Restarting studying after months off

[legallynotblondee 4]

Hi everyone! 
due to some unforeseen changes, I will be tackling this lovely test again. I wrote it in November and got a 162, and haven’t studied since. 
Just wondering if anyone has any advice for starting up my studying after such a long break. Does the test come back to you pretty quickly?

If anyone has any suggestions or tips on how to maximize my time, I would really appreciate it! I’m honestly not sure where to even begin, but I’m hoping to get to a 167+ by July ish  

[goodisgood 57]

I took a 5 year break from the test and forgot everything other than a tiny tiny bit about the way logic chains worked. It's actually a blessing in some ways -- you'll have forgotten some of the material so you have more to work with in practice sets and the like. 

Funny enough, I got back into studying for this test in Feb 2020 and wrote in July 2020. I think the most important thing for my success was to create a plan of attack and really stick to it. I knew I was weak in LG, and after doing some practice LR sets I knew I had some types of question types I was weak against and focus fired on those. I kept a detailed journal to track what I was getting wrong and why I was getting wrong, and also utilized analytics on 7sage to really nail in what I had to work on. I did LG almost every day and watched some of those explanation videos on 7sage probably 5+ times. 

Every week I'd sit down and evaluate what went right and what went wrong, and make notes about specific things that seemed to always trip me up, take too much time, etc. I was very honest about anything I wasn't 100% certain on and that really helped me build up fundamentals to tackle the test intelligently. 

February was devoted to just section/question type practice and reading RC passages from early PTs/articles from The Economist/Scientific American/etc., occasionally slotting in RC sessions and peering over the lessons where I needed the most work. I started doing 1 PT a week around the middle of March, taking a lot of care to again review very deeply. The review always took longer than the tests themselves, sometimes double the time. From the middle of April onward, I was doing 2 PTs a week with review. I did LG sections or games in some capacity 6x a week because I internalized the idea that it was the most learnable section, and it really paid off for me in my July 2020 take. I don't know if your LG was as bad as mine but I would sometimes do 3 sections of LG (12 games) in a row (mixing sets I'd done before, but not perfectly, and new sets to conserve prep materials).

TL;DR: Figure out your weaknesses, focus fire on them, and remember to heavily review and be honest with your faults. A long break can be a good thing.

and FYI, I got a 161 back in 2015, did a diagnostic in the beginning of 2020 and got a 159... ended up with a 168 in July and was getting 170+ in PTs by June. 

Edited Monday at 11:24 PM by goodisgood
i am not properly remembering my timelines lol

[legallynotblondee 4]

On 2/22/2021 at 4:17 PM, goodisgood said:

I took a 5 year break from the test and forgot everything other than a tiny tiny bit about the way logic chains worked. It's actually a blessing in some ways -- you'll have forgotten some of the material so you have more to work with in practice sets and the like. 

Funny enough, I got back into studying for this test in Feb 2020 and wrote in July 2020. I think the most important thing for my success was to create a plan of attack and really stick to it. I knew I was weak in LG, and after doing some practice LR sets I knew I had some types of question types I was weak against and focus fired on those. I kept a detailed journal to track what I was getting wrong and why I was getting wrong, and also utilized analytics on 7sage to really nail in what I had to work on. I did LG almost every day and watched some of those explanation videos on 7sage probably 5+ times. 

Every week I'd sit down and evaluate what went right and what went wrong, and make notes about specific things that seemed to always trip me up, take too much time, etc. I was very honest about anything I wasn't 100% certain on and that really helped me build up fundamentals to tackle the test intelligently. 

February was devoted to just section/question type practice and reading RC passages from early PTs/articles from The Economist/Scientific American/etc., occasionally slotting in RC sessions and peering over the lessons where I needed the most work. I started doing 1 PT a week around the middle of March, taking a lot of care to again review very deeply. The review always took longer than the tests themselves, sometimes double the time. From the middle of April onward, I was doing 2 PTs a week with review. I did LG sections or games in some capacity 6x a week because I internalized the idea that it was the most learnable section, and it really paid off for me in my July 2020 take. I don't know if your LG was as bad as mine but I would sometimes do 3 sections of LG (12 games) in a row (mixing sets I'd done before, but not perfectly, and new sets to conserve prep materials).

TL;DR: Figure out your weaknesses, focus fire on them, and remember to heavily review and be honest with your faults. A long break can be a good thing.

and FYI, I got a 161 back in 2015, did a diagnostic in the beginning of 2020 and got a 159... ended up with a 168 in July and was getting 170+ in PTs by June. 

Thank you so much for all your help & detailed journey. I’m ready to get back in the metaphorical saddle !

[AtALaws 2]

I found the best way way for me to study after a few months off was to just hammer out a ton of non-timed practice tests for a week without watching any videos or study guides. Forcing myself to figure out the problems with no aids brought the info and strategy back in a super helpful way for me. After that I turned to videos and my books in order to figure out the info that I really couldn't do myself and then do timed tests. Bear in mind I only had two weeks to pull it together so you could extend this timeline quite a bit if you have the time!