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PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:13 pm
by phillykid
I felt ok about this test until I reached the last section (RC). And like a brick wall I was hit by a couple passages I thought I understood, but questions seemed ridiculously difficult. I ended up with 14 correct out of 27. With 1LR -4 LG -0 2LR -7 and RC -13 I ended up with a 161 (which of course is well below average). Did anyone else struggle with this test?

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:20 pm
by SingleLadies
Just took the test and I found the passages to be very tough, but that their were not a lot of competitive answer choices, so that helped a lot. I scored a bit better then my average rc score.

Perhaps fatigue? It did come as the 5th section.

I had a mega failure on the LG so that hurt.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:26 pm
by phillykid
Yea I'm hoping it's just fatigue. I always struggle with RC (generally -7 or -8) because I am a slow reader. When I review RC I almost never get an answer wrong because I have more time. But oh well. You struggled with games? I found this games section to be refreshingly easy compared to a couple of the last tests.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:40 pm
by sanjola
I took PT63 today and got -9 on RC, which is a little worse than I usually do on RC. It was frustrating because I had done so well on the first 2 sections (1LR-2, LG-0) and then a sad -8 on LR2.

Anyway, I didn't necessarily find the questions to be too difficult, but the passages themselves were a little brutal. That, coupled with it being the last section, probably contributed to the unfortunate score.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:13 pm
by phillykid
Yea the test just seemed more difficult than usual. I did PT64 today with LR1 -6, LG -3, LR2 -3, RC -6. I think PT63 was just an outlier for both of us. Good luck the 11th!

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:56 pm
by jigglebottom
thats bad news man... i just took 62 and thought it was abnormally hard haha... got a prac test per day errday til sunday

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:42 pm
by phillykid
jigglebottom wrote:thats bad news man... i just took 62 and thought it was abnormally hard haha... got a prac test per day errday til sunday
If I recall, the games were more difficult than usual. Hopefully we'll get a test that fits each of us well come Monday :D

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 3:27 pm
by sanjola
jigglebottom wrote:thats bad news man... i just took 62 and thought it was abnormally hard haha... got a prac test per day errday til sunday
The games were harder than usual on 62 and easier than usual on 63. I wonder if they'll balance out on 64. :D

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:15 pm
by jigglebottom
so I took 63 and the RC did seem pretty tough. I went -5 being extremely careful and literally going down to the last second on time.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:20 pm
by Micdiddy
I also didn't do so well on 63, with RC that difficult AND the curve the way it is, both together makes a monster.

I did thing the LG section was absolutely the easiest LG section ever devised. The first game is a literal joke right? It takes like two minutes to complete, including questions.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:23 pm
by Mr.Binks
sanjola wrote:I took PT63 today and got -9 on RC, which is a little worse than I usually do on RC. It was frustrating because I had done so well on the first 2 sections (1LR-2, LG-0) and then a sad -8 on LR2.

Anyway, I didn't necessarily find the questions to be too difficult, but the passages themselves were a little brutal. That, coupled with it being the last section, probably contributed to the unfortunate score.
This is exactly what happened to me. LR1 -1, LG -0, LR2 -6 RC -10... Le sigh...

I wouldn't worry so much about this one, though. It seemed uncharacteristically difficult.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:27 pm
by 03152016
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Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:31 pm
by Mr.Binks
Max324 wrote:I thought the RC was difficult, but I'd hesitate to say abnormally so, considering the difficulty of the RC sections over the past dozen tests or so. I think the Kate Chopin passage is a little overhyped, although it's undoubtedly a challenging passage. 63 overall, though, was an utter nightmare for me. I took it Tuesday, and was so shaken by my score that I called out of work for the entire week to spend more time studying.
It was brutal for me as well. I saw a 10 point drop on that PT from my average from the past 10 tests or so... But I took PT 64 today, and it went rather well, so I'm not too concerned about my score on 63. I think it was a mixture between the pretty tough RC and the tricky (not necessarily harder) LR in section 2. Also, I felt like shit that day, so that may have done it also.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:26 pm
by phillykid
Mr.Binks wrote:
Max324 wrote:I thought the RC was difficult, but I'd hesitate to say abnormally so, considering the difficulty of the RC sections over the past dozen tests or so. I think the Kate Chopin passage is a little overhyped, although it's undoubtedly a challenging passage. 63 overall, though, was an utter nightmare for me. I took it Tuesday, and was so shaken by my score that I called out of work for the entire week to spend more time studying.
It was brutal for me as well. I saw a 10 point drop on that PT from my average from the past 10 tests or so... But I took PT 64 today, and it went rather well, so I'm not too concerned about my score on 63. I think it was a mixture between the pretty tough RC and the tricky (not necessarily harder) LR in section 2. Also, I felt like shit that day, so that may have done it also.
Correct me on this if you think I'm wrong... but I think the "easiest" tests are ones that have a tough LG because that generally makes for a generous scale. LG on PT63 was so easy it was borderline ridiculous (I think I had 9 min left over and -0'ed it). From my experience it seems like the scale is most affected by how easy/difficult LG is.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:31 pm
by jigglebottom
hey quick question that is only marginally related to test 63. Does anyone besides me find the LR from later PTs, like 54 onward to be a lot more manageable than earlier LR?

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:48 pm
by rglifberg
jigglebottom wrote:hey quick question that is only marginally related to test 63. Does anyone besides me find the LR from later PTs, like 54 onward to be a lot more manageable than earlier LR?
Absolutely. I find the LR & LG from 54 onward to be much, much easier.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:39 pm
by Taus11
Just took 63.

RC was fucking hard. Like u mentioned it doesn't help that it was the last section I took. LG was such a joke - the first two games threw me off because I thought I had missed something based on how easy it was. I hope they are more balanced next Monday, I do NOT want a hard RC section like this lol

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:53 pm
by jigglebottom
rglifberg wrote:
jigglebottom wrote:hey quick question that is only marginally related to test 63. Does anyone besides me find the LR from later PTs, like 54 onward to be a lot more manageable than earlier LR?
Absolutely. I find the LR & LG from 54 onward to be much, much easier.
good to hear.. the consensus seems to be that early stuff is easier.. couldn't disagree more..RC is more difficult however.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:13 pm
by phillykid
jigglebottom wrote:hey quick question that is only marginally related to test 63. Does anyone besides me find the LR from later PTs, like 54 onward to be a lot more manageable than earlier LR?
+1

LR has gotten much easier (probably due to fewer question types). LG is and it isn't. The game types are much narrower but I did very well with the "weird" older games. But RC is much harder IMO. Some might credit this to the comparative reading but I do best on those so idk. And I don't think the passages are that much harder either. I think the difficulty is in the questions now. Newer RC questions are more detail oriented instead of "What does ______ mean in line 23?" or "What's the authors tone towards theory X?"

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:47 pm
by masticore99
I got crushed on PT 62 today. My 61, 63, and 64 were 170 scaled, and PT 62 was 163. I think I zoned out on the LR sections and I bombed the LG section. Very very depressing considering this coming Monday.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:58 pm
by dkb17xzx
masticore99 wrote:I got crushed on PT 62 today. My 61, 63, and 64 were 170 scaled, and PT 62 was 163. I think I zoned out on the LR sections and I bombed the LG section. Very very depressing considering this coming Monday.

you probably need to take a break from studying. take 12-24 hours off...it can only help.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:04 pm
by masticore99
dkb17xzx wrote:
masticore99 wrote:I got crushed on PT 62 today. My 61, 63, and 64 were 170 scaled, and PT 62 was 163. I think I zoned out on the LR sections and I bombed the LG section. Very very depressing considering this coming Monday.

you probably need to take a break from studying. take 12-24 hours off...it can only help.
Yeah, I'm gonna just take Sunday off.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:29 pm
by Mr.Binks
jigglebottom wrote:
rglifberg wrote:
jigglebottom wrote:hey quick question that is only marginally related to test 63. Does anyone besides me find the LR from later PTs, like 54 onward to be a lot more manageable than earlier LR?
Absolutely. I find the LR & LG from 54 onward to be much, much easier.
good to hear.. the consensus seems to be that early stuff is easier.. couldn't disagree more..RC is more difficult however.
I don't think they're so much easier as written much more clearly. I think LG got significantly easier, though. It seems that the games now require less major deductions and more brute force approach, which, given the right diagrams and whatnot, should be pretty easy.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:39 pm
by rglifberg
Mr.Binks wrote:
jigglebottom wrote:
rglifberg wrote:
jigglebottom wrote:hey quick question that is only marginally related to test 63. Does anyone besides me find the LR from later PTs, like 54 onward to be a lot more manageable than earlier LR?
Absolutely. I find the LR & LG from 54 onward to be much, much easier.
good to hear.. the consensus seems to be that early stuff is easier.. couldn't disagree more..RC is more difficult however.
I don't think they're so much easier as written much more clearly. I think LG got significantly easier, though. It seems that the games now require less major deductions and more brute force approach, which, given the right diagrams and whatnot, should be pretty easy.

Completely agree. LR is definitely written much more clearly now. LG definitely got way easier, especially for me because I would always miss the key deductions in the old games.

Re: PT 63 RC abnormally difficult?

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 3:20 am
by SaintsTheMetal
Curve on this game was brutal. RC wasn't so bad until the last passage for me. Got to the 4th passage with 12 minutes left, and still missed 3 :evil: only 1 wrong on the rest of the RC, and the ocean floor spreading was a breeze

Curve was BRUTAL though, missed 2 more questions than PT62, and my score dropped 2 points from 173 to 171

Praying for hard games on the real test..