Day 1: AATBS TestMASTER Practice Exam #1 Results

I initiated AATBS's TestMASTER this afternoon. I have 90 days now, to take the exam. I hope that this time restriction will provide for increased motivation and focus. To orient myself to the process, I completed Exam #1 in the Exam Mode, and with the following disappointing results:

Unsurprisingly and surprisingly, my areas of optimal performance were in the Social Psychology and Statistics domains, respectively. Unfortunately, these areas are of limited weight in the overall score.

In comparison to my performance on the paper-and-pencil practice exams, I severely under-performed. Aside from outright poor performance, I can identify a number of potential factors detrimental to my score, including differential environmental and state-dependent aspects of my test-taking situations. In the past, I took the exams in quiet, distraction-free, office environments while under the influence of significant quantities of caffeine. Today, I took the TestMASTER Exam #1 at a Starbucks, and in a severely under-caffeinated state.

Further, and likely accounting for a greater proportion of the variance in my performance, the paper-and-pencil practice exams that I took had the correct answer immediately below the options, and which I covered with a piece of paper while answering the questions. Nevertheless, I was undoubtedly exposed to the correct answers at some level while working my way through the exams.

Finally, it is noteworthy that my last paper-and-pencil practice exam did not include the answers during administration, and yet I passed the exam in approximately two hours. I used the "timed" mode to take the TestMASTER Exam #1 today, but the ticking timer was so distracting that I disabled it partway through the testing session. Hence, I have no idea how long it took me to produce today's sub-par practice exam results.