“Am I ready?” is the wrong question: it invites feelings to answer. The right question is “what has my scoring trend done across the last three full-length practice tests?” That one has an answer, and it's sitting in your history tab.
The trend that says book it
Readiness looks boring on a graph. You're looking for three things at once, across your three most recent full-lengths:
- All three at or above your target band: on fresh questions, not banks you've seen before. Repeats inflate scores by 5–15 points and tell you nothing.
- A spread of five points or less. 68, 71, 70 is a signal; 58, 81, 65 is a coin flip that happened to land well once.
- Finishing with time to spare on every section. Accuracy that only exists at an unsustainable pace evaporates under exam-day adrenaline.
Three-for-three? Book the earliest date that fits logistics. More prep past this point mostly adds anxiety, not points: you're spending high-quality readiness on low-quality waiting.
The trend that says give it three more weeks
- Swings wider than ten points between attempts: the underlying skill isn't stable yet, whatever the average says.
- Scores rising only on question banks you've cycled before. That's memorization wearing a readiness costume.
- Chronic time pressure: routinely 10+ questions unanswered when the clock dies. Pacing is trainable, but it takes dedicated timed blocks, not hope.
- One section consistently dragging the composite below the line. Sectional gaps close well in two to three focused weeks, but only if you actually aim at them.
How to read a plateau
Three flat scores in your target band is readiness, so book it. Three flat scores below the band is a method problem, not an effort problem: more of the same studying will produce more of the same graph. Change the input (review depth, error logs, and timed sectionals), and give the new method two weeks to show up in the numbers before you judge it.