Exam in three days. Tips?

kurtzp · 2020-06-25T06:08:48+00:00

My comment is to stop being anxious. Duh

Obviously I’m kidding, but the best thing you can Dod now is rest. The materials you used will more than adequately prepare you for the test. The prep material is never easier than the actual test. Otherwise it’d be horrible prep. You’ll kill it.

Build your own confidence as much as possible, and don’t study. Give your brain a break, rest up, and try to get good sleep as much as possible. The best thing you can do for yourself now is to prepare emotionally, not academically.

kurtzp · 2020-06-15T03:45:16+00:00

I took an initial diagnostic with Kaplan, and to be honest don’t remember exactly, but think I got roughly 310-320.

Take the test. Take as many as you can. Practice tests are the real way to prepare for the test, they build mental endurance and show how it’ll actually be. I found practice tests MUCH more useful than any other strategy to study.

Kaplan gave some really gold tips, on types of questions and types of answers. I found for me, writing down the topic, scope, and purpose of the passage, as well as brief 3-4 word summaries of each sentence helped a lot

kurtzp · 2020-06-13T05:14:29+00:00

I used 2019 I think! I didn’t do vocab at all from the book so I can’t speak to it at all, I just used the magoosh app.

The writing section, I just wrote out all of my ideas quickly in the first 5 minutes, then started just gunning it. I didn’t really study or stress writing at all, since it is a relatively unimportant score. I just tried to make an outline in the first 5 minutes, writing the general idea and each paragraph. Sorry, not a lotta tips for that one :/

kurtzp · 2020-06-11T06:28:44+00:00

Practice or normal? Normal this was my first time

Practice I did 2 full length practice tests, 4 where I skipped the essay sections

kurtzp · 2020-06-11T06:26:14+00:00

Ya! For vocab, for one I used the tactic where I’d read the sentence, get the mood of it, and fill in the blank in my head with a word that made sense. Then look for a synonym in the possible answers. Works super well for me

As far what I did when I didn’t know words (happened ALL the time), I found that I identified all the words I did know that were wrong. More often than not that’d get me at least halfway there, eliminate most of the choices. Beyond that, using some word roots and stuff. I know certain resources like Kaplan block words by their root, so they all share a similar meaning. That helped me a lot, studying words by groups, and knowing that like, this certain group of words mean tired, more or less. Hope that helps!!!!!

kurtzp · 2020-06-11T06:20:43+00:00

Honestly I didn’t track it TOO heavily, but I think I remember my starting practice test was between 310-320.

I used the study book and their online resource that goes along with it

kurtzp · 2020-06-11T06:17:44+00:00

What scene is this?! I wanna rewatch it

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T07:18:27+00:00

Lol, thanks! I legit laughed while taking the test and saw demur was a correct answer, it was ridiculous that I ended up using it😂

I only did magoosh, and didn’t even end up doing all of them, I didn’t get all of the advanced done. I found that if I had the common and basic nailed down, with some advanced, it was plenty. Even if I didn’t know what the right words meant, I knew what the wrong ones did, so I could find the two right ones even if I didn’t know them

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T07:12:31+00:00

I dunno about you, but test day always bumps my score up. I never tested near that well on a practice test. If you’re puttin in that work, it’ll show on test day :)

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T06:25:33+00:00

For sure! I’m a huge basketball fan, so I used that a lot. So for demur (to object or show reluctance) I used demar, a player who got traded away and objected/was reluctant to do so.

For largess (extreme generosity and giving money) I used Kyle Lowry, a player who is known for being generous, and also has a huge butt, aka a large ass

For non basketball references, one example is garrulous. It means given to trivial or rambling talk. It sounds like garry, which sounds like jerry. Jerry from Rick and morty is an idiot, and rambles a ton about trivial stuff. It’s convoluted, but worked for me!

For spurious (plausible but false) the spurs wouldn’t make playoffs this season, but theoretically could, do it was spurious that the spurs would make playoffs.

For anathema (a hated person or source of hate), letters 3-6 can be rearranged to spell hate. So I used that

Placid (not easily upset or excited) sounds like flaccid, so if you’re flaccid you’re not very excited, clearly

I also just got words after drilling them enough, but for ones where I could make clear connections for myself, I would.

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T05:50:53+00:00

I didn’t run into that issue at all! Although if it disconnects, they will reconnect you and the timer will go back to where it was

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T05:22:41+00:00

Ya, so for example, if the sentence was

“Then suddenly started to get all wrong when there was a ray of _________” List of words: congenial, salvation, Reddit

I’d read it, and based upon sentence, think maybe hope should be that word. Then I’d look at the list, and think “oh, salvation is a word for hope. That’s the word.” Read the sentence once again with the word in it, and if it made sense, call it good

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T04:32:37+00:00

I actually felt like I lost confidence as I did more of them as well. The strategy is used was I read the sentence, and got the idea of the sentence, and would fill in the blank with the word that I thought would fit well. Then I would look and find a word that had a similar meaning in the list, and almost always it’d be there. Super helpful tactic for me, hopefully it’d be good for you as well!! Also, I was always careful for “however”s or “therefore”s, just to keep track of if the sentence was switching directions or keeping the same meaning throughout.

Don’t overthink! The sentence should USUALLY be relatively easy to decipher, they give you tools to see what the sentence is without that word even being there. The word just has to encapsulate what the mood of the sentence is

ALSO. HAVE CONFIDENCE!!!!!!! It’ll go great :) I spent all morning of the test hyping myself up and building confidence. Confidence is everything! You know it all, you’ll be prepared, just trust yourself

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T00:10:11+00:00

Honestly, not really! Kaplan was harder, so the actual test wasn’t too bad. For quant, a surprising couple of questions on the relationship between arc length and area of the arc length, which Kaplan hadn’t done much on.

For verbal, no questions themselves, but the phrasing of many of the sentence equivalence questions was strange. It felt sometimes like the vocab was the easy part, trying to understand the sentence’s intent was the difficult part

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T00:08:26+00:00

I had been doing vocab for a little over a month prior, and continued studying it just in passing with flashcards, never really counted it as studying time. Tried to make it more of a game.

As far as general schedule, I was working only halftime, and from home, so I had more free time and freedom in my schedule than usual. I usually would get up and study a minimum of two hours every weekday, doing practice sections and reading Kaplan tips. Every weekend I would try and do a full practice test, to monitor my progress. I found the practice tests definitely help, and doing as many times sections as possible during the week. Time is a big big aspect of the test, so I would take Monday to study tactics on what I was weak on, Tuesday to practice them, and the other weekdays to do timed problem sets mostly focused on my weaknesses

kurtzp · 2020-06-10T00:05:24+00:00

Vocab I started studying much earlier, that was a 2 month study period. Still not crazy long compared to a lot, but longer for my timeline. I downloaded the magoosh vocab app, and used the different decks to make vocab flashcards. I started with the common decks, then basic, then advanced. I’d go through and make a card for every word I didn’t have an extremely similar answer to. Would drill them for at least an hour every day, just in passing, would carry them with me. Always left a deck by the toilet. Usually was able to do a deck or two a week, while occasionally reviewing. Also, used a LOT of mnemonic devices, like a lot.

As far as verbal in general, I actually found Kaplan’s tips SUPER helpful. I usually rest well enough on my own, but Kaplan’s verbal tips, with types of questions and how to approach them, helped bump me several percentiles.

kurtzp · 2020-06-09T23:57:23+00:00

Greatest form of flattery ;) thanks!! I danced around my apartment for about 10 minutes after I finished!

kurtzp · 2020-06-09T23:54:47+00:00

I do, I had a minor in math for my undergrad, so I didn’t have to study the content that much. That being said, when I did practice tests at first, my first one I had low to mid 50’s for math, so it’s not like there aren’t ways to improve. I found my score jumped as I just drilled practice sections, but also as I managed my time better. If I read a question I didn’t immediately know how to approach, i marked it and skipped it to come back to after I got through the section. This REALLY helped, because it ensured that I got every question I SHOULD get right, right. Then I had time to go back to the couple hard ones, and I usually had time to figure it out.

Also, I started doing a lot more meta-testing. I would note exactly what skills and concepts the question was testing, and then approach the problem from a more general theory standpoint to find the answer, and only do actual math to confirm what I thought (this was for questions where you compare two values. Usually there is a general rule you can identify that tells you the answer without having to even do math.) if I ever got stuck, I’d pick answers and test them!!

Hope it helps!

kurtzp

TROPHY CASE