How to ACE the Navy Advancement Exam (any rate)

Описание: Disclaimer: I am no longer in the Navy, so I am unsure if testing has changed. That being said, there are 2 parts to improving your test scores that I have found to be helpful for myself and anyone who used my advice. YOU HAVE TO STUDY- don’t rely on part 1 if you don’t study- see part 2 for study hacks.
PART 1:
The first thing to be aware of is the test is more than likely going to be comprised of 175 questions- approx. 25% A, 25% B, 25% C and 25% D. Only use this if you get stuck on questions and have to go back through. Another thing to note is out of each 10 question block on your answer sheet, you more than likely will have a primarily dominant grouping of A, B, C or D. This primary answer group usually won’t duplicate from block to block. Example: A is the dominant answer in column one, so a different letter dominance will more than likely comprise 11-20. So by our rule, question 12 couldn’t be A, because it would create a double “A” dominant group.
1. A 11. C 21. D
2. C 12. A or D 22. D
3. D 13. A 23. C
4. A 14. C 24. A
5. A 15. D 25. B
6. B 16. B   26. B
7. A 17. A 27. A
8. D 18. D 28. C
9. C 19. A 29. C
10. C 20. D 30. C
Please note that you won’t likely have equal 25% of dominant letters, that only applies to the overall test questions.
ON TEST DAY:
Answer as many questions as you can that you absolutely know the answer to. If it is a close tie between 2 answers, write them down on your scratch paper. i.e. #12 A or D
-Once you’re finished answering the questions you’re sure of, it will be easier to use the “hacks” for the rest
-Use the dominant grouping rule to see if you can easily rule out answers that you’re not sure if it is one or the other.
-Next thing to do is find all the remaining answers. Count how many A’s, B’s, C’s and D’s you have. You’ll have 44, 44, 44 and 43ish (in no particular order) in the end. 
Fill in the remaining answers using the dominant grouping rule, the 25% rule and also reworking your questions the answer might come back to you!
PART 2: 
When new bibs post: Open and print both the bibliography & topics/subtopics.
1st HACK: I liked to take one full sheet of paper for each subtopic. So my first paper would have the topic + its’ subtopic as the heading, next paper would have the same topic + the next subtopic as the heading, and so on… the idea of this is for note-taking material in which you will study for the test. Next, you will look at your bib sheet and MATCH the bib to the subtopics. Some subtopic sheets may have multiple bibs, but ALL subtopic sheets will have a bibliography that matches it. If you are unsure of the matching, the manuals called out in the bibs all have table of contents pages. This should help! After you have all your subtopics matched up with the manual(s) that are applicable, you’re ready to start studying. 
This next part is the longest process. YOU HAVE TO GET THROUGH IT! Depending on how long you have left before the test, split up your time in a way where you can spend equal amounts of time dedicating to each of the subtopics pages. You want to reserve the last week or two weeks before the test actually studying your notes, so don’t include that time! Arrange the subtopic pages by manuals- that way you do your research from that particular manual, and when you’re finished, you drop that manual and don’t have to open it again! 
2nd HACK: Example: If I have a subtopic about the color blue, a subtopic about the color green and a subtopic about the color red, I would grab my color manual and ONLY study the areas of the manual where it talks about the colors blue, green and red. Now while we have that color manual out, the topic of the subtopic blue was “tone”, so I would only study the areas of the color blue in the color manual that dealt with the tone of blue. The subtopic green’s topic was about “gradient”, so I would only study color gradient in the color green section...
3rd HACK: Once you have narrowed down areas in these (sometimes) giant manuals, you will get good at scanning the text for areas that questions could easily be formed from. Lists are a big one! Especially lists of 3 or 4 things. This also works for skimming text and finding bullet points or paragraphs within manual topics. YOU GUESSED IT! This is where exam questions are typically hiding! Write these things in your notes!
1-2 weeks before the test: Now that all of your hard work is done and your subtopic sheets are filled with notes, what I liked to do was rewrite my notes neatly. Not only does this refresh your mind on your notes, but sometimes you can see your notes when you are trying to recall something (maybe this is just me!) It helps to organize the way you study your notes by the subtopics and topics to help you mentally connect questions that are asking about specific systems or standards or operations (depending on your rate). 
Last but not least, good luck! YOU GOT THIS!