The thing is, when I did the reading the first time around I was dead sure I aced it. I even finished 10 minutes early and reviewed. It was the last thing I was worried about when I finished the exam. In fact, I was worried more about the speaking part because I had a 5 seconds awkward silence in the 2 min speech test(I just ran out of ideas not words) and I was 10 words short in the writing test so I was also concerned about that, both these parts I ended up getting the max needed. But the reading? It was easy, I am surprised I didn't do as well and since I cannot say why I didn't do so well, I am not so open to repeating it.
Don't be too pessimistic, it will definetly go back down to 450, any lower than that is speculations but 450 is almost certain. I tried doing a masters but I guess I am at a point in my life where I am not willing to do any work unless I am paid for it, and university is just full of bullshit assignments, bureaucracy etc... I no longer have the patience for. I quit after one semester in the masters program, I passed the semester, then gave the university the finger and left.
Concerning french, I was at a "french school" when growing up, from the age of 3 till the age of 18, we took math and sciences in french, we had 8 hours of french a week, in total about 30 hours of french material a week(counting the math and science materials that were in french vs 2 hours of english total) and for some odd reason, I am excellent in english and I suck at french, I've been out of school and hence no longer been using french for the past 9 years, my university was in English. And I was never a good student when it came to french, so right now I am trying to refresh and build on my previous skills. I've been watching some french cartoons, converting my computer games on steam to french and tryign to do a bit of reading everyday. I did not enroll in a school, I have all the french basics down including pronunciation, my weakness is vocabulary, I need to learn more words, and I need to be able to find the words I already know quickly enough(in my head) very often I know the words I wish to say, but there is like a 5 seconds lag to find these words... with more actual practice this could be resolved.
I checked out all the so called "advanced french courses" on the internet. There was nothing new in there for me, even the most advanced course is too basic. And really at some point there is nothing anyone can do for you, you just need to read more, speak more and write more.
