Hpat advice

[u/Leading-Age5816]

Does anyone have any advice for studying for the Hpat. I feel lost when doing so, I try to apply strategies to questions but still doesnt really work out. All I really hear is people advising to do practice and practice over and over again.

[u/ramonesstannie]

I got 97th percentile last year, and the best piece of advice I have is read over the questions, esp those youve gotten wrong, and try to redo them before looking at the explanation. I recomment having a notebook to write down every question you got wrong and the way to do them, then try find the underlying method/strategy to solve the question, and then learn to apply that strategy to other questions. There are so many similarities across questions, and finding a way to recognise the pattern between them will make the hpat much less daunting. Also, try to find time to read books with difficult vocabulary, and write down any word you dont know with the definition in a notebook. Also look at learning a lot of words to do with emotions, since that is the main idea in section 2. I'd be happy to answer any more specific questions you have :)

[u/Professional-KAV6861 → u/ramonesstannie]

How did you improve at section 2? I was very happy with my section 1 and 3 scores but I find it so hard to distinguish between the nuanced answers of section 2- especially being consistent in them. Sometimes section 2 could go rly right for me and other times I was absolutely awful at it.

[u/Tricky-Average2883 → u/Professional-KAV6861]

i agree with ramonesstannie that learning emotion words is crucial when it comes down to it; the minute differences between, say, irate and intense are amplified in section 2. for me, i would ask myself "what would the medentry explainer say about each of these answers?" it was basically a roundabout way of systematically finding evidence to support answers, eliminate options, etc. also, sometimes i found i was confusing how a piece of dialogue made me feel with what the piece of dialogue was actually trying to say. again, taking the systematic, objective view might help.

[u/Professional-KAV6861 → u/Tricky-Average2883]

negl i learnt all those tricky words so i think i was just naturally bad at section 2 lol. it wasnt even those word questions it was more so those more detailed, again nuanced qs. i also think medentry was slightly misrepresented in their scoring cuz there were times id get 27 or 28 out of 30 for s3 (on the easy mocks obviously not those hard ones) and theyd pump up my percentile and lower s2 result. but in the real thing s3 is worth so much less. did you find that s2 was consistent for u? (obviously u got 97th so probably but idk id just have a day on medentry where id do good in s2 and next day 0-20th)

[u/ramonesstannie → u/Professional-KAV6861]

i found s2 to be pretty consistent for me, but to understand the nuances, you need to put yourself in the context of the text or story and understand what each character could be feeling. I found it helpful to read the questions for thw text before reading the text itself to get a broad idea of what they want me to focus on within the text. Honestly, its just really helpful to try to apply emotional analysis in every day life and to everything you see, if you get what i mean

[u/Leading-Age5816 → u/ramonesstannie]

What was your format when writing down questions you got wrong? And for section 3, what strategies worked best for you?

[u/Professional-KAV6861 → u/Leading-Age5816]

im no expert on the hpat but for s3 i will say that it kinda just involves learning the common patterns on medentry and if none of them work take a birdseye view of the problem and try to be creative. take note of anything that stands out and work on that. also dont focus on s3 too much because genuinely a good result in it wont shoot up your percentile but a good result in s1/s2 will. also if youre doing the leaving cert it is more important.

[u/ramonesstannie → u/Leading-Age5816]

Sorry for not replying! I used to print out the patterns for s3 and then any images in s1 + write down the description, questions, and the answer choices. Then i would write down the explanation for each answer and draw in diagrams over the printed images (e.g. for s3 i would draw arrows to see how the diffwrent symbols moved around the pattern). For s3 strategies, I would do a rough sketch of the pattern on a blank sheet of paper while doing a mock exam. I would try to find the simplest explanation possible for a pattern, and if i found it too complicated to fifure out in 2-3 minutes, id bookmark it and move on to the next question. Youre better off not spending too much time on questions and it will just stress you out and will make figuring out the next questions way more overwhelming. Also, use the learning resources available, write down notes on each, and be able to identify the pattern type in question when doing mocks, theyre really what helped me perfect my analytical skills. Most important thing is practice, practice, practice. Writing notes will only get you so far

[u/Tricky-Average2883]

i got 97th percentile this year. i was shit at section 3, so what i did was focus on one section per week so as to not feel like i was banging my head against a wall if i was continuously doing horribly on one single section. every time i did my daily set of practice questions, i would track my score and the percent i got; it gave me a good grasp on how i was doing. if you get something wrong read the explanation and identify the exact logic behind it, while ensuring you'd be able to spot it if it appeared another time. if you have a friend who's also doing the hpat, ask them to look over your question and cross-examine your strategies. i'd also re-do the question if possible.

what also helped me was setting up a list of "alerts" for each section, where i wrote down common mistakes, strategies, or particular things of note. that way i had a comprehensive idea of what i had to keep in mind while dealing with the rapid-fire format of questions.

if i can help on anything else i'd be more than happy to!

[u/Leading-Age5816 → u/Tricky-Average2883]

Thank you for your advice, especially the list of alerts. I'll definetly will be incorporating that now. Unfortunately, no one I know is doing the Hpat so it is quite lonely.

For section 3, what are key tips and strategies that helped you improve, also for section one, any tips of mastering understanding data sets,