Making Customized Full Lengths

[amonty144]

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Hello friends.

Hope everyone is doing wonderful.
Many here have suggested making full lengths. For example, combining passages from different chapters of TBR to make a full PS section and doing practice that way.

Anyone tried that? I haven't yet, but it seems that it has its pros and cons. It will surely test one's stamina and endurance, but sometimes the quality of practice might go down because when you do a couple passages, you can post-game nicely and really figure out what went wrong.

Thoughts?

 

[brood910]

Hello friends.

Hope everyone is doing wonderful.
Many here have suggested making full lengths. For example, combining passages from different chapters of TBR to make a full PS section and doing practice that way.

Anyone tried that? I haven't yet, but it seems that it has its pros and cons. It will surely test one's stamina and endurance, but sometimes the quality of practice might go down because when you do a couple passages, you can post-game nicely and really figure out what went wrong.

Thoughts?

You should note that TBR questions take much longer than AAMC ones do.
I take 1 passage from every single chapter (total of 10), but I dont really time them as I feel it is useless to do so.
You use secondary resources mainly to learn, not to stimulate the real thing.

You time yourself strictly when you use official practice exams (either AAMC/TBR), but when you are doing problems from books, dont bother.

It's a consensus here that you must time all of your passages, but I am against it for questions from books.

When I followed SN2ed's advice to finish each TBR passage in 6-7 min, I barely learned anything. But after I changed my plan and spent 8 ~ 10 min on each passage, I saw a significant increase in my score. AFTER that, I began to time myself strictly as I already knew all the basic stuff.

Note: Im scoring very high on AAMC materials.

 

[amonty144]

Do you do all of your practice that way? Verbal, bio everything? I do usually a couple passages here and there (not done content yet). How many AAMC's have you taken if you don't mind me asking? And what materials are you using for each section?

It does make sense to do it your way, I have found that the TBR passages do take long, especially the ones where they recommend not timing yourself (Physics books have those review materials passages before actual pssages).

p.s. Yes, I have noticed that sometimes questions can be answered correctly if given more time. I understand your point.

 

[brood910]

Do you do all of your practice that way? Verbal, bio everything? I do usually a couple passages here and there (not done content yet). How many AAMC's have you taken if you don't mind me asking? And what materials are you using for each section?

It does make sense to do it your way, I have found that the TBR passages do take long, especially the ones where they recommend not timing yourself (Physics books have those review materials passages before actual pssages).

p.s. Yes, I have noticed that sometimes questions can be answered correctly if given more time. I understand your point.

Sorry for the confusion, but I was mainly talking about PS passages.

For BIO and VERBAL, I think you must time yourself for everything as it's more about applying what's given in the passage rather than applying what you know, unlike PS..


I used TPRH for BS, and TBR for PS.

I've taken 3 AAMC and 3 TBR FLs so far.

If you are not done with content review, then dont time yourself for PS. BUT you must make sure you LEARN from the passages + questions.

 

[amonty144]

Sorry for the confusion, but I was mainly talking about PS passages.

For BIO and VERBAL, I think you must time yourself for everything as it's more about applying what's given in the passage rather than applying what you know, unlike PS..


I used TPRH for BS, and TBR for PS.

I've taken 3 AAMC and 3 TBR FLs so far.

If you are not done with content review, then dont time yourself for PS. BUT you must make sure you LEARN from the passages + questions.

Nice. It's good to know that. So PS passages don't contain as much questions regarding things presented in the passage? I always thought ALL the sections relied heavily on things presented in the passage. You are not taking any Kaplan practice material? Are TBR full lengths good?

 

[brood910]

Nice. It's good to know that. So PS passages don't contain as much questions regarding things presented in the passage? I always thought ALL the sections relied heavily on things presented in the passage. You are not taking any Kaplan practice material? Are TBR full lengths good?

They actually do. TBR has a lot of experimental passages, and I heard the real thing does too.
So, you will learn how to apply what's given in the passage too. But it's kinda different from how BS section presents stuff.
You will see what I mean if you continue doing more passages.

It's beneficial to not time yourself for these kind of passages in the beginning, because you will develop your own way of thinking critically, and this skill will help you significantly later on. At least, it did for me. 19 => 38.