Redoing old tests

[manchas]

Apologies if this question has already been asked, but is there any value to re-taking tests that you have done in the past? I've done this on a couple of exams and found that disturbingly enough, sometimes I get questions that I got right the first time, wrong the second time!

Thanks in advance.

[Adam Tyson]

Good question, manchas! Yes, there is absolutely value in taking old tests again. While there may be some element of familiarity, and you might pick a lot of answers based on "oh yeah, I remember this one, it was D, even though I thought B looked good", you will also often find yourself, as you did, making new mistakes. Maybe you got lucky last time, and this time you didn't? The key is to review afterwards to try to understand why you missed certain questions, why you struggled on others that you eventually got right, and even why you got some questions right (so that you can learn to repeat those successes, rather than counting on luck).

There are a lot of reasons why you might get an answer right one time and then miss it the next time. Maybe the first time you trusted your instincts, but the second time around you were too focused on identifying the question type, thinking about the right strategy, applying certain techniques and tests, and you stopped trusting yourself? Maybe the second time around you got a little careless and didn't read carefully, or didn't prephrase before sorting the losers from the contenders? The point is to develop a test-taking process that you stick to every time, with every question every time you do it. Build good habits, like careful reading, prephrasing, and sorting, or like diagramming complex conditional claims, etc. If you keep building those good habits and always follow the same process meticulously, you'll see steady improvement.

So, try to take new tests, but it's also good to go back after some time has passed and retake older ones to see how you are improving in your process and your understanding of the techniques and to learn more about yourself through thorough post-test review.

Keep up the good work!