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Low Practice Test Scores

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:34 pm
by bunji18
Hi Everyone,

Back at the start of the summer I took the '96 test, and got a 600. Then I started studying/tutoring. I feel like over the course of the summer, I have learned a lot. I created an extensive set of flashcards that were very hard at first, but I've gotten much better, and I worked through a bunch of problems from the practice test that I took, and from '91 test.

Today I took the '85 test, and thought I did much better, but when I tallied up the scores, I got a 560! that's the 30th percentile. I got 31 correct, and 15 wrong. Does anyone have any specific strategies to help me capitalize on my knowledge in these last 20 days before the test? Let me know, because now I'm kind of freaking out. Thanks!

Re: Low Practice Test Scores

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 2:58 am
by kangaroo
You're probably guilty of answering every question too thoroughly. This is a timed test, and you don't even have 2 minutes per question. To get a decent score you must at least answer 80 questions out of the 100. Remember, there is a one minute solution to every question, if you're taking too long or solving too many equations, you're not doing it right.

Always:

1) Use dimensional analysis to eliminate options (you'll be surprised how many questions can give you the correct answer just from this)
2) Solve no more than 2 equations to get a numerical answer. If you think you need more, you're either not seeing a simpler solution, or else the question is just really not worth it
3) Conceptual/recall questions must be answered almost instantly. It is almost a crime not to answer ALL of this type of questions in the test.

Re: Low Practice Test Scores

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 11:54 am
by Yourself
Check carefully where you went wrong. Did you make calculation errors, did you use the wrong formula, did you guess incorrectly, did you misread the question? In order to improve, you must know what to pay attention to next time.
Also, I agree with the previous poster that you really need to work much faster. At least half the questions can be answered without any calculation just by looking at special cases or knowing elementary facts.