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Laabradir33
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For my own section I know that if I am at question 10 and its 10 min mark I am not doing that great and I need to really push myself otherwise I am not going to have a good second round and I rely on that 8-10 min left at the end of the section to bring my error rate down from what could have been a -3 section to now a -1 or less.
At 10 min mark my goal is to be at question 13 or higher. The reason is that there are a lot of easy questions in the first 10 min and I need to get those done in 40 sec if not less to bank time for my harder questions which need more time. So when I encounter a difficult question that I cannot do fast regardless of what question I am on, whether it be question number 1 or 8 or 12 or 22 -it does not matter, my goal is to recognize when I cannot do this question under a minute and skip it. So you want to be hitting 25 question in 25-26 min mark with bubbled in answers as well.
At this point I usually have 2 questions I don't have any idea about, 2 50-50, and 2 questions I would just like to verify but I am confident that they are correct. That's a total of 6 questions for 10 min left. But not all of these questions will take that time. Because you took some time off after a first read and you will be surprised how the second time you read it you can instantly see the answer this time around. In the end this leaves me with one question that I really struggle with and may even have a third round on. Or I may decide to miss that question if it's extremely difficult and just make sure I can gain full confidence on my other questions. With this strategy I have a lot of times been able to get down my errors to really low.
But any time I am tired or slow or not skipping hard questions fast enough or not moving on after I spot the right answer on easy questions I always know I am not going to do as great on this section. I pretty much know that's when I am in trouble. It's pretty much a guarantee. In this case my best chances are a -3 because of the bad way I played this section.
I know it seems difficult but what really changed things for me was when I started video taping myself. I realized I was spending unnecessary time on some questions. Trust me, it sounds counter intuitive to skip 4 questions on first round and expect to do great, but evidence says that those 4 questions require us to slow down and take our time. But since it's likely that you will miss questions from those 4, if you take the time upfront to do them you will end up rushing through the easier ones as now you won't have much time and now you are looking on missing easier questions as well.
I hope this was helpful. : )
I am not at @Sami's level yet, but video recording myself has really changed me too. Now I know what I should and should not do under timed conditions!
If I can think of a turning point in my LR prep I would say it was when I started video recording myself too. That information about yourself is invaluable to improvement.
@Sami Your comment is incredibly helpful and thank you so much! So based on what you said, I assume you attempt (not solve) every single question during your 1st round? Do you have any specific Q type that you skip without even attempting? I always skip Pardox Qs and and Principle Qs in the first round because those question types usually takes longer and are harder than other types. But the problem is when I do skip those Qs, I have too many questions skipped when I reach Q25 or 26.
Also, how long does it take you to decide to move on for difficult questions? 30 secs? 45 secs? Lastly, do you move on without reading the rest of answer choices once you find the right one for easier questions?
Yeah, I am definitely very liberal at skipping. I don't try to second guess myself, I have done this enough times in practice to know that if I don't know I need to skip and things will be fine. I have to trust my process.
I would say you should give each question a fair shot. You should skip based on how difficult the argument in the stimulus feels to you but not on the question type. If you find yourself skipping a particular question type like the paradox Q's you mentioned, I think you should drill these question types till you get very comfortable with them.
I have definitely been where you have been and looking back I got my speed and accuracy to increase through a combination of a good section strategy and most importantly by increasing my understanding of arguments better. Most if not all of the stimulus you encounter in LR are cookie cutter which means that the argument form has appeared before just the subject matter has changed. Knowing those patterns is what gives me speed, a lot of the difficulty for me now lies in grammar.
This is exactly what I will be doing in my upcoming Free LR tutoring. My hope is I can structure these sessions to show these common cookie cutter patterns that occur in LR stimulus. So stay tuned.
It really depends, if I just read through a stimulus and I have a hard time understanding the argument its time for me to skip. Hopefully just reading the stimulus only took me 30 sec or less. If I read through answer choices, hopefully I realized quickly I am getting lost and confused and I skip it in additional 5-10 sec. Maybe I read all and then I am like oh no, I need to skip. Hopefully 40 seconds. Anything more and I want to hone in and see what took me so long to skip.
Yes!!!!!! absolutely. That's how I save time for harder questions
. Without this it would simply be impossible for me to get to my goal.
Hey! I think everyone's strategies differ. I think it is important to find the strategy that works for you. I think @Sami 's advice is great, but I also happen to employ a different strategy.
I don't do the first 10 questions all that fast, and honestly, if I hit 10 questions in 10 min, I think I am right on the target. I usually try to spend a minute on the first 10 questions (not over, but not less either), because I am afraid of making a careless mistake. I read the stimulus in 25-30 sec usually (depends on the length) 7~10 seconds to prephrase, and 20 seconds to choose an answer. So you see, I spend majority of the time to read the stimulus and prephrase. It really doesn't take long to read over all the answer choices before moving on, because if you know what you are looking for, the wrong answers are quite obvious.
If I spot an answer choice that seems right, I keep that in mind but I don't judge the answer choice any further, because I might develop a bias for that answer. I choose it only when other options are completely eliminated. That way I can avoid careless mistakes.
Even with 10 min spent on the first 10 Qs, I don't have a timing issue. I think the key for me is not doing the easy Qs fast, but doing the hard Qs as efficiently as I can. I DO NOT mean rushing. Hard Qs are more difficult than easy Qs because either the stimulus is more convoluted, or the AC is. The relationship between the correct answer and the argument core is more unclear. So it is important to not get bogged down by unnecessary details but focus on the structure: the nature of the premise, the nature of the conclusion, and how the conclusion is supported. (And also having a flexible but a precise prephrase in mind)
If you identify these fast, then the hard Qs don't take long to answer. Honestly harder Qs may take me 10 ~15 seconds more, but they don't take drastically more time for me.
I don't skip more than 2~3 questions in a section and need less than 5 min to go over them at the end.
So how liberal you want to employ the skipping strategy & how fast you want to answer some of the easier questions is up to you. Whatever makes you feel comfortable. I personally feel comfortable being as thorough as I can with each question and won't have peace of mind if I just choose the right answer and not eliminate the rest. The key is to find your own rhythm to things.
Hey @Sami , I see you said you are all bubbled in by 25 mins so am I correct in assuming you are bubbling as you go? For the questions skipped, did you just leave those blank and unbubbled? If so, have you ever had bubbling issues where you misbubbled by those spaces being open and accidentally forgetting to skip that bubble, etc? I don't like skipping questions(unless doing it before turning the page) precisely because of potential bubbling issues with blank spaces all over. I realize skipping is ideal so any insight would be great. Thanks for the great writeup.
I am bubbled in by end of 26 min. I usually do it every two pages but I am guilty of sometimes bubbling in at three pages -I need to be more consistent.
If I cannot make an educated guess I put a slight dash next to that number on bubble sheet. So in that way I did something and I am not going to miss bubble by having all my bubbles be one up. I have made bubbling errors but it's not because of skipping issues.
For questions I am 50-50 I do make an educated guess on the answer sheet but I don't circle an answer on my test booklet. This way when I come back I am not influenced by the answer I had originally picked.
I do want to add to my earlier post that on my first round there are questions that take me a bit more than a minute. Those are hard questions and that's fine as long as I know that this is the right process. Just know when to leave because you you can't do it in a timely manner. What helps me get to the 25 in 25 is doing other questions in 20/30/40 seconds.
Yes to all of this! Just this morning, I decided "Hey Zach, skip as liberally as possible." So I did, and scored my best LR score for a section to date! I finished the section with about 8 minutes left (had three blank questions and a couple 50/50's to review) and was able to get almost all of those correct on round two. On about half of the questions, the answers literally jumped out to me to the point that I thought "how could I have possibly missed this on my first go-around?" Especially if you have the basic skills down (my BR scores are mid 170's, so I think I do) it all comes down to time management within the section. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write out your timing breakdown. Your comments were very helpful!
Thank you everyone for sharing your time strategies. It seems like I haven't been skipping any questions in the first round and tried to finish everything on first round. I'll try some of the strategies that you guys shared. Again thanks so much!!
Yeah, I second everything @Sami said. The difference between most -0/-1 scorers is not that we just read everything perfectly and don't fall into traps and understand arguments and answer choices immediately. The difference is we buy ourselves the time to correct those mistakes when we feel like we may have made them. All of this rests on a very strong understanding of the fundamentals, of course, but I've seen confident pacing and skipping strategies--time after time--be the difference between -4 and -1. Really well explained Sami.
I love you people... @Sami you are such a kind soul.
That is really sweet of you to say.
Thank you 
@Sami What device do you use to record yourself? How does this recording thing work? (as in do you record yourself taking a full PT and replay the recording to see which questions you are spending a lot of time on?)
Also just wanted to add that I'm new to 7sage and it is so incredible to see this community supporting one another :')
I've been doing it with my phone.
Are you allowed to make marks on your answer bubble sheet, for example circling #13 and #16 to indicate that you skipped those? I know that if your answer is C you should only make a mark on the C bubble and nothing else, but can you circle the numbers to the left of it?
Don't want to get in the habit of doing this during PT's haha
Yes, I was having the same question while reading @Sami's strategy
@therealnas @cgracia12 Technically, no. But if you do it lightly you should have a few seconds at the end to erase. I think even if you didn't end up erasing, it wouldn't mess up the scantron.
I make a very slight dash on the bubble sheet for questions I skipped entirely just so I can return to them instantly without trying to find them. It takes a second to erase. The rest of my markings are done on the test booklet.
Hey so I use my ipad pro to record myself. I record my first three section. Then during my 15 min break I just click to transfer it to my lap top while I go enjoy the remaining 13 min. My Ipad pro stays connected to my lap top while I record myself so moving it isn't too much of an effort. Right before the break ends I delete my video recording on ipad and record my 4th and 5th section.
Alternatively you can just record your first three sections. You don't need all 5.
Crap... That's good to know. I think I'll just get in the habit of leaving the scantron blank on the ones I'm unsure of and rely more on circling questions on the test booklet. Better safe than sorry haha
Thanks again @AllezAllez21 @therealnas and @Sami . You guys are very helpful, thank you for finding the time for answering everyone's questions.