<p>Appreciate it. Thanks man.</p>
<p>I’ve made this thread not just to log what I’m doing but also because if I do pull it off (just a high score, doesn’t have to be straight 800s), then other people can too. I often see people talk about about how they were able to raise their score from X to Y but rarely do I see threads which “document” the process of going from X to Y. :-)</p>
<p>Before proceeding, I should point that I’ve read some of the very helpful threads made by CC members on this part of the forums. (Xiggi’s, Silverturtle’s, Noitaraperp’s and a few more…) I’ve also been on PWNtheSAT (attempted drill #1 - I need to review some chapters before moving on to drill # 2) and Erica Meltzer’s blog. There’s a few more things I’ve read over the past few months but that’s about all that come to mind at this point.</p>
<hr>
<p>On occasion, I have used the Kaplan book for the reasoning test. I’ve taken one Math test from there and some CR tests as well. After having taken 4 CR tests from the Blue Book, I’ve decided to stop using Kaplan. I’m with good ol’ Xiggi, albeit partially (for I’ve experience only with Kaplan), on this one. The passage-based questions and the respective answer choices are just ambiguous. At best. </p>
<p>Just my opinion. Those tests didn’t help me and I’m not using them any more. </p>
<hr>
<p>As for today’s work. I’ve taken the CR part for tests #4 and #5 on the Blue Book. I hadn’t realised that only the first three tests have direct raw mark → scaled score conversions, so I’m gonna have to live with just having my raw scores. The horror… (#whitepeopleproblems? I’m caramel coloured though…:P)</p>
<h1>4.</h1>
<p>Section 2: 4 wrong, skipped one.
Three of those were sentence completion questions. I couldn’t answer them because I couldn’t figure out what one of the two words (in all three instances) meant. I had narrowed down my choices to two and just went with my gut. In general, I will try to pencil an answer. If my raw scores don’t improve my much by the time test day rolls by, I will probably opt for skipping the question (like I did for one sentence completion here) unless I have a strong nudge towards one. For the real thing, I’d rather play it safe. (that’s what sh–okay, another lame joke…“shoot bullets through me”*) </p>
<p>I also got questions 23 and 24 wrong. </p>
<p>*If anyone’s seen that same PWNtheSAT post I’ve seen, they’ll know what I mean. ;)</p>
<p>Section 5:
One wrong. Sentence completion. Same as before.</p>
<p>Section 8:
One wrong. Passage based. And then there were two…I picked out the correct answer but felt it was too strong word and according to the “define:” feature of Google, I’d say it is. (question 13 - scornful) However, it is “less wrong” (!) than my answer, “nonchalant”. Reading the text, I was left with the impression that the author was taking the issue somewhat lightly and poking fun at the “TV theorists”. “Hmm, that sort of sounds like “nonchalance”…” and I wasn’t way off. What I didn’t know is that “nonchalance” implies a lack of concern and the author was quite clearly concerned with the issue at hand. “Humorous contempt” is what I went for in the last question, which was correct. From that, I should have guessed that the previous answer was wrong! </p>
<p>It would definitely help if I could finish the test at a faster rate. I’m currently using a “timer” (the kind mama uses in the kitchen, haha!) and attempting to finish each section with 3 minutes less than required. It’s pretty hit and miss so far. One some occasions, I’m done a little before but more often than not, I finish right on time.</p>
<p>Raw mark: 58.5/67</p>
<h1>5</h1>
<p>Section 3:
1 wrong. The mention of “Australopithecus basking in the African sun”, as it turns out, “dramatizes how different the Earth was two million years ago”. I, genuinely, didn’t know that. Went for choice C.</p>
<p>Section 7:
3 wrong. All sentence completion.</p>
<p>Question 11. S, you doofus, “subtleties” imply the presence of actual “subtleties”. Next time, don’t go for the answer with a “lakes and mountain ranges” in it! At least, I didn’t go for “battering ram!” Actual answer is “connotations”. “Connotations”…“subtleties”…not so hard now, is it?</p>
<p>Question 16. Bear in mind that the answer IS in the text.</p>
<p>Question 20. I wasn’t sure what to go with for this one. All options pointed toward some kind of “revolution”. That said, it’s obvious that only a single one of those is correct. At the time, I felt that “the equalization of man’s and women’s wages” was the one to go for. The question does refer to an “economic revolution” after all! However…there was no mention of wages. While I haven’t found any mentions of “women’s pursuit of rights previously unavailable to them” - i.e, no explicit references to them actually “pursuing those rights” - I suppose that could have been implied.</p>
<p>Section 9:
At this point, I was pretty happy with myself. Only 4 wrong so far. Last section should be a piece of cake. Only it wasn’t. (did I just sound like “Ted Mosby, architect?”) </p>
<p>Maybe it’s because my dad was talking to me about food. Maybe it’s because I had gotten tired. Maybe I was getting booooored. Maybe the question caught me off guard. Or maybe…yeah, it doesn’t matter. The end result is that I slipped up where I shouldn’t have.</p>
<p>Question 5. Really didn’t know what some of those words meant. Again, I had two possible choices in mind and again, one of those two was indeed the correct one. I picked the wrong one. Answer is C. I chose D. To be fair, this was a really close one!</p>
<p>Questions 12 and 15. I’m pretty disappointed I got those wrong. Especially the latter. I don’t know why I interpreted the way I did then. Somehow, I thought that “with the wind off the lake whipping her blue” had nothing to do with Virginia feeling cold (she didn’t have her sweater with her) and all to do with the lake “herself”. Duh.</p>
<p>Raw mark: 58.25/67</p>
<p>Closing thoughts for CR: I honestly feel that the second test of the day was a huge improvement on the first. After the first section of the former, I had already identified why I had made those mistakes and I made a conscious effort to not repeat them.
As the saying goes: “If you want a different score, do something differently!” My score is in fact, lower by .25 (and by extension, 1 raw mark, if one were to round off), and that is largely because I messed up for different reasons (lack of focus? complacency? I don’t know?) on two relatively easy questions.</p>
<p>That aside, I’m quite satisfied with today’s work.</p>
<hr>
<p>Further work:</p>
<p>There’s a few concepts that need clearing up in math. The “counting” and “what happens to this graph if I change that equation a little?” questions come to mind.</p>
<p>I will do about a half hour’s work and call it a day.</p>