Experimental section

[apl1993]

None of the practice tests I have come with the fifth, experimental section. So I was wondering if:

A) it's important while taking practice tests to include a fifth section at all in order to properly simulate the stamina and timing necessary it takes to succeed on the actual test and,

B) if there are any tricks I can use to better trick my mind into thinking that the fifth section is possibly not the experimental section? Because since they don't come with all five sections I'll know which one doesn't really count and that might negatively affect my ability to simulate the proper conditions of the test.

Should I add a fifth section and then do ALL the sections the same, and not worry about selecting one out as an experimental section?

Thanks in advance!

[Adam Tyson]

In my opinion, it is a very good idea to add a fifth section to any published 4-section test so as to better simulate what you will experience on test day. You need to build that stamina so you can still be firing on all cylinders at the end of section 5.

Will you probably know, during the practice test, which section is your experimental? Of course, but it's still worthwhile to do it. Put it in at section 2, or 3, or 4, but not 1 (when you are still warming up) or 5 (when you are at your most tired), because you want to see the worst-case impacts of the scored sections.

There is no point, either in practice tests or on the real thing, to try thinking about which section is experimental. That way lies madness! Not to mention poor performance, especially if you guess wrong. Do your best on all five sections, even in practice, and build up your skillset and stamina for the real thing. You will absolutely not know which section was experimental on the real test until after you are done and can compare notes with others. You can hone it down to one of two or three, depending on which section type shows up more than typical (two games, two reading, or three reasoning), but there is really no point in trying to discount one of them while in the test. Just hope that the worst section was the one that didn't count, and otherwise forget about it.

If it helps, have a friend insert the "experimental" section into the test for you, with the above instructions, so that you don't know when it will appear until you see it. Try not to pay attention to the numbering of the sections. You might even want to scramble them up some, but that may be overkill. Some folks recommend inserting TWO "experimental" sections into a few practice tests, just to build greater stamina, so that a 5-section test ends up feeling a lot easier on test day. I like that idea, and have been tasking some of my tutoring students with that assignment when I see they are hitting a slump near the end of section 5.

Give it a try! Don't worry about what you know or don't know about it, just use it the best way that you can.