Do you entirely skip time-sink questions and just pick a random answer, or do you give it a min and a half and choose what's best? I've been trying to gauge what the best method for time-sinks are, but am unsure. Also congrats on the amazing score!!
I’ve eliminated 3 answer choices but can’t decide between the two remaining because they seem equally good (I haven’t spotted the issue with one of them yet) -> consistently choose either the one on top or the one on bottom for these and flag for review, then move on (I pick the answer that’s lower because heuristically, at least on PTs, LSAC tends to put the trap answer higher up), come back if time
I’ve eliminated 3 answer choices but the last two seem equally bad/not descriptively accurate, or I’ve eliminated all 5 answer choices -> reset answer choices, re-read the question stem, then re-read the stimulus, then read the answer choices from bottom to top. If you still don’t have an answer (they all seem equally bad) after the reset then pick D, flag, and move on. (Come back if time)
I have no idea what the stimulus just said even though I’ve now read it twice OR the stimulus is long and annoying (epistemology u know who u are) -> pick D, flag, skip, come back at end to try to sentence by sentence digest the stimulus and re-attempt the question from a fresh start.
It’s parallel reasoning and it’s not an easy parallel reasoning -> pick D, flag, skip, come back at end
Sticking to a 1.5 min time limit for all question types is not realistic, nor is straight up entirely skipping every question you identify as a time sink. It really depends on the issue you’re having with the question itself.
Also, I am a perfectionist and like to rule out every wrong answer for a concrete reason. But if I’ve already identified the right reason, even if I don’t know why all the wrong answers are wrong, I just flag it and move on and tell myself to fulfill my perfectionist tendencies later. I highlight in pink to indicate words that make ACs wrong and in green to indicate words that make the right AC right. Then I know that if I didn’t highlight an answer choice at all I couldn’t find anything wrong or right about it and I need to, perhaps during blind review or my skip pass, try to figure out what’s going on with that AC.
@ScienceAlex wow this is really interesting strategy! i am going to experiment with the highlight feature. i usually just yellow to make the conclusion and main premise pop, or sometimes i highlight the Verb i’m focused on in an Except question stem — i’ve never heard of using it in the answer choices themselves and I’m a bit embarrassed to realize i didn’t know we could highlight the ACs lol
@ScienceAlex Quite literally perfect advice imo. I must add on to the 1.5 min time limit note too. It should not be in your mind as a hard rule (but rather as a fairly solid general thought to maintain in your periphery while testing), especially if you are someone who is capable of consistently getting even ~5 question correct with each taking under 50s. In that case I find that if I'm on a time sink for 2 minutes, then I have roughly 10s to flag and move on.
4 comments
Do you entirely skip time-sink questions and just pick a random answer, or do you give it a min and a half and choose what's best? I've been trying to gauge what the best method for time-sinks are, but am unsure. Also congrats on the amazing score!!
@Elecoo time sinks for me and their fixes:
I’ve eliminated 3 answer choices but can’t decide between the two remaining because they seem equally good (I haven’t spotted the issue with one of them yet) -> consistently choose either the one on top or the one on bottom for these and flag for review, then move on (I pick the answer that’s lower because heuristically, at least on PTs, LSAC tends to put the trap answer higher up), come back if time
I’ve eliminated 3 answer choices but the last two seem equally bad/not descriptively accurate, or I’ve eliminated all 5 answer choices -> reset answer choices, re-read the question stem, then re-read the stimulus, then read the answer choices from bottom to top. If you still don’t have an answer (they all seem equally bad) after the reset then pick D, flag, and move on. (Come back if time)
I have no idea what the stimulus just said even though I’ve now read it twice OR the stimulus is long and annoying (epistemology u know who u are) -> pick D, flag, skip, come back at end to try to sentence by sentence digest the stimulus and re-attempt the question from a fresh start.
It’s parallel reasoning and it’s not an easy parallel reasoning -> pick D, flag, skip, come back at end
Sticking to a 1.5 min time limit for all question types is not realistic, nor is straight up entirely skipping every question you identify as a time sink. It really depends on the issue you’re having with the question itself.
Also, I am a perfectionist and like to rule out every wrong answer for a concrete reason. But if I’ve already identified the right reason, even if I don’t know why all the wrong answers are wrong, I just flag it and move on and tell myself to fulfill my perfectionist tendencies later. I highlight in pink to indicate words that make ACs wrong and in green to indicate words that make the right AC right. Then I know that if I didn’t highlight an answer choice at all I couldn’t find anything wrong or right about it and I need to, perhaps during blind review or my skip pass, try to figure out what’s going on with that AC.
@ScienceAlex wow this is really interesting strategy! i am going to experiment with the highlight feature. i usually just yellow to make the conclusion and main premise pop, or sometimes i highlight the Verb i’m focused on in an Except question stem — i’ve never heard of using it in the answer choices themselves and I’m a bit embarrassed to realize i didn’t know we could highlight the ACs lol
@ScienceAlex Quite literally perfect advice imo. I must add on to the 1.5 min time limit note too. It should not be in your mind as a hard rule (but rather as a fairly solid general thought to maintain in your periphery while testing), especially if you are someone who is capable of consistently getting even ~5 question correct with each taking under 50s. In that case I find that if I'm on a time sink for 2 minutes, then I have roughly 10s to flag and move on.