long questions maths mat advice

hey can i ask someone for their general advice , How TF do i get good at answering long styled questions , Like the MAT ones and not so relevant as of yet but the Step , Like im quite confident in my ability when it comes to the multiple choice aspect as its usually to me quite a bit more obvious what needs to get done and what method to apply , But when it comes to the long styled questions un less ive seen a variation of the the style of question before im completely clueless and i try to think outside the box but is 99% of the time its a dead end im trying to practice practice practice but its annoying as i keep getting stuck unless ive seen the style question before and idk if this is me being dumb and only being able apply previously seen methods or is their some thing im missing. If you do end up reading this thanks and my question to u is what would say is the best way to improve .