SLOW test taker

Thanks so much for your responses- I have never used this site before but a friend of mine who did very well on the exam suggested I use it.

I guess the best thing would be to take an exam and actually finish it! Right now I suppose I am getting a very innacurate score because I have been leaving many blank - I think I am treating them more like HW problems than an actual test just to get the feel of the online questions - which is a poor use of the limited practice exams available!

I have the same issue. You have to learn to get over this to do well on this test. In theory, the majority of your test will "seem" hard (it's an adaptive test) and will test your limits--remember it's trying to find your score.

Here is what has helped me:

1. Time yourself during your practice - this will help you internalize how much time you have to complete a problem. I've found with enough practice the amount of time you have becomes almost instinctual. As you practice, if you find you can't answer the question in the alloted time you either need to continue practing the fundamentals or find a different approach to solving the problem.

2. For myself, I have determined that in order to answer the question right in the alloted time, I should be able to figure out how to set up the problem in no more than one minute. If I have no idea how to set up a problem in a minute...

3. I quickly write down A,B,C,D,E on my scratch paper. Then I look at the answer choices and cross off any ones I know are wrong. Princeton Reivew gives some great strategies on how to go about this. There is a bit of psychology behind how the test makers structure the questions. This way when you guess you are increasing your chances of guessing the right answer.

the hardest thing is to drop a question and move on but that actually increases your score rather than not finishing your test on time. if you guessed a question and it is wrong but if you get the next couple of them right then you are back in the game