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Hi guys, so I'm down to my last retake.

I just took the February test and disappointingly scored lower than I anticipated. I was gassed by the time I got to the last section which was the real reading one. So I bombed it. Of course I had done really well on the experimental reading section. My score ended up being only a 1 point improvement (170), despite having done another 20 PTs/sections worth of PTs, consistently scoring higher than that, and scoring a 175 in perfectly simulated conditions at 8:30 in the morning 5 days before the test.

Anyway. Does anyone have ideas of what I can do differently to get over this plateau?
I already have and do drill LGs. I blind review. I simulate test conditions pretty well.

My thoughts are to do more 5 sections PTs instead of 4 section ones, identify what types of LR problems are toughest for me (maybe do the same thing for R and LG problems), and drill reading more since I've basically scored about the same on the past 40 PTs I've taken (Maybe I improved by a point or two, but that can be because some were really old tests and it's easier on those. I always get about 3 wrong, but it's also kind of a crapshoot and I get -2 to -6 wrong.

footballlax55 wrote:Hi guys, so I'm down to my last retake.

I just took the February test and disappointingly scored lower than I anticipated. I was gassed by the time I got to the last section which was the real reading one. So I bombed it. Of course I had done really well on the experimental reading section. My score ended up being only a 1 point improvement (170), despite having done another 20 PTs/sections worth of PTs, consistently scoring higher than that, and scoring a 175 in perfectly simulated conditions at 8:30 in the morning 5 days before the test.

Anyway. Does anyone have ideas of what I can do differently to get over this plateau?
I already have and do drill LGs. I blind review. I simulate test conditions pretty well.

My thoughts are to do more 5 sections PTs instead of 4 section ones, identify what types of LR problems are toughest for me (maybe do the same thing for R and LG problems), and drill reading more since I've basically scored about the same on the past 40 PTs I've taken (Maybe I improved by a point or two, but that can be because some were really old tests and it's easier on those. I always get about 3 wrong, but it's also kind of a crapshoot and I get -2 to -6 wrong.

If you were exhausted by section 5, then you could definitely benefit from working on your endurance. Don't do 4-section PTs at all anymore - make them 5-sections long. Also, make sure you simulate test conditions and have a stretch/snack break after section 3. Try out some different snacks - it might sound trivial, but they can have a big impact on your energy levels. I found that drinking half a can of Red Bull and eating two granola bars gave me a big boost of energy without going overboard. It'll be different for everyone. Experiment.

With LR, narrowing down the question types you struggle with and drilling the hell out of those is your best bet at this stage. With LG, tag any games where you didn't get all the questions right, or took a ton of time to do so. Review those and redo them.

If your RC score is fluctuating, more practice can definitely help. I was in a similar situation, where my RC score went anywhere between -1 and -6 in the weeks before the test. I started doing two RC sections a day, and towards the end of my prep cycle, the passages felt a lot shorter and easier to handle, even at the pace this test demands.

However, doing tons of practice won't do you a ton of good if your approach is flawed. The best approach to RC is to read actively, and try to extract certain key pieces of information from the passage during your first reading.

After you read a passage, you should know the answers to the following questions:
- what is the main point?
- what is the author's attitude on the topic? (if there was one)
- how many major perspectives were there on the issue? who/what are they?
And a bonus one, if you can manage it: how did the passage flow? (e.g. it started off with exposition, introduced two major sides to the issue, gave support for one, then the other)

I don't mean that you should stop and articulate your full answers to each of these questions, but they are the essentials that you should be thinking about as you read and even before you get to any questions. If you practice working on these with every passage you do, you should see much more improvement than by blindly doing practice sections.

Hope that helps some!

I'll definitely keep in mind those pointers about the reading section. The way I tended to do it was read the passage, sometimes rereading the previous paragraph if I didn't really understand it at all, and then after I finished reading it if I didn't understand it I'd quick skim back through it to try to figure out the main point(s) etc.
Do you know if people usually find it better to read it once through and then again? Or only once through and not really reread it unless I'm super unsure about it? I tend to finish reading just about on time, rarely more than maybe 30 seconds early.

As for the being exhausted, I'm definitely going to do longer PTs. I think it will also be a big help to have the test at 12:30 instead of 8:30. I wont have to wake up at 6:30am to drive there. I already had drank a coffee and red bull before my last 2 times I took it, so that probably can't be improved, but maybe waking up later and being less tired will help me think more clearly.