How many practice tests, how often, and what to do with the results.
A schedule for full-length and short-form practice, and the review method that turns a score into a plan.
By Dr. Andrew Wichterman · September 15, 2026 · 6 min read · Updated October 22, 2026
Practice tests are diagnostic and training at the same time. Used well, they tell you where to study and they build the stamina the real exam demands. Used badly, they become a way to feel bad about a number twice a week. Here is a schedule and a review method.
Two kinds of practice
- Short sets of 20 to 40 items in one or two content areas, untimed or lightly timed, two or three times a week. These are for learning: you review every item, right or wrong.
- Full-length timed tests of 200 items in 225 minutes, under exam conditions, twice in a sixteen-week plan. These are for measurement and stamina. You take them seriously and you review them slowly, over two or three sittings.
A sixteen-week schedule
- Week 1: the 25-item baseline before you study. It will be low. That is the point; it tells you where to start and gives you a number to beat.
- Weeks 2 to 12: short sets two or three times a week in the areas of that week's study. At the end of week 12, once the content is covered, your first full-length test.
- Weeks 13 to 14: short sets aimed at the weakest areas that test revealed.
- Week 15: the final full-length test, early in the week. Then stop taking full tests.
- Week 16: light review, sleep, no new tests.
How to review
Reviewing is where the learning happens, and most people skip it. For every item you missed and every item you guessed right, write three things: what the item was really asking, why the correct answer is correct, and why your answer was wrong. Sort your errors into categories: did not know the content, misread the question, changed a correct answer, ran out of time. Each category has a different fix. A content gap goes to flashcards. A misreading habit goes to a slower first read of the stem. A pattern of changing correct answers goes to a rule: change only when you can name the reason.
What the score by area tells you
Look at the areas, not the total. An overall score that looks fine can hide a content area you are failing, and a weak area worth a large share of the exam is where the points are. The practice tests here report by content area for exactly this reason. Weight your next two weeks toward the two weakest high-value areas.
Conditions matter
For full-length tests: one sitting, timed, no notes, no phone, at the time of day you will test. If you plan to test in a center, take at least one practice test away from home, in a library. The transfer to the real thing is better when the conditions match.
Practice this. The flashcards and practice tests on this site are sorted by content area, so you can drill this one until it holds.
Baseline, train, measure, review. The number is not the product. The plan you write after reviewing it is.