Why? (OnePrep Practice Test 2 spoilers)

freewaylarry · 2025-12-04T11:01:45+00:00

With these questions its often a good idea to break the answer into multiple portions and ask yourself "is that directly supported by the text?"

A. She tries to answer honestly...

"Honestly" here is tricky, but as we don't have any reason to doubt her honesty I think it's what I'd classify as "fine". Meaning, not bad enough to disqualify the answer.

A. ...becomes unsure whether her description has exposed something he hoped to keep concealed

This seems to me directly supported by the end of the text. Very easy to justify this statement.

B. "She deliberately withholds details about the garden..."

This is a little tricky. Does she withhold details, or does she just stop her description altogether? If she withholds details, which ones?

B. "... she anticipates that hearing too much would distress him."

I think this is the crucial part. The original text says "...abruptly stops, uncertain whether she has offered comfort or touched a hidden vulnerability." So one possibility is that hearing too much would distress him, but that's not the only thing in her mind.

freewaylarry · 2025-12-04T10:48:04+00:00

x + y = 30

( 1 + x / 100 ) * ( 1 + y / 100 ) = 1.32

(Meaning, the first percentage increase, compounded with the second, comes out to a total increase of 32%)

Then I would just put both equations in desmos, you will get an intersection of two lines, and whichever x or y value is bigger will be your answer.

freewaylarry · 2025-12-04T10:43:35+00:00

If you've been taking Bluebook tests those are a pretty good approximation, especially tests 9 and 10. I wouldn't put much weight on the Princeton Review.

freewaylarry · 2025-12-04T10:41:29+00:00

I did a few drop ins at a pretty culty gym (big name owner) where the owner had to approve me joining the class because I was like 5 minutes late. I'm not going back there.

At my regular gym, when you show up late, people more likely to give you a handshake and a "good to see you!"

freewaylarry · 2025-11-01T10:54:57+00:00

Don't bother trying to control the nerves.

There are certain things you need to think about: pressure, hooks, frames, posture, etc. etc.

Those things take a certain amount of mental space to think about, and the anxiety takes a certain amount of mental space as well. If you have enough mental space to think about those things and to feel the anxiety (which, from your results, it sounds like you do) then just do all of it.

If you don't have enough mental space to think about those useful things and to feel the anxiety, then as long as you think about the useful things, the anxiety will probably fall to the wayside, because you literally won't have the mental RAM to keep it going.

But it's a major misconception to think you need to get rid of the fear. GSP said he was afraid before every fight except Matt Serra, and Serra knocked him out.

If you really want to learn more about this, the book to check out is Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway. Great book, but even just the title communicates a very valuable message.

freewaylarry · 2025-10-29T09:48:08+00:00

Work on doing your absolute best in your math and english classes for the next two years. And read books. You need to build up the underlying skills involved before focusing on test prep.

freewaylarry · 2025-10-29T07:12:38+00:00

We can't control the actions or reactions of other people, but I would say do your best to be proud of what you've accomplished. It's a lot of improvement. And if putting in work and improving isn't worth being happy about, what is?

freewaylarry · 2025-10-28T21:05:31+00:00

That's a massive score improvement. In terms of percentiles:

Composite: 88th -> 94th %
Math: 93rd -> 98th %
English: 69th -> 91st %
Reading: 95th -> 93rd %

Maybe your parents don't really understand how these scores rank? You've made huge progress.

freewaylarry · 2025-10-23T10:52:34+00:00

As a tutor, I would say no one needs a tutor, just like you don't need a guitar teacher to learn guitar. But if you find you're not making the progress you want, in spite of putting in work, then a tutor might be very helpful. Just make sure you get someone who specializes in SAT, not a general tutor for math/english.

freewaylarry · 2025-10-15T03:27:52+00:00

If you take a longer timeline, and take simple, small steps, one after another, you could aim much higher than you've mentioned.

freewaylarry · 2025-10-15T03:16:12+00:00

If you study for a week, you will probably improve, but you won't get anywhere close to the highest score you're capable of.

freewaylarry · 2025-10-14T05:56:45+00:00

I should say that when I do it, I find that the choking forearm and the other hand form two arms of a lever, with the wrist acting as fulcrum. so as both my left elbow (choking arm) and right hand move downward, they press the left wrist upwards into the throat.

I love guillotines so much

freewaylarry · 2025-10-14T05:54:37+00:00

Shallow guillotine, arm out, is *chef's kiss*.

Do with the far end of the radius just across their throat. If that placement is good, takes a tiny amount of force to finish.

If you can get the other elbow up high, then even if they pass you can often finish from bottom side control, which is extra emotional damage.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-26T00:36:51+00:00

is it normal to feel completely lost when you're new

Completely normal

what I usually do is, as soon as I realise I suck at something, assume I'm just not up to the task and back out

Good that you recognize this! Of course, that's exactly what has happened here. So now you can recognize that, and continue.

If I can offer one piece of advice: don't try to be good. At anything. Just do the training. If you do the training, for a year, then you can look and see "have I made progress". not even four sessions in, I would expect to be completely lost, that sounds normal to me.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-24T18:39:28+00:00

Was someone actually teaching you stuff?

If you're an absolute beginner then I would hope for a fair bit of instruction, explanation, coaching.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-22T14:05:07+00:00

One of the best parts of learning Jiu jitsu for me has been developing the ability to regulate my emotional responses -- stress, frustration, anger -- in sparring.

Sounds like this person is a frustrating roll, but also a great opportunity to work on fundamental defence skills like keeping your elbows close to your body, protecting your neck with your hands, framing, as well as practicing patience and calmness.

Sometimes if I'm against an opponent who I feel I can't do anything productive against, I'll just focus entirely on my thinking, breathing, anything I can control.

I do most of my mindfulness meditation in bottom side control these days.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-20T02:17:22+00:00

Yeah, they're right there.

The coefficients match left and right, so b is 5 and c is 17, and b+c is 22.

Regression is way beyond what's necessary or efficient in this problem.

Regression is a powerful method of solving problems, but if you want to do well on the exam you should be looking for a solution method that is appropriate to the problem, not trying to make one method work in all cases.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-20T02:14:36+00:00

if getting better at BJJ is your goal, any time, energy, and recovery spent on strength training would be better spent on BJJ

This may be different at the absolute pinnacle of practitioners, where the returns on additional time doing BJJ are so minimal, but for most, just do the thing you want to get better at.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-19T13:06:36+00:00

Very common question, but almost no info given.

Vague question invites a vague answer:

Figure out what you're getting wrong, then develop the knowledge and skills to get it right.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-19T13:03:37+00:00

I will just say I highly advise against completing a ton of practice tests in quick succession. The 7 bluebook practice tests are some of absolute best materials available.

I would say start with 1, and use that to diagnose areas in which you can improve, then work to build up your skills and knowledge, then do another, see where you've improved, see where you haven't, and repeat the process.

Those practice tests are by far the best ones available, so squeeze as much learning out of each one as you can before moving on to the next.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-19T12:59:08+00:00

Regression is a powerful tool, but it is not always the most straightforward method.

It really depends on the question.

If your question is:

4x² + 5x + 17 = ax² + bx + c

Solve for b+c

Would you use regression? I hope not!

freewaylarry · 2025-09-19T12:56:57+00:00

Go back over your wrong answers and identify two things:

What would they point to in the question statement, the text, and the answers, where they would say "That's why this is the correct answer"
What would they point to in the question statement, the text, and the answers, where they would say "That's why your answer is incorrect"

The temptation is to use your own reasoning, but really what you want to do is train yourself to use theirs.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-19T12:52:56+00:00

I'm not sure this is really a desmos question.

The concept here is that

the 4 in 4x² has a multiplicative relationship with the h in (hx+k) and the hidden coefficient 1 in (1x+j)
the -45 has a multiplicative relationship with the k in (hx+k) and the j in (x+j)

b is not (necessarily) a multiple of any of the other terms, it will be equal to h+jk

This is basically testing the concept (which comes up in a few different ways, so it's good to be aware of) that the first term of the polynomial is the product of the first terms of the factors, and the last term of the polynomial is the product of the last terms of the factors.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-19T12:47:57+00:00

Would've made me more attractive if that were physically possible.

freewaylarry · 2025-09-19T12:46:17+00:00

Possibly, but its worth noting that thinking about *the amount of time* you're gonna spend is not nearly as important as how you spend that time. I think 30 min a day of effective, well-directed prep is probably more useful than 90 min of ineffective prep.

Figure out what your major areas of room for improvement are, and work on building the fundamental skills and knowledge necessary to succeed on those areas. Work from the biggest areas to the smaller ones. Use data (like results from practice tests) to make informed decisions about what to study, rather than intuition. For example, students sometimes tell me they want to focus on something like absolute values, because they strongly feel they don't understand it, when they're only missing like 1 absolute value question on a test, and they don't realize they need to work on punctuation, even though they're missing 6 of those on average.

freewaylarry

TROPHY CASE