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Quick history: my first diagnostic was mid 150s. Took a Kaplan class, took the test, got a 161. Retaking in June. Now studying again, but this time on my own. Read all 3 of the Powerscores. Going to start on Kaplan 180 book after some substantive review of the Powerscore books on problem areas.

I'm taking PT's 2-3 times a week. Somewhat consistently scoring in the mid 160's. Best is 169. Worse in recent history is a 161. My goal is 172+

When I'm reviewing my answers, I can say that at least 50% of the time, it's just a total facepalm after rereading the stimulus and reading the answer choices again. It is incredibly obvious to me the answer that is correct and precisely why my answer was wrong. Yet there isn't really a discernible pattern for why I miss certain ones.

So I review the ones that I made substantive errors on (ones that don't jump out at me) and try to learn from them, but I find there is little I can learn from most of my wrong answers.

Time isn't a particularly big issue for me. I finish all sections under time. The LR usually gives me 2-4 minutes. LG is closer to time. RC is ~5+ minutes.

I guess I'm waiting for all of my "duh" stupid answers to go away, but they seem to persist, even after the 10ish prep tests I've done in the last month and a half or so.

Does anyone have any advice? Should I try some untimed sections, go slow, and get every single one right, then speed up again? Or do you think more prep tests and review fix this? I feel pretty calm during testing and usually quite energized and focused.

Thank you for any help/advice/stories/etc!

Well first, WHY do you get the obvious ones wrong?

Is it because you don't read through all the choices?
Is it because you over-think?

If its the former, you HAVE EXTRA TIME on each section! Use it and make sure to read through every choice unless you're absolutely sure! Since you seem to fall into those "duh what was I thinking traps", I'd suggest you to read through.

If it's the latter, you need to learn to slow down while you're taking the test and try to not think as much. The thinking comes during the harders q's, lol.


HTH.

You're probably going too fast. Drop down to taking 40 or 45 minutes per section (or something like that) and see if you can actually get every single question right (or near that, anyway). If you can, then gradually build up your speed again.

I took the advice of doing some sections untimed. I was pleasantly surprised. I only really made one "face palm" error (the final section). The rest I can learn from. Additionally, my score was higher (170) and the timing wasn't that far off. I finished the RC and one LR within time, despite not looking at the timer at all. One LR was about 5 minutes slow, and LG was a bit slower than that (which I would have bombed had it been under timed conditions - still working on perfecting this section).

So thanks! I think the constant clock checking and what not was stressing me. I'm going to start building it back up again now and work on my identified problem areas.

Thanks!