When doing practice tests

[Odie]

Did you create the "test environment"? What I mean is: taking only the allotted time for break, doing at the same time of day as your test, etc.

 

The thing is that there were some days that I did two tests per day so I could not only take the allotted time as for a break b/c towards the end of the second one I was quite exhausted. Also, there were times when I would do only one per day but it wasn't at my exact test time. Also sometimes I would break say between physics and verbal for longer than 10mins (usu for food although during test date I will only have a quick snack and hunger will not be a problem) but then do the rest in the given time.

 

I have done a test in one sitting and it was fine. I'm just wondering...did people just stick to the schedule?

[Odie]

anyone???????

[Jamer]

LOL@doing 2 tests in one day. I'd kill myself.

 

As long as you're making a reasonable effort it won't change much. If you're taking half an hour breaks, listening to music, etc it probably isn't a great idea, but during the actual test your breaks can be longer than 10 minutes--after the 10 mins expire it gives you a prompt asking if you're ready. Out of curiosity I sat there to see what it would do for over a minute and it didn't go away.

[Sergem]

When I would do my practice tests, I would actually pause during the section and do stuff like go to the washroom, eat, or watch tv. Sometimes I would not come back and finish it some other time. I would sometimes do one in the morning or one in the afternoon depending on the schedule I have. But I guess, I never really forced myself to do an entire test if I wasn't feeling up to it. What's the point in fighting your lazy brain to do stuff if it is already committed to being lazy?!

[goose]

As of late (as test day approaches - Aug 26) I've been trying my best to do the full test with only 10 minute breaks starting at the same time my test will. Helps me prepare myself for what will actually happen - when will I get hungry, how can I keep myself focused etc. I still take shortcuts I won't on test day - like for BS I usually find myself finished with 15-20 mins left and I don't check it over out of sheer laziness.

 

Before recently I'd been pretty relaxed about the schedule - sometimes splitting a test over two days (esp. during the week given full time job) or only jotting down TAS for writing samples.

 

Also, taking two tests in one day: I wouldn't want to be anywhere near you the day after.

[Odie]

hey hey! Thanks for the replies! Feel better now

Yes, two/day was intense. I did that for four days and I didn't think I would pull it off but I was happy that I did.

[StreetballKing]

I've never heard of anyone doing 2 practice tests a day.

I dont think that's useful either.

The point of taking these practice tests is to mark them afterwards and fully absorb the material (that's where the time consumption comes in).

So if you are taking 5 hours to do a full length, you should be spending 10-15 hours reviewing them. At least that's what a lot of the people who got high scores did.

[goose]

This kind of depends on what stage of the game you're at. For some (i.e. in the couple of weeks before the MCAT) writing practice exams helps nail the timing and improve stamina, in which case it might be ok to spend less time reviewing - and by less time I mean 3-4 hours/test.