TSA exam preparation update

Hello again, from my bustling city! It is I, Ael. Last time, I wrote about my experiences of preparing for the TSA exam. In these 8 days since then, I have managed to do the 2020 and 2019 variant of the TSA practice exams as well. Besides that, I have also started doing logic tests and the Watson-Glaser practice exams as they, too, train pattern thinking and logic-based thinking.

Last time, I also identified my weaknesses and have since then patched the holes in my knowledge as best as I can. For example, to cover my weakness in assumption-type questions, I have tried using the false-true method. If this statement were to be false, would the argument in the text still hold? To cover my weakness in principle-type questions, I look for an emotional statement of sorts. “It is a right for every man…”, “therefore it is imperative that..”, et cetera. For conclusions, I try to find a statement that is not strictly fact-based, but is derived from facts, or something that the text is trying to back up. “People ought to be able to live wherever they wish because…”. Lastly, for paralell reasoning questions, I have started using formal logic. “If p then q. p thus q” would lead me to trying to find something with a similar pattern in the answers.

In some cases, it is hard to tell a conclusion from a principle or a fact. This is why I always look for the principle (if any exists), and the conclusion in a text as I read it, simultaneously. If I can identify the different parts of the paragraph, and highlight them, then I can decide “well this is obviously the conclusion, and they are asking for the principle, so it cannot be this piece of information at least”. This way of thinking has given me a huge boost! To really get into the right mindset, I’ve found that the Watson-Glaser tests have been very helpful as they take this to a whole new level. All of a sudden, it now takes me less than 30 seconds to solve these question types, giving me more time for the quantitative problems.

The other areas that I was weak in included mental calculations, statistics, percentages, and minmax questions. For min-max questions, I realised I mostly need to rely on LCM, GCD or draw things to see them visually. My biggest weakness, mental calculations, was patched up by doing approximations when required. For example, I might count 326 as 330 instead and keep in mind that I’ve done this, so the real answer should be a bit lower than whatever answer I get. However, I do have to keep in mind that when the answers are very close to each other, I need to do exact calculations. But, in those cases it seems that the numbers are usually easy to calculate anyway. For statistics, I exclude clearly wrong information, and then try matching two pieces of data out of the remaining ones left to see if some form of mismatch in data occurs. Lastly, the percentages questions are still a bit tricky, but I’ve learned a neat trick recently to help me deal with the worst part of it: division! When I have something such as 3/0.6, I can factor decimals, 3/(0.1 * 6) = 1/(2 * 0.1) = 10/2 = 5. While obvious in retrospect, I sort of forgot this could be done since I usually never have the kind of time pressure that forces me to calculate things in less than a minute. So usually, I would have done 3/0.6 = 30/6 = 5, and while it is easy in this example, it gets trickier when the numbers become larger. Imagine having to do 2460/0.4. You could certainly do 24600/4… or you could do 2460/0.4 = 2460/(0.2 * 2) = 1230/0.2 = 1230/(0.1 * 2) = 615/0.1 = 6150. It is a quick and easy way of factoring out numbers in a methodological way.

So, what’s next? At this point, only practice! I will give another update when I make a major breakthrough. Next up, TSA 2018 variant! And the ones after that, and so on 🫠. I’ve a long weekend ahead of me 📆.

Thank you for reading!

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