Chapter 21

Ten Ways to Maximize Your Score

In This Chapter

arrow Setting yourself up for success

arrow Avoiding careless mistakes

The day has finally arrived! Time to put the books, study aids, and practice tests away and charge forward, confident that you’ll succeed. But even the most-prepared test-taker can use a little help squeezing a few extra points out of the exam, and that’s where this chapter comes in. From discussing proper nutrition to the fine art of guessing, we give you some tricks of the trade so that with any luck, you’ll soon be hopping aboard a military aircraft and turning jet fuel into the sweet noise that is music to every pilot’s ears.

Fuel Up Properly

You probably already know the importance of being well rested on exam day, but that’s only part of the battle. To be mentally prepared for the exam, you have to nourish yourself, too. Have a slow-paced breakfast (not too big and not too heavy) focused on protein sources such as eggs, sausage, bacon, and so on. This kind of meal keeps your energy levels up throughout the morning. If you’re a coffee drinker, feel free to enjoy your usual amount; just remember that bathroom breaks at the test site can be few and far between. If you’re not a coffee person, don’t suddenly drink eight cups that morning.

remember.eps The absolute worst thing you can do is to eat a candy bar or other sugar-laden treat right before you go into the test. Loading up on sugar can cause hypoglycemia, which leads to a later sugar crash; you won’t have much success on the test if you’re keeled over on your desk. And studies show that hypoglycemia is a leading cause of pilot error accidents, so if you’re going to fly, you need to get used to eating right anyway.

You may find yourself hungry for a snack partway through the test. We recommend a healthy snack with complex carbohydrates. However, if you absolutely need a candy bar at that point in the test, you can have one; just remember the crash that will come an hour and a half or so later and plan your snack time accordingly.

Write Down Important Formulas

We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but you can’t bring a cheat sheet or your own scratch paper into the exam. However, nothing prevents you from using the paper provided at the test site for largely the same purpose: keeping important formulas at your fingertips. Store those difficult formulas in your short-term memory right before you arrive for the test and then write them down on the scratch paper provided immediately after the test begins so that you don’t have to worry about drawing a blank later. You have to turn in your scratch paper at the end of the test, so don’t try any funny business like writing down sample questions for later practice.

Don’t Watch the Clock

When you’re under the gun and feeling the pressure of a timed test, not obsessing over the time can be difficult. Although occasionally glancing up to do a time check is a good idea, don’t get fixated on the clock. Doing so serves only to put you in a state of anxiety and stress, which is counterproductive toward calmly performing the task at hand. Don’t become so incapacitated by the fear of not finishing on time that you can’t finish at all.

Read the Questions and Answer Choices Thoroughly

Make sure you have a complete comprehension of exactly what the question is asking. Don’t jump the gun and assume you know what the test-makers want to know; incorrect answer choices are often based on these kinds of assumptions, so your haste may trick you into picking the wrong answer.

Similarly, look through all the answer choices before selecting one; don’t just choose the first answer you come to that seems right. For example, if the question asks for the answer in cubic centimeters and you determine that the answer is 15.83, don’t immediately mark Choice (A), 15.83 cubic inches, because it has the right number. If you read farther, you discover that Choice (D) gives the same number in cubic centimeters, which is the unit the question requires.

Don’t Bring Outside Knowledge to Reading Passages

On the reading comprehension sections of the tests, you must be careful to not make inferences or assign meanings based on your own subjective knowledge of the subject. The test-makers aren’t interested in what you know about the topic; they want to know whether you can draw conclusions based on the information given. Use only the provided information as the basis for your answer.

Know the Order of Mathematical Operations

You have to perform all mathematical operations in a certain sequence to correctly complete a math problem. In case you’re a little rusty on the topic, the correct steps for mathematical operations are as follows:

1. Calculate everything in parentheses.

2. Compute all exponents and roots.

3. Perform all multiplication and division from left to right.

4. Perform all addition or subtraction from left to right.

warning_bomb.eps Don’t be fooled by the fact that the answer you come up with by using some other sequence is listed as one of the answer choices. Including such decoys is a common trick on the part of the test designers to see whether you’re following the correct order.

Develop the Fine Art of Guessing

Guessing is really an art form, and it’s one you’ll have to use when you don’t know the answer to a question. Through the magic of guessing, you can start with a question you feel totally clueless about and end up with a pretty decent chance of choosing the right answer. We cover educated guessing more in Chapter 4, but the basic process is to rule out answer choices you know are incorrect and then examine the remaining choices for subtle clues that eliminate them as well. If you can narrow down your four choices to two probable ones, you increase your odds of success from 25 percent to 50 percent.

tip.eps Not sure about a math problem? Sometimes a faster route is to take the answers given, estimate which one you think may be the closest answer, and then plug in the numbers to solve the problem backward.

Manage Your Time by Choosing Your Battles

Some questions are harder than others, and those hard questions can tie you up if you don’t manage your time well. You don’t want to spend so much time untangling a tough question early on that you run out of time to answer five easy questions at the end of the section.

tip.eps If you can tell a question is going to be a time-eater, skip it and answer the easier questions first. You can return to those monster questions later for a more in-depth look if you have time leftover.

Watch Your Units and Conversions

Failing to use the correct units, especially in conversions, has to be one of the single most common errors on scientific and mathematical tests worldwide. Simply put, if a test question has given factors in inches, the solution should be in inches unless otherwise stated. If you can’t find the units you want in any of the answer choices, make sure you have used the correct conversion factor. As with many test sections, beware of trick answers that prey on incorrect unit usage. Two inches plus 2 inches isn’t 4 centimeters; it’s 4 inches (or 10.2 centimeters).

Don’t Panic

We won’t say that taking the military flight aptitude test is an enjoyable experience, but it doesn’t have to be one big anxiety attack, either. Don’t let self-doubt creep into your conscious thought process if you struggle with a couple of questions. Relax and concentrate on the task at hand.

remember.eps You have studied and worked hard to prepare yourself for this moment, so the test is the time to show what you’ve got. Be confident in your preparation, and fear and doubt won’t overwhelm you.