610 42Q/32V! I'm done and heading to Grad School!

[mikeyg29]

It's over!! After a dismal 490 back in December, I put the nose to the grindstone and scored a 610 a few hours ago!!!


The OG was the key..The time in between the first and second tests was spent primarily on the verbal (I did EVERY sentence correction question in the OG and some of the reading and CR) This past week I took the following practice tests (also helpful):


PP1: 630
PP2: 710!!!!!!!

All I can say about today's experience was that I felt much more confident and MUCH more relaxed. That in itself probably netted a few pts...

Do the OG!

Pace yourself, and practice your pacing (I finished each section with 2 min to go).

Eat something before the test (This was my downfall today...I didn't have any breakfast, and towards the end of the Q, I was hearing my stomach do funky things).

It's over, though! It would've been nice to be a part of the 700Club, but I'll take the 610 and run with it!

Grad School, here I come!


Michael Gibbs
mtgibbs@uark.edu

[thaiva]

Hey congradts to you a great improvement and best of luck with Grad school,

Tim

[sambonini]

Michael,
Just a question for you regarding your practice. When you say "practice your pacing", how did you practice this? Could you give more concrete examples so I might try doing the same thing. I do notice that when I practice with questions from the OG, I am perfect in terms of pacing if I do one question or multiple. When doing the actual CAT test, I catch myself missing my time restriction.
If you can give me some pointers on what you may have done, I would appreciate it. Or if anyone else has any suggestions, please post.

Thanks in advance

[mikeyg29]

Very good point, sambonini. As far as "practicing my pacing", I tried to get my hands on as many practice tests as possible (800score.com, PP, Princeton Review) and tried my best to get into the habit of setting a time limit for a block of questions (usually 6 or 7), and learning when to make and educated "guess" at questions. This is the big thing that sunk me on the first go around. I got to a function question (that I had no idea how to do), and instead of guessing and moving on, I sat there for TEN MINUTES trying to figure it out. I got stubborn, but in the end, it shot my pacing completely.

That's kinda what I meant by practicing your pacing.

[sambonini]

Great. That helps me to focus on how to pace my self. I'll try to the same. Thanks for the advice. Good luck with your applications.