Stuck: BR Low 170's, Timed mid 150's

IreneeeK

I am working towards a faster pace for the test questions but have tremendous difficulty lowering the time spent. I can score close to perfect on the logic games with an additional 20 minutes and LR & RC roughly the same. I am not certain how to overcome this with multiple factors of working full time and being a single mom of 2. I am scheduled to take the Feb 2017 LSAT and feel unprepared for the time factor. What is the most efficient way to decrease time? And should I schedule to take the LSAT in June 2017 given the issues above? Thank you for your help:)

BinghamtonDave

First and most importantly, I think you should withdraw from the February exam. Take when you are ready in my opinion. Takes on this exam are a precious thing.

Second, you appear to have the skills: you are essentially in a really great spot moving forward. The process of getting your BR and timed to level off will include in my estimation more familiarization with the material, a specific review of your weaknesses timed and focused drilling (among other techniques.) Are there any specific question type on LR that are taking you longer than say a minute and half to do? How much time do the first two games of the section take you combined?

texvd1988

You're in a good spot. I would much rather have the potential to score a 170 but need timing than scoring in the 160's with timing down.

That's where I am right now. And I have not BR'ed in the 170's yet. So it seems like you have a grasp on things, but just need the timing to work.

full.moon.howler94

@BinghamtonDave said:
First and most importantly, I think you should withdraw from the February exam. Take when you are ready in my opinion. Takes on this exam are a precious thing.

I would agree with this, but of course it's ultimately your call. If you can afford to take the test when your feeling thoroughly confident in being able to achieve your goal score, then go for that, whether that be February or June or whenever.

I always look at my BR scores as a representation of both potential and understanding of the content of the test. So, the fact that your up in the170's is awesome! What helped me to improve my timing was progressive, timed drilling. I'd do a timed drill of a single game, or a single RC passage with Q's, or say 10 LR questions. Once I got the timing there down solidly, I moved on to drilling sections. This way I became familiar with both my flow and proper speed for individual questions, and the more comprehensive timing strategies for sections as a whole.

How many tests have you already gone through? Going for content you haven't seen before is of course valuable, but i've also seen benefit in terms of RC timing by re-doing passages I did awhile ago (but, i've also gone through a lot of tests already). I don't actually remember the Q's but the little psychological edge that i've seen that passage before helped build my confidence and a proper speed habit.

Best of luck whenever you do decide to take, and also more power to you for taking on this test while still accomplishing all that you are, I think that's really impressive!

DumbHollywoodActor

Three things:
1. A lot of timing comes down to how fast you do the 1- and 2-star questions. Are you measuring this? We all love to focus our BR on the hard questions, but an equally important task during our review is "how could I have recognized the pattern or cookie cutter quality of this question so that I could have quickly anticipated the correct answer --- also know as a "pre-phrase"-- and honed in on it quickly rather than using the slower process of elimination method?" A top scorer generally answers 7-10 questions in well under 40 seconds per question. This will give you more time in the bank to wade through the 4- and 5-star questions.

2. Skip questions, like a champ. A nice rule of thumb is however many questions you are getting wrong in LR, double that number and set out to skip that number of questions within 30 seconds of beginning the question. That way you'll have finished your first pass of the 25 questions with at least 7 minutes left. Some strive for a 25 questions in 25 minutes strategy. For a great example of this, watch the videos after PT 37 (https://7sage.com/lesson/preptest-37-preface-to-live-commentary-videos/).

3. Don't try to think faster. You can't directly do this. You'll only succeed at rushing and making knuckle head mistakes. Focus on understanding instead with thorough BRs and post-BR

Cant Get Right

@DumbHollywoodActor said:
Don't try to think faster. You can't directly do this. You'll only succeed at rushing and making knuckle head mistakes.

This is where I screwed up so badly for so long. Speed doesn't come from literally going really really fast. It comes from deep understanding and effective section strategy.

@BinghamtonDave said:
I think you should withdraw from the February exam.

Agreed.

IreneeeK

@BinghamtonDave I have a tendency to waste time on more difficult LG games. The first 2 are roughly 16-18 minutes. I think the only way to improve speed is more drilling of similar sets until it becomes second nature. Unfortunately I have rushed through sets and not given them proper understanding.

I struggle skipping difficult LR questions. Its more of "why the f... cant I see this" ..."no I'm not going to cave and skip." Andddd 2:30 wasted. And I want to burn the exam. I waste time forcing out the correct answer. Generally struggle with parallel reasoning questions - tend to panic with the longer stimulus questions.

I agree. Withdrawal from the Feb exam is the logical decision.
I appreciate your feedback!

IreneeeK

@full.moon.howler94

I like your idea of timed smaller segments. It would be easier to achieve given my schedule:)
I have completed 7 timed exams. Returning to the RC questions may be helpful, I will give it a go and see if it helps improve my speed.

At this point in time I feel withdrawing would be the most logical decision. Thank you for your well wishes and ideas!

IreneeeK

@DumbHollywoodActor
1) Excellent idea. I need to make pre-phrasing my highest priority for the LR questions. I freeze up with the length of a stimulus, then increase to speed reading, which is completely useless as I have to re-read the stimulus because I did not understand nor retain any of the information in the stimulus.
2) I am horrible at skipping. But I understand the logic of skipping difficult questions. For me, it is learning to swallow my pride, and adapt to a different approach, especially with time as the main obstacle.
3) Yes! I have learned that speed reading results in re-reading. For me, it is a snowball effect, resulting from not skipping the difficult questions as you mentioned above.

I appreciate your comments and ideas!
Thank you again:)

Sami

Hey

@IreneeeK said:
no I'm not going to cave and skip." Andddd 2:30 wasted. And I want to burn the exam.

I used to feel the same way about skipping I used to think "I want to burn this exam and there is no way I am letting this single question keep me from doing that!".

What eventually helped me was that I learned to think about LSAT as similar to the analogy of climbing a ladder. Where my goal is 180 but I have to climb all the steps between1-180 first. This required me to set temporary lower goals.
For example if 180 is heaven, and the ladder that gets to it has 180 steps that you have to climb and you are at step #154, will your next step be 180? Nope, you next steps are going to be 155, 156, and so on. So its not that you are not setting your sight on that 180, its that you are setting your sight on that next immediate step you have to take to eventually be able to get to that 180.

Now if we apply this same ladder strategy to our lsat prep, to first get from mid 150's to 180's, you will have to cross that 160 threshold. Based on September 2016 LSAT curve you could have missed 27 questions and still scored a 160! That's an entire section! So why not at first make your strategy be to get all the questions you can get correct so you have climbed up to a 160 range. So if you can miss about 27 questions, why not skip all these hard questions and get the easy ones first! So next time you want to burn LSAT, you can simply say well currently in order to burn you I need to take my next step towards 160 and this requires me to skip this question that I did not understand when I just read it. Skip it and move on and get to 160's. : )

Once you start scoring in 160's you can work on your next temporary goal of getting even better. A 165 score allows you to miss about 18 questions! and later you can work on that 170 which allows you to miss about 12 questions! I believe seeing the big end goal is great, but breaking it down into smaller pieces that can be tackled is essential to get to our end goal.

So next time you get to that question you know you did not understand on your first read, tell yourself, I am going to burn you but right now I need to put one foot in front of another and climb my next step in the ladder, so I will skip you 180 and get that 160 first. : )