Independent Study picks up a few months after the ending of The Testing; those who survived The Testing and all the classes and examinations that followed are now assigned to the area of study that determine the career they will follow for the rest of their lives. But the tests never really end, and the students are in just as much danger as the ever were, except this time most of them don't even know it. 
 The premise for this series is still super interesting and it is perfect for creating constant tension. You never know who to trust, who will betray you at the first opportunity, who is secretly watching from afar. As a reader, you have no more insight into other characters' motives than Cia does, so you get to experience a level of the paranoia that she does and I love that. It becomes even more interesting in this book too, because she is forced to rely on people who she knows tried to kill her in the last book and who now have no recollection of it ever happening. How's that for a plot twist? 
 I still love the emphasis on Cia using her wits to outsmart the tests. It is refreshing to have such an intelligent fem protag....but at the same time, she really slides into OP territory. Cia figures every test and puzzle out with next to no difficulty, while most of her fellow students somehow fail to until she has explained everything to them. This is supposed to be a school of the best and brightest...but none of the others are ever shown to be all the bright compared to the (kind of irritatingly) all knowing Cia. Almost every puzzle is introduced and solved in the same scene, after a few paragraphs of Cia's immediately accurate thoughts. Aside from being rather unrealistic, it also really sucks a lot of potential tension out of the story because it gets diffused as quickly as it arises. In general, she seems incapable of making a mistake. It just makes her hard to really relate to. 
 I also felt that the pacing was a bit off. Roughly half of the book is dedicated to the first week or so of their newly assigned fields, mostly to the Induction they are put through which is remarkably similar to The Testing. And then next thing you know weeks are passing in a single paragraph. As a result the rising action towards the climax doesn't have quite the impact that was probably intended. It feels like it mostly gets shoved into the last few chapters- a particular character suddenly becomes important without much earlier development, another character that had more development and seemed to be rather important all but disappears from the story, and the climactic scene itself was a bit rushed and honestly underwhelming. It just sort of was. And then the book ended. You know? 
 All that said, I do really love the direction the plot took near the end, so I'm still excited to read the final book in this series. The ending does something really interesting and fairly unique and I can't wait to see how it all plays out!