Timed Section Drills vs Timed PTs Forum

mjsjr · Post by **mjsjr** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:31 pm

I achieve higher scores when doing individual timed sections than I do when I complete those corresponding sections in full-length PTs. For example, I've been consistently getting anywhere from 0-1 on most of my timed LR sections. But today when I took a timed PT, I got a -3 and a -4, and I felt like I couldn't focus as well as I normally do during timed drills.

I usually get really nervous before taking timed PTs. It's weird. I guess I would classify myself as someone who gets pretty nervous before important events. Does anyone think the disparity between my timed sections drills and my timed PTs are the result of nervousness? Or is it unlikely that my nerves make me miss 2-3 questions more than I normally would? I mean, I don't experience shaking or panic attacks, but I do start to get really warm when I come across tough questions, and I think I start to stop thinking clearly and rush through stimuli/passages/games. Maybe more PTs will normalize the PT process so that I don't get so nervous? I've used a huge amount of PTs for drilling and other things, and so I've only taken 9 PTs as part of a serious effort to gauge my progress (geesh, now that I'm typing that out, it seems like such a small amount of real PTs taken).

Sorry if this seems like a silly question. I guess I'm also just upset/afraid because October is getting so close and this is my second frightening PT score.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

somethingElse · Post by **somethingElse** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:45 pm

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mjsjr · Post by **mjsjr** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:06 pm

somethingelse55 wrote: (good ol' cause and effect, lol).

Hah, I know. Gotta love it. Anyhow, thanks for the input! I'm going to try to take another PT tomorrow, and I'm going to try to really focus on relaxing before I take the test. Maybe I'll try some breathing exercises. It's so frustrating because when everything goes well I've scored so highly, but then there are other times when I score so low that I get discouraged and start to doubt my abilities. I think I may just need another high score to build my confidence back up because I keep thinking about how I underperformed on previous tests.

I'm starting to see how important staying disciplined mentally is, I think. It's tough to not let doubts affect my performance.

somethingElse · Post by **somethingElse** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:30 pm

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