Self-paced
I've been taking practice tests every week for the past 6 weeks or so, and timing has been the one constant issue I've not been able to fix. This week i tried taking 2 LR sections backwards (starting with the final question and ending with the first.) my logic was that since the second half is hardest, i can dedicate more time to those questions and comfortably rush through the second half, as opposed to having to rush thru the harder second half. I scored surprisingly well using this method, and I did not struggle with time, I was able to answer each question confidently. However, I'm unsure if this method is actually helping or if I'm just getting better at time management. Anyone have any thoughts/ experience with this? pls lmk, taking the test in june!
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2 comments
Hello!
I know this is a slightly older post, but I am writing this anyway hoping it can still help!
Some people find the reverse-order method incredibly helpful, while some others don't like it at all. It really varies from person to person. Those who love it usually cite similar reasons you mentioned: getting the hardest questions out of the way first.
However, those who dislike this method usually have two main reasons: 1) they use the easier questions in the first half to warm their logic gears up before tackling harder questions, and 2) they don't want to risk running out of time at the very end and missing an 'easy' question that they would have easily gotten right.
That being said, you should also be aware that there is a trend in more recent PTs where test-makers plant some highly challenging questions in the first half section. Because of this, the order of the questions doesn't always indicate a progressing level of difficulty.
Ultimately, as others have said, if you test this method a few more times and your scores remain consistently higher, then it may be the right method for you. Good luck!
tried this, didn't work for me. I think it didn't because you assume that all the questions toward the end are hard, but that's not the case - some are easy. so you overanalyze, spend a lot of time, which cuts into your time for questions 1-18. and there are a good number of hard questions sprinkled in from 9-17. a better approach, for me at least, is to zoom through questions 1-10. I try to finish them in under 7 minutes. I predict the answer, if I see it, I pick it, flag it, and move on without reviewing the other AC's. that leaves you 28 minutes to do the remaining 16 questions which will likely be harder. you'll finish with 5 minutes left on clock, and then you can go back & review all your flags to make sure your predictions actually led to the best answer for the question.