[action90]

What kind of drills do people recommend using for RC? 8 minutes per passage? What about LR? I really dont have any LR problems with my approach, just seem to miss something while I'm in auto-pilot, something thats been extremely difficult for me to correct because when I work without timed or just look at questions, I can get em all right.

Edit: I also seem to miss a question or two due to timing on any LR that is above average difficulty and constantly struggle with RC timing.

I suggest giving yourself 30 minute sections to train timing. That and practice will make it go faster. I have the opposite problem and I finish 5-10 minutes early on some sections... Worked out ok in PTs but apparently I needed to slow down for test day.

Were you drilling with 30 minute sections or doing actual PTs and trying to get through in 30 minutes? Gonna use the trainer + 52-61 and am a little worried about how I'm gonna have time for drilling. Thinking about just skipping the trainers LG section as I'm already consistently -0 on PTs, -1 on 70.

[Nightingale]

Something really similar happened to me, and it's totally reflected in my score breakdown. I think the most difficult thing is figuring out how to deal with that right now. What's your game plan?

I wanted to first redo PT 70 and see how much I can get without the anxiety. After that I'll just focus on drilling some difficult questions, and perhaps 2~3 PTs per week.

Also my friend suggested Beta blocker. Have you tried that?

Hmm, I haven't! I might look into this.

Highly suggest this if any of you guys got really anxious on the test and it interfered with your performance. They're an over the counter drug that basically calms you down without clouding your head. My roommate in college took them pretty frequently and he offered them to me before I had to give a huge presentation in one of my classes. It worked like a charm.

Another supplement to look into is L-theanine (green tea extract). There have been some studies that showed taking a combination of L-theanine and caffeine led to higher cognitive performance than the control group. I've been taking it, and whether it's just placebo effect or not, it definitely gives me a calm focus when testing.

[dosto]

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[PotenC]

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[PourMeTea]

Post removed.

[Nightingale]

Is the Trainer recommended for everyone? I scored a 169 in Oct, but my PT average was mid 170s. Any thoughts on whether I should purchase the Trainer or just PT?

[dosto]

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[PrizeFighter]

I wanted to first redo PT 70 and see how much I can get without the anxiety. After that I'll just focus on drilling some difficult questions, and perhaps 2~3 PTs per week.

Also my friend suggested Beta blocker. Have you tried that?

Hmm, I haven't! I might look into this.

Highly suggest this if any of you guys got really anxious on the test and it interfered with your performance. They're an over the counter drug that basically calms you down without clouding your head. My roommate in college took them pretty frequently and he offered them to me before I had to give a huge presentation in one of my classes. It worked like a charm.

This sounds like exactly what the doctor ordered! I went from getting anywhere from -1 to -4 on both LR sections combined to getting -11 on the real thing, and I think that the adrenaline rush on test day may be causing me to go too quickly and carelessly.

[thisiswater]

My Trainer should arrive today. Let's do this. My test was 6 points lower than PT. I think nerves hit me hard too. Now I know what to expect and will work on mental state.

In the same boat. How are you planning on working on the nerves? No idea how to keep calm about something that matters this much...

The initial nerves at the beginning usually go away for most people once they get into a rhythm and their comfort zone into the heart of the test (back into the PT mode you've been honing all these months). I think what kills people is coming across an odd section or a difficult game (or maybe even one question on a game) that just completely kills their flow. Naturally then you start to think about cancelling, bombing the entire test, etc etc. There's no magic solution but you really have to prep yourself mentally prior to the test in case this does happen; visualize a road block and how you want to react and move on. For one thing, erase all thoughts of "this matters so much" because that's just going to make things worse. Focus on one section at a time, once a section is over, stop thinking about it. Realize that stressing and flipping out is only going to hurt you, so catch yourself and stop yourself.

I know this is pretty evident stuff but there's no trick to dealing with nerves, you just have to work on your mental preparation.

This is what happened in my first section. I hit a few too many problems I didn't feel confident on and didn't get refocused until after the section ended and that weakness showed in my score. I need actual foundation work on LR but I think mentally I'm having some issues too

[PrizeFighter]

The sad thing is, it's easier said than done. I very, very clearly remember halfway through the first section thinking, "shit I need to cancel" and was totally unable to shake that mantra for the entire test.

Yeah I know it's extremely tough and probably the toughest part of the test for many people imo. But at least now you've been there, you've been in that situation, you've reacted the wrong way (kind of), and now you can use that experience to your advantage. Again these are a bunch of hollow words because they don't really give any substantive advice, but I still think that visualizing different test day situations and having a plan ready is a good idea. Anything you can fall back on in case something happens, really.

I've heard that mindfulness meditation can help with this because you actively practice clearing your head of distracting thoughts. That way, when things start to go sideways, you can take a deep breath and mentally reset.

[samoby]

My Trainer should arrive today. Let's do this. My test was 6 points lower than PT. I think nerves hit me hard too. Now I know what to expect and will work on mental state.

In the same boat. How are you planning on working on the nerves? No idea how to keep calm about something that matters this much...

The initial nerves at the beginning usually go away for most people once they get into a rhythm and their comfort zone into the heart of the test (back into the PT mode you've been honing all these months). I think what kills people is coming across an odd section or a difficult game (or maybe even one question on a game) that just completely kills their flow. Naturally then you start to think about cancelling, bombing the entire test, etc etc. There's no magic solution but you really have to prep yourself mentally prior to the test in case this does happen; visualize a road block and how you want to react and move on. For one thing, erase all thoughts of "this matters so much" because that's just going to make things worse. Focus on one section at a time, once a section is over, stop thinking about it. Realize that stressing and flipping out is only going to hurt you, so catch yourself and stop yourself.

I know this is pretty evident stuff but there's no trick to dealing with nerves, you just have to work on your mental preparation.

The sad thing is, it's easier said than done. I very, very clearly remember halfway through the first section thinking, "shit I need to cancel" and was totally unable to shake that mantra for the entire test.

This.

[NotASpecialSnowflake]

The sad thing is, it's easier said than done. I very, very clearly remember halfway through the first section thinking, "shit I need to cancel" and was totally unable to shake that mantra for the entire test.

A helpful tip that I heard was if a section trips you up, just tell yourself it was the experimental section, and it isn't going to matter. You still might bomb the first section (IF it counts) but you won't bomb all the others

[dosto]

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[062914123]

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[062914123]

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[062914123]

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[PrizeFighter]

The sad thing is, it's easier said than done. I very, very clearly remember halfway through the first section thinking, "shit I need to cancel" and was totally unable to shake that mantra for the entire test.

Yeah I know it's extremely tough and probably the toughest part of the test for many people imo. But at least now you've been there, you've been in that situation, you've reacted the wrong way (kind of), and now you can use that experience to your advantage. Again these are a bunch of hollow words because they don't really give any substantive advice, but I still think that visualizing different test day situations and having a plan ready is a good idea. Anything you can fall back on in case something happens, really.

I've heard that mindfulness meditation can help with this because you actively practice clearing your head of distracting thoughts. That way, when things start to go sideways, you can take a deep breath and mentally reset.

Stopping and resetting for 30 seconds is very credited. Panic is a snowball effect so it's a good idea to just stop and take a few deep breaths. Tougher to recover your thoughts when your mind is scrambling.

Yeah. Whenever I feel my mental transmission slipping during a PT, I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Even 5 seconds of rest seems like a lot compared to the constant stress of a test.

Edited because I suck at quoting.

[NotASpecialSnowflake]

How do you guys deal with a LR question that has a random word in it that you don't know what it means?

For example, I had a question (from a power score prep book) about hybrid animals and one of the answers talked about a "extent" species. I had no idea what that meant, and threw it out. It ended up being a right answer. This has also happened on PT's. I've often found that answers with a difficult vocabulary word are often right, but picking an answer choice that I'm not 100% sure about isn't a good strategy.

Or is my vocabulary just bad?