Dec 2010 Test Takers--What would you do different? Forum

[stilles]

Looking to take Feb exam and after hearing all the horror stories about LG, Tooth Decay, and Stained Glass what would your suggestions be for future test takers?

Thanks and Best of Luck!!

[Anomaly]

I would warm up with 3 full sections

[2014]

Drill a lot of games sections and give yourself absolutely no leeway on time.

[gambelda]

Stained Glass windows smacked me in the Fing Face on my drive to Pittsburgh yesterday. It's actually REALLY easy once I figured it out, but I dropped the ball in the actual exam.

Don't listen to these people who say do easy stuff you've done before. Give yourself the hardest questions before you go into the exam so your brain is working at its highest level for a warm up.

Also, never take the exam in UDC in Washington DC.

[bartleby]

Scan the shit out of your four games and do the easy ones first.

[FlanSolo]

Shop around the games section to make sure you do them in order of difficulty.

Something I'd do the same, but would recommend anyway, is to make your best judgment LR or RC questions relatively quickly (not hurried, but just after normal consideration), move on, and come back to it once you've finished the section. Sometimes I keep everything the same, but this has definitely helped me pick up a question or two I would have missed had I wasted time obsessing about my answer choice when I wasn't thinking clearly. Just make sure you bubble your initial answer so if you do run out of time, you at least have an educated guess to show for it.

[ren2011]

Scan the shit out of your four games and do the easy ones first.

Do this on RC too. Even in LR, they didn't have the usual trend of really easy --> difficult, so even skipping around on that section wouldn't hurt.

[chrissyc]

Stained Glass windows smacked me in the Fing Face on my drive to Pittsburgh yesterday. It's actually REALLY easy once I figured it out, but I dropped the ball in the actual exam.

Don't listen to these people who say do easy stuff you've done before. Give yourself the hardest questions before you go into the exam so your brain is working at its highest level for a warm up.

Also, never take the exam in UDC in Washington DC.

i'm confused...how did you do stained glass yesterday in the car? did you just memorize the question?

[Pricer]

Take October.

I was prepared for RC and LR. I was averaging -0 to -1, rarely a -2 on LG. I have not run across a game that took me 10 minutes to do since half way through the LGB. All of a sudden, I'm in my 5th section of the real test, thinking -10 so far and ready for a perfect LG section. 170+, here I come. Then, LG attacked me, two games took much longer than normal, I ended up cold guessing on either 5 or 6, I can't remember. Point being, I went from expecting about -12 overall to a good -20. No possibility of hitting my PT average of 170-172.

[ren2011]

Stained Glass windows smacked me in the Fing Face on my drive to Pittsburgh yesterday. It's actually REALLY easy once I figured it out, but I dropped the ball in the actual exam.

Don't listen to these people who say do easy stuff you've done before. Give yourself the hardest questions before you go into the exam so your brain is working at its highest level for a warm up.

Also, never take the exam in UDC in Washington DC.

i'm confused...how did you do stained glass yesterday in the car? did you just memorize the question?

lol for some of us those questions are burned forever into our brains...

[FlanSolo]

Take October.

I was prepared for RC and LR. I was averaging -0 to -1, rarely a -2 on LG. I have not run across a game that took me 10 minutes to do since half way through the LGB. All of a sudden, I'm in my 5th section of the real test, thinking -10 so far and ready for a perfect LG section. 170+, here I come. Then, LG attacked me, two games took much longer than normal, I ended up cold guessing on either 5 or 6, I can't remember. Point being, I went from expecting about -12 overall to a good -20. No possibility of hitting my PT average of 170-172.

Basically had the exact same experience, so I went in to December's test more mentally prepared for the pressure of taking LG on a real test. I made it through the section, know I have at least a handful of wrong answers, but hey - it was the hardest section on the test, and it's going to be better than the -14 meltdown I had during October (actually the worst I had done since my first cold practice test).

However, I do wish I had done more preparation for helping me cope with the stress of taking LGs on a real test. It's easy on PTs when you know that the worst case scenario is a good learning opportunity, but when you're taking the test the make or break nature of the games can be really stressful for people like me who don't have a natural aptitude for them and had to work hard to study. So, in addition to what people are saying about shopping for game difficulty, make sure you take them under duress. Shortened time periods, loud noises, etc.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

.

[SageD]

The same thing happened to me with stained glass. I made a terrible oversight that occurred to me a couple hours after the exam.

Anyway, I used to have terrible time issues with LG, and a few weeks before the test I had a big breakthrough, and managed to get through a few PT games with time to spare. From that point I figured that, now that I knew I was capable of doing so, I'd get through the games in the actual test in time because I typically respond well to pressure, and go a lot faster when I'm focused. It didn't work out that well.

Next time (Feb or June), I'm leaving nothing to chance. I'm going to drill every published logic game multiple times, until I have the fastest system I possibly can. Unfortunately I've taken all the recent PTs, so I have no way to test myself. But that's okay, all I care about at this point is speed.

[kkklick]

Do the old logic games from pre-30's. Studying for December I did only 40+ which safe to say wasn't the best idea, but I didn't get burned on the section nearly as bad as others.

[testmachine45]

I would do tons of practice tests. Like 30. Make sure I got good at time. Fucking A. I got crushed.

[aesis]

Do LG sections from the 30s the week before the test. Chronologically I did 40-53, 30-39. Doing the 30s the week before the test accustomed to me weird games I had seen before, but forgotten, which kept me on my toes. I don't recommend this for people who have never seen the 30s games though: it will destroy your LG confidence, no doubt, because they are HARD.

(I did okay on 62's games BTW if that lends credence, at least I think I did).

[BlueFeathers]

Taken it in October like I originally planned.

[kkklick]

Taken it in October like I originally planned.

Haha, just further proof December was harder than October

[KevinP]

I would not have canceled my October score. Even w/ the cancel I would have probably scored higher than the bullshit LG they put this time around. Since it was my 3rd try, I don't have much of a choice now but to wait it out.

[amosa]

Scan the shit out of your four games and do the easy ones first.

Do this on RC too. Even in LR, they didn't have the usual trend of really easy --> difficult, so even skipping around on that section wouldn't hurt.

Agreed. I had to guess on all but 2 questions for the medical passage (something to do with equipment or procedures or something). Seems to be the consensus that that was the easiest passage so I definitely left some points on the table as I'm sure I would have gotten a higher percentage correct if I had guessed all but 2 questions on one of the harder passages. If I retake in Feb or June I will definitely keep this in mind.

[fosterp]

Practice more on LG. Early days of studying and reading some of the older guides posted here gave the impression LG got a lot easier so I didn't fret too much about sucking at the earlier LGs. Then when I started getting -0/-1 on the 40s LGs I slacked even more. After 55 it started getting harder and I wish I had spent more time reviewing LG. It definitely is going to reflect on my LG section score.