Self-study
Currently sitting at 162 untimed, I'd like some insights/tips on how translate this into timed score and how to maintain it. Any guidance is appreciated!
Thanks
5
Currently sitting at 162 untimed, I'd like some insights/tips on how translate this into timed score and how to maintain it. Any guidance is appreciated!
Thanks
7 comments
This is a common question from students -- so common that I made a video!
More detail than what's in this vid requires more information about your particular case. Feel free to reply here with any follow-up questions you've got. (That goes for anyone else reading this, as well.)
@MichaelWright I find myself re reading the stimulus quite a lot, what happens is I'll read something and then I'll get distracted and then re read it and have to anchor myself back to the STIM, it happens more with RC then LR stims. In LR i think it happens the most with non conditional logic. Any tips/advice on how to avoid this?
@hvw Great job generating that high-resolution diagnostic take. Critical step 1 and you're on the ball there.
I'd call the broad category we're thinking about "focus", although lapses in focus can come from a lot of places, including anxiety and lack of confidence, etc.
Just honing in on focus itself, though, the general theme is to increase your level of activation and engagement. Things like more active highlighting, muttering to yourself, or moving your body as you read.
Per the video, my rec is to think critically about some intervention or strategy along those lines that sounds good, then practice doing that strategy in a timed setting. Importantly, # of questions correct is not your criterion for success in this drill -- that's just a data point you're casually observing. Play around with different interventions, intentionally going overboard with some or trying things that seem like they clearly won't work. Experimentation and playfulness is the vibe.
Also worth noting, though, that at 162 untimed there's still plenty of room for slow content work. I bet if you were my client I'd be telling you to STFU about timing and do a bunch of slow practice on single question types or tags.
How far off is your time? Is it a 162 in 37 minutes per section, or a 162 when you take an hour and a half for each section?
@julielamberth about 45 mins to an hour per section, all 4 sections.
I got the advice from a tutor that timing is the last thing to focus on -- usually, running out of time on a section means that you don't know the material well enough, so focusing on understanding the questions and noticing patterns over time will likely be more helpful in the long run than trying to get faster for the sake of getting faster.
@elinaaa +1