Self-study
Help!
I'm consistently scoring in 150s but my BRs easily average in 160s. I've improved at prephrasing and identifying question stems faster now. So I'm guessing the gap lies in interpreting the ACs correctly and also just knowing when to skip and go? When I see really lengthy stimulus (not just parallel reasoning questions), I would assume the target time is 1:20 or something but reading the stimulus itself takes 50s, so idk if I'm supposed to pick an answer in like 30s?? Is that reasonable??
If you struggled similarly and saw improvements in your timing, please help! How did you drill? How do you proceed in a section? Also if you think there is any other issue that I'm overlooking, let me know!
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6 comments
I wouldn't totally disregard them, but I would largely stop looking and keeping at the forefront of my mind (as you seem to be doing) the timing metrics provided by 7sage. That would trip almost anybody up if while trying to read and understand the stimulus and answer choices you were also thinking about how 7sage timing analytics suggests you need to answer this type of question in "x" amount of seconds/minutes.
At this point, focus only on the question. Clearly, you're making progress if you can identify the things you mentioned in your post faster, but do you know what strategies to implement for every given question type? Can you employ those strategies without having to think too much about them? Are you at a point where you can pretty quickly and confidently eliminate what you might perceive to be "wrong" answer choices (you may not always be right when doing this but being able to get to a point where you can quickly eliminate or disregard most competing answer choices will be proof of improvement in my experience). If you can, great! If not, then use these as goal posts to reach as they will help you in your journey.
Also, I'll pass on some advice from someone who was kind enough to share it with me. If you struggle with getting through all the RC passages/questions (like I did and still do to some extent), skip over the last 2 questions for each passage and return to them only if you have time. This way, instead of only being able to get through 2 or so passages like I was doing, I can now get to the 4th and answer more questions rather than on focusing on answering all the questions for all the passages. 17 or 18 out of 25 questions answered (with the rest guessed on) is better than 10 or 11 out of 25 while guessing on the remainder of the questions.
@mhann007 thanks for sharing the RC tip. I'll try that next time and see if it works for me.
And I believe I have strategies for most LR question types. But I'm never confident when it comes to answer choices. To me, the answer choices are worded way worse than the stimulus is. So I'll just have to figure out how to process these tricky answer choices I guess. Seems harder tho .__. not sure if this is something people even struggle with.
@steamboatwillie I think that there are always going to be questions that are trickier to handle and those questions will differ from person to person, which is why I suggest getting to the point (if you haven't already) where you can eliminate most - if not all - of the obviously wrong answer choices and quickly (***Note: it takes time and practice to get to that point). That way, maybe you're left choosing between 2 competing answer choices rather than 4 or 5.
But if you're having issues interpreting or translating answer choices, then you might need to do some brushing up on the core curriculum and lawgic while also practicing more so you can learn which type of answer choices are obviously wrong.
Good luck!
Hot take incoming: timing issues don't exist. You just don't understand what you're doing so it takes longer than you'd like. If I tried to put on makeup, I'd be slow. I don't have a makeup timing issue; I do not know how to put on makeup. If I knew how to put on makeup, I would not be slow. Speed is downstream of skill.
Yes, perhaps there are edge cases where someone is skilled but extremely anxious or something and knows they have the right answer but keeps re-reading anyway. If you're blind reviewing 180s we can consider that possibility, but almost nobody is doing that.
When you're drilling, disregard how much time it takes. Solve the question. For PTs, they aren't there to make you better, they are there to measure your progress and make you familiar with the time limit. On the actual test, yeah, you can't spend 10 minutes on a single question. I don't think there is any formula for knowing what to do on a real test.
To put this in perspective, if you're scoring in the 150s, you're rushing through and missing 20-30+ questions per test. Why rush through easy questions and get them wrong just so you can also get the hard questions wrong?
I have never considered how much time it took me to answer a question beyond roughly using it to indicate I was missing something and need to refine that skill.
@Karl! I think it's incorrect to say timing issues don't exist but right to say, as you do, that beneath timing issues lie more foundational issues that need addressing. Further, I think there is a conflation of "lack of skill" and "lack of understanding" in the makeup analogy, which to me seem to be distinct problems. For example, you can understand how to apply makeup but maybe do it in a less than timely manner because you haven't practiced it enough (skill issue). Just like I can, for example, play through an entire piece of music and understand how to do it but perhaps not execute it flawlessly and within the typical duration due to lack of familiarity with the piece, inconsistent or improper practice, nerves, etc.
With that said, there can of course be overlap and influence between the two "lacks" (i.e. lack of skill and lack of understanding) but identifying and teasing out whether you misunderstand or just need to practice (or both) more - and correctly - to where it comes easier and flows is what's important for @steamboatwillie .
@Karl! I agree with Karl. Slow down and enjoy drilling at a pace where at the end of each question you understand exactly what is happening. When I was starting, I was so focused on speed I didn't review or fully understand what was happening. Bc of that I was getting a ton of questions wrong on 50/50 guesses. Now if I miss a more then two questions in a timed section I am pissed. It isn't that I got better at going fast; it is that I slowed down to understand the test and drill at a learning pace.