Just took my first ever practice test! Input needed!

[Pajamasam9090]

Hello SDN!

I've been studying for about a month now, roughly 5 hours a day (which is getting bumped to 8 - 10 hours for the last push). I took my first top score since it's roughly 2 weeks before my exam date (July 31st) and here are the results...

AA 19
TS 19
Bio 17
Chm 19
Org 19
PAT 19
QR 18
RC 22

Kinda disappointing bio score, but I have a feeling I made a lot of dumb mistakes (going to go through entire test today).

I'm wondering what I can do to have more success in the QR section... I felt like that score was kind of lucky since I had to guess on about 10 problems due to time a time issue.

I've been using mostly destroy and kaplan's BB. I just picked up Cliff's and have been flipping through that. CDP really prepared me for the PAT I felt.

Any input would be great!

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[Mohrisbetr]

Keep taking more and more practice tests. If time was a factor on QR, try to take enough practice tests that it becomes less of a factor. Honestly, guessing on 10 questions in QR is not acceptable. You could easily end up with like a 15.

If you're running out of time, you're either taking too long to do calculations/setting up equations or you're spending too long on difficult questions. Having ran out of time on the QR section on the day I took the DAT, I recommend getting used to using the mark feature on QR questions you recognize to be time-consuming. Looking back, I wish I had marked a challenging question or two and maybe had time to go back to them than running out of time and being forced to guess on the last 5 questions. Being forced to guess on questions is a terrible feeling. Work to become quicker so you don't have to experience it.

Also - work on getting that Bio up. Perhaps you need to go through some more material or revise what you havn't soaked up yet. Your Gchem and maybe even your orgo should go up a bit with more practice - as will your PAT, hopefully.

Not a bad score for your first practice test, though. Good Luck.

 

[krazchikin]

Agreed...you need a lot more practice and work on some areas....these arent too bad for your initial practice...look through the test to see what kinds of problems you're getting wrong...see if there are particular subjects that are recurring....as for QR, go to the detailed reports and look at how much time you spent on each question (try to do this before you look at the solutions, b/c once you open the test again to look up answers, the time adds on to when you first took it).....if you can find questions that are taking you longer, you can either choose to learn how to solve those types of questions more quickly, or just make a quick guess and mark the question.....cuz let's say you spend a combined 6 minutes on two particularly time consuming questions and end up missing 3-4 questions at the end b/c you ran out of time....let's say you got one right and the other wrong....you would have had a much better chance with those last few questions....just my two cents though....

 

[lazybummy]

I think u're on the right track.. but i have to warn u about your PAT... the PAT on the real exam is much harder than Topscore's.. a 19 on Topscore might be a 17 or 18 on the real one .