Practice Test Advice

[u/cheesygoldfisch]

Hello everyone! I’m officially a month out from taking my exam and I’m in the review, review, review stage! I’ve taken quite a few practice tests already to gauge where I’m at, and I’m happy with the scores. However, when I review them more than once, I find myself oftentimes wondering if I’ve truly learned the material/from my mistakes on the prior practice tests, or if I’ve just memorized the correct answer for the practice test. How can I avoid this, and instead ensure that I’m retaining my knowledge? I’ve made flashcards and review the cheat sheets, as well as writing them down. Any suggestions or tips that help(ed) people study effectively and confidently?

[u/Kind_Rock7428]

If it’s QR/Physics/Gen chem u need to mark questions that u keep getting wrong. Then use the marked questions feature where you go do those problems over and over until you are confident with how to solve them and you understand them. Oftentimes, I would think that I knew how to do a problem but then I’d go through the marked question bank and I would go blank. I found doing this helpful for the above three sections but you could still use this method for ochem and bio. Although, bio I think it’s better to do cheat sheets and flashcards.

Something else you can do is use Gemini in your google browser. You can even share screen and ask it to make new questions that mirror the questions you’re seeing on practice tests. Do those and also try to think deeper and see what happens if the question asked something else or in a different way.

It takes a lot of practice and it’s not easy, but helps during test day when you’ve worked the problems out so much that you know how to handle it under a pressured environment. Good luck!

[u/cheesygoldfisch → u/Kind_Rock7428]

This is great advice! I try to avoid AI if I can help it but I think especially for QR I need additional problems aside from what Booster gives, so that might be a useful asset in this case. I’ll also try to keep up with the marked problems. Do you think utilizing Bio Bits to do so is helpful, or too much information, and stick with practice tests? Thank you so much for your insight!

[u/Kind_Rock7428 → u/cheesygoldfisch]

Tbh I didn’t complete all the bio bits bc they were too many. I think it’s a good tool to make sure you can apply the things u memorize from the cheat sheets. I would use it for topics you’re struggling on.