Hi all, I’m an international student and recently started doing timed LR drills, beginning with 10 questions in 11 minutes, and I’m having a really difficult time adjusting.
When I work untimed, I can usually understand the stimulus clearly and get almost all of the questions right. But once I turn on the timer, it feels like my reading comprehension suddenly gets much worse. Sometimes I have to reread the stimulus because I don’t fully process it the first time. Even when I do understand the stimulus, I often feel like I lose my ability to prephrase or use POE effectively. Answer choices that I would normally eliminate pretty easily suddenly all look plausible to me.
Because my performance drops so much under time pressure, I’ve also started getting anxious as soon as I begin a timed drill. Sometimes I want to quit the drill halfway through, and lately I’ve been feeling extremely mentally exhausted. I’ve even reached the point where seeing LSAT material can make me feel physically nauseous.
I tried taking breaks, but I also noticed that after taking several days off, I felt even rustier when I came back, so I’m not sure that simply taking more time off is the answer.
Has anyone experienced something similar when first transitioning from untimed work to timed drills? Is this a normal part of building speed, or does it suggest that I should go back and strengthen my fundamentals before continuing with timed practice? I’d especially appreciate advice on how to maintain stimulus comprehension, prephrasing, and POE under time pressure!
4 comments
Don't view 10 questions in 11 minutes a something reasonably achievable right now. That benchmark is usually given for people who are able to achieve high 160s and into the 170s under standard timing. But it's not meant to be a goal that everyone should set for themselves, regardless of their current skills.
I recommend continuing to do drills untimed, but start incorporating timed sections. When you do timed sections, turn off the clock by clicking on it in the top right, and then just get as far as you can. Guess on whatever you don't have time for. The goal is simply to read and think as you normally do as if you weren't being timed.
Thank you Kevin, this is really helpful! I just want to make sure I’m understanding you correctly.
Before starting timed practice, I had already drilled each LR question type through Levels 1–4 and generally moved on once I was around 80%+ accuracy. My tutor then suggested starting with 10 questions in 11 minutes before moving to full timed sections.
Level 1 went fine, and Level 2 was initially manageable, but my performance actually started getting worse the more timed Level 2 drills I did. I’ve now done close to 160 Level 2 questions this way, so I’m also worried about burning through too many questions without improving.
My understanding is that I should stop using the 10-questions-in-11-minutes benchmark for now, go back to untimed mixed LR drills for accuracy and reasoning, and separately do full 35-minute sections with the clock hidden and just get as far as I can. Is that right? For the untimed mixed drills, would you recommend working through Levels 2–5? Thanks again for your help!
Yes, that's right. For untimed mixed drills, I wouldn't necessarily work through each individual difficulty, but perhaps a drill of level 2 and 3, then level 3 and 4, then level 4 and 5 (assuming that you're hitting desired accuracy for each drill).
The 10 in 11 minutes or any other benchmark you hear about is almost certainly meant in connection with a section. On average, the first 10 questions are easier than the rest of a section, which is why it's possible to work through those more quickly. But if you pull 10 questions from elsewhere in the section or from a random mix of other sections, the timing estimate breaks down because those other questions aren't meant to collectively be completable in 11 minutes or whatever other timeframe. That's why it's not surprising at all that you felt OK at level 1 and mostly level 2, because those are the easier kinds of questions that you'd tend to see in the first 10 of a section.
Thank you Kevin, this clears things up a lot!! I’ll adjust my practice plan accordingly. Thanks again for your help!