December 2000

The first time I took this test was about a year ago, when I was taking Powerscore. I was about three or four weeks into the course and i hit a 160 on this test.

I was supposed to take the test before a study session last week, but I did not. I went over about 10-15 Logical Reasoning questions, so I knew that my score would be inflated.

Today, for the second time ever, I got a 179.

LR 48/50
LG 22/23
RC 27/28

The feeling you get when you score in the upper 170s is very different than the feeling you get when you score in the low 170s. When you hit the upper 170s, you know that you probably got some questions wrong, but there are only a handful of questions you could possibly get wrong. Among the handful, you probably got some right. It's a very confident feeling. It's a feeling I did not get after the February test.

Lessons Learned

1. Maintaining a high level of concentration is crucial. I don't know if it was the cup of coffee I had before the test, or some sort of newfound ability to focus. My mind was like a laserbeam most of the first two or three sections (I admittedly let up in the fourth). I was hitting all cylinders during Reading Comp, and that allowed me to blast through a 28 RC section in 30 minutes. With one question wrong. Not too shabby, I'd say.

2. Choosing the most measured response. This is an RC tactic, but I used it for a handful of LR questions. For some questions, it is real tough to tell the difference between two answer choices, but the one that is more reserved and measured tends to be the more correct one.

3. Full Speed Ahead for the first round. This pertains to the LR sections. Question bothering you? Skip it. Come back to it later. It's huge on time saving.

Post Game Analysis

30 minute sections is very challenging for Logic Games and Reading Comp. It's really not too hard for me to take care of Logical Reasoning in under 30 min. I was especially proud of my output in the LG/RC sections because they are historically my weakest sections.

The new reading comp strategy really helped. I'm going to have to refine the strategy, but before hitting the questions, it REALLY helps to nail the main idea by reading the first and last sentence of each paragraph. By investing that small amount of time earlier on, more time can be saved later.

It is CRUCIAL to make sure you hit the correct order when approaching games. Knock out the easiest ones and save the hardest for last. This was executed well today.

Improvements

I wanted to go through six sections today, but made it through five. My fifth section, a single LR section from 6/2000, was just insane. My mind had lost much of it's ability to concentrate and instead of focusing on questions, I would think about other things. One possible solution is to work my way up to knocking out seven or eight sections in one sitting so that five will be just cake when I actually take the test.

I am also considering taking LR sections in 25 minutes. The reason why I need to drop the time when testing is because I need to perfect my risk analysis ability. There's no way I can be close to 100% sure I have the right answer when I am pressed for time on the real thing. However, since many questions I am doing now I have seen before, I can possibly come close to being 100% sure. This takes away from my risk analysis, because I need to finish a section without being 100% sure on many questions. Plus, having that uncertainty plays into the psychology of the test. How will I face that situation? Will I dwell on mistakes I've made? I might need to drop 5 more min off the LR sections.