How to review a practice section

Step 1: blind review, before you score

Go back to every question you flagged or rushed and redo it untimed, without looking at the answers. Write down your second answer next to your first. This separates two very different problems: questions you cannot do, and questions you can do but not in ninety seconds. They need opposite fixes.

Step 2: score, then split the misses

• Wrong timed, right untimed: a pacing or attention problem. The content is there.
• Wrong both times: a genuine gap. This is where your study hours belong.
• Right timed, but by elimination: log it anyway. A guess that lands is still a question you could not do.

Step 3: log the misses, one pass

Enter the whole section at once, marking each question right or wrong, then write up only the misses. Two minutes each: why you chose your answer, what specifically went wrong, and one rule you could apply next time. Do not write about the twenty you got right.

What to skip

• Reading full explanations for every question. Read them for the misses you still do not understand after your own attempt, not before it.
• Rewriting the stimulus. Your notes should describe your reasoning, not reproduce the material.
• Reviewing the same section twice. Once, properly, then move on. The second pass belongs to your weekly read of takeaways.

Step 4: the weekly read

Once a week, read every takeaway you wrote and count your mistake tags. One or two will dominate. That is the drill list for the coming week, and it is far more specific than any generic study schedule can be.