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Wondering whens good to start pts?

Depends on how much you've already learned about each section and it's question types.

I need to get better at lgs

How's your timing on LR and RC? IMO, if you're doing well and routinely finishing with time to spare, there's less urgency to start doing full, timed PTs.

This is how your studying should go:

1) Take PT to gauge performance
2) Read PS bibles
3) Drill, baby, drill! First do untimed drills, focusing on accuracy
4) Now do timed drills, focusing on maintaining accuracy under time pressure
5) Once you are like 95%+ accuracy in all sections, start doing PTs.
6) Once you are averaging 4-5 points ahead of your goal score (unless your goal score is 175+ I guess), lower the amount of time you get per section (do 30 min sections instead of 35) and stop giving yourself breaks
7) Once you are averaging around your goal score with 30 min sections and no breaks, you can lower it to 25 minutes, or you can just be done.

The priority is to ALWAYS focus on building a strong foundation and high accuracy over doing timed stuff. Otherwise you're wasting material.

crumpetsandtea wrote:This is how your studying should go:

1) Take PT to gauge performance
2) Read PS bibles
3) Drill, baby, drill! First do untimed drills, focusing on accuracy
4) Now do timed drills, focusing on maintaining accuracy under time pressure
5) Once you are like 95%+ accuracy in all sections, start doing PTs.
6) Once you are averaging 4-5 points ahead of your goal score (unless your goal score is 175+ I guess), lower the amount of time you get per section (do 30 min sections instead of 35) and stop giving yourself breaks
7) Once you are averaging around your goal score with 30 min sections and no breaks, you can lower it to 25 minutes, or you can just be done.

The priority is to ALWAYS focus on building a strong foundation and high accuracy over doing timed stuff. Otherwise you're wasting material.

I have not taken a PT aside from my starting one back in the beginning - do you mean I should take a pt every so often to gauge my skill or are you reffering to the first PT (diagnostic?).

I may spend more time drilling then

crumpetsandtea wrote:This is how your studying should go:

1) Take PT to gauge performance
2) Read PS bibles
3) Drill, baby, drill! First do untimed drills, focusing on accuracy
4) Now do timed drills, focusing on maintaining accuracy under time pressure
5) Once you are like 95%+ accuracy in all sections, start doing PTs.
6) Once you are averaging 4-5 points ahead of your goal score (unless your goal score is 175+ I guess), lower the amount of time you get per section (do 30 min sections instead of 35) and stop giving yourself breaks
7) Once you are averaging around your goal score with 30 min sections and no breaks, you can lower it to 25 minutes, or you can just be done.

The priority is to ALWAYS focus on building a strong foundation and high accuracy over doing timed stuff. Otherwise you're wasting material.

I don't know if you meant the same thing as what I'm about to say, but anyways..

i think you ought to time yourself even if you are drilling. You need not stop at a given time frame, but I think it helps to know how fast you are going. (For LGs, for example, I benefited a lot from counting time. It's one thing to get the question right, and it's another thing to realize that some of the methods you are using are just too slow. Counting time can help you push yourself and give you good motivation to want to go back to what you drilled and think about how you could have done that same question in a shorter amount of time.)

While I do think it's important to focus on accuracy, it's also important to remember that the the execution of an efficient and proper method will bring you both accuracy and speed. I'm saying this in light of a guy I met yesterday who came to me and told me a certain game was so easy. He said he got 6/6. I said "great!" and how long did it take you?

"17 minutes!"

He took the "focus on accuracy" part of the advice a little too far. It's obviously implied that you need to focus on the method that will bring you both accuracy and speed.

It's just not smart to focus on trying to finish quickly and getting things wrong (since there's probably little learning happening).

I would re-phrase the accuracy part and instead say that you need to focus on your method. If you are getting better with your thought-process, you will see improvements in your accuracy and naturally, you'll see improvements in your speed as well.


Lastly, I think there's no point of doing PT's unless you're capable of learning from doing a 100 question test (macro-level learning). Or perhaps you can benefit to test your mental stamina, or you might be trying to weed out your weaknesses.

Otherwise, I think you're better off learning one thing at a time and mastering it. Drill Drill and most importantly, actively learn in between the drills.

kiyoku wrote:I don't know if you meant the same thing as what I'm about to say, but anyways..

Lastly, I think there's no point of doing PT's unless you're capable of learning from doing a 100 question test (macro-level learning). Or perhaps you can benefit to test your mental stamina, or you might be trying to weed out your weaknesses.

We are saying the exact same thing.

Except for the 'lastly' paragraph, not doing PTs is a bad idea and you should definitely do them, just not until you already have a solid foundation and understanding of the concepts of each section. PTs help you with stamina, yes, and also with timing on the day of the test because your nerves will make you work slower. It also helps you get used to seeing a variety of different sections back to back. There are a LOT of benefits to PTing, you just don't want to do it too soon.

flash21 wrote:I have not taken a PT aside from my starting one back in the beginning - do you mean I should take a pt every so often to gauge my skill or are you reffering to the first PT (diagnostic?).

I may spend more time drilling then

No, I mean you should take the diagnostic and then not PT until you're getting uber-high accuracy with timed drills. Otherwise you are wasting PTs.

thanks crumpets

crumpetsandtea wrote:This is how your studying should go:

1) Take PT to gauge performance
2) Read PS bibles
3) Drill, baby, drill! First do untimed drills, focusing on accuracy
4) Now do timed drills, focusing on maintaining accuracy under time pressure
5) Once you are like 95%+ accuracy in all sections, start doing PTs.
6) Once you are averaging 4-5 points ahead of your goal score (unless your goal score is 175+ I guess), lower the amount of time you get per section (do 30 min sections instead of 35) and stop giving yourself breaks
7) Once you are averaging around your goal score with 30 min sections and no breaks, you can lower it to 25 minutes, or you can just be done.

The priority is to ALWAYS focus on building a strong foundation and high accuracy over doing timed stuff. Otherwise you're wasting material.

Tagged - i love the simplicity, yet thoroughness, this single posts presents.