<p>In other words, is there an advantage in taking the majority of the practice tests closer to the test date (within 2 weeks or so)? Or is the actual process of taking them and getting experience more significant, regardless of when they are taken?</p>
<p>Imo, if you’re on a tight schedule (and studying/going over what you get wrong), one a week until the test is sufficient. If you have more time, I’d do one every other week or even one every month. If you’re not improving, you should stop taking them and instead focus on going over techniques/strategies/what have you.</p>
<p>It’s definitely more about the experience. Take as many as you can until you’re consistently getting the score you want. If it’s not improving much, try reexamining your test strategies and trying to figure out what you’re doing wrong and how you need to change. E.g., on the Reading section (the toughest for me, but ironically my highest scoring one), I couldn’t get above a 680ish on practice tests, but going through a Critical Reading book and looking at its strategies helped me a lot - in particular, the one about how the answer is /always/ in the passage. That tip, and maturing over the course of around a year, got me a 780 recently.</p>
<p>Taking practice tests just helps you get used to the test and understand the strategies that work best for you. They help the most if you go back and look at the ones you got wrong, realize why you got them wrong, then do more practice questions and use those new strategies.</p>