I've been prepping for the TDA for about 6 weeks now and honestly I'm not sure if I'm doing enough. I'm spending around 2 hours a day on practice passages and close reading exercises, but my mock scores are hovering around 68–72% and I need at least 75% to pass.
The text-dependent analysis portion is tricky because you really have to cite evidence from the passage rather than pulling in outside knowledge. My biggest weakness is structuring my written responses — I tend to rush through the analysis and miss key textual details in the last 20 minutes of each timed section.
Anyone who's passed recently, how many weeks out did you start feeling genuinely confident? I'm taking it in 3 weeks and still feeling shaky on the extended response prompts specifically.
Took me 4 weeks studying about 90 minutes a day to feel ready. I used a color-coding system when annotating practice passages and it helped me locate textual evidence faster during timed runs.
I passed with an 81% after about 8 weeks of prep. The written analysis section tripped me up at first too — I started setting a 5-minute planning timer before writing and that made a real difference with structure and staying on topic.
I failed my first attempt at 69% and came back 6 weeks later with a 78%. The biggest shift was focusing on how the author uses specific word choices rather than just summarizing the passage. Don't underestimate the multiple choice either — it's worth roughly 40% of your total score.
Three weeks out is fine if you're consistent. I'd prioritize full timed practice runs over isolated drills at this point — time management was the main thing that sank people in my testing session, not content knowledge.
Honestly I was in almost the exact same spot as you about three months ago. I'd been studying for like 5 weeks, my practice scores were sitting in that same 68-72% range, and I genuinely came close to just pushing my test date back because I didn't feel ready. What changed for me was switching how I practiced the TDA specifically -- instead of just doing passages and answering questions, I started actually writing out my analysis responses and timing myself. That made a huge difference. Your reading comprehension scores don't really tell you if you can construct a text-dependent argument under pressure, you know?
I ended up scoring a 78% on test day which wasn't perfect but it was enough. The last two weeks before my exam I cut back on new practice material and just focused on reviewing my weak spots and doing timed TDA writing drills. Don't give up because of the mock scores -- they're not the full picture. If you're putting in 2 hours a day you're doing more than most people, it's just about making sure those hours are actually targeting the right skills.
Just passed mine last month with a 79%. Honestly, the thing that flipped my scores was stopping trying to summarize the passage and actually citing specific lines in my responses. I'd been writing these big overview answers and my teacher finally told me the scorers want to see you pull exact phrases and explain why they matter, not just retell the story.
Six weeks is plenty of time if you tighten up your approach. Two hours a day is solid. I'd spend at least half of that on just writing out responses and timing yourself, because I wasn't struggling with understanding the passages, I was running out of time to explain my thinking. You're closer than you think, 68-72% with a few weeks left is a good place to be.
Honestly I almost quit around week 5. My scores were stuck in the low 70s and I kept thinking maybe I just wasn't cut out for it. What finally clicked for me was stopping the timed practice for a few days and really pulling apart the passages sentence by sentence, figuring out exactly why the "right" answers were right. It felt like going backwards but it wasn't.
Ended up scoring a 78 on my actual test. Not amazing but I passed, which is all I needed. If you're hitting 68-72 consistently you're closer than you think, you just haven't found your ceiling yet. Keep going.
I was in almost the exact same spot as you like two months ago, hovering around 70% and feeling like I was spinning my wheels. Honestly the thing that actually moved the needle for me wasn't doing more passages, it was getting way more deliberate about inference questions specifically. I'd been rushing those and just going with my gut, but once I slowed down and started tracing every answer back to actual text evidence, my score jumped pretty fast. This practice set helped me a lot: tda/questions/inference and implied meaning 3. It's not glamorous but it forced me to stop assuming and start citing.
Six weeks of two hours a day is solid, so I don't think effort is your problem. You're probably just missing something specific in how you're approaching one question type. I passed with a 78% and I'd been stuck at 71% for weeks before that one adjustment. Look at your wrong answers and see if inference keeps showing up, because it was my whole issue.