Difficulty with timing

spitzy11

Hi all,

I just finished my second PT and the timing just killed me. I think my attempt at further analysis of the questions is limiting my time even more than it already is. Is this something that improves as time goes on with more experience? My schedule is PT Monday, BR Tues-Fri (I work Tues-Fri.) and review struggling areas on Saturdays/Sundays. Would incorporating single timed sections help? Any suggestions are appreciated. I am taking in September Thanks!

goingfor99th

Do you skip questions that give you trouble after a certain amount of time, or do you hyperfocus until you are able to select an answer, regardless of how unsure you feel about your selection? The key to timing is being able to pry yourself away from a question you struggle with, with the intention to return later to try again when you find more time. This is also what I'd consider a late-stage development in LSAT preparation. It comes when you have a firm grasp on all question types and how to approach them.

BirdLaw818

You will definitely get faster. Keep reviewing your problem areas, and you should definitely incorporate single timed sections. It depends on how firm your grasp of the fundamentals is...or where you're scoring.

I couldnt imagine finishing on time on my first or second PTs.

alyssamcc0593

I am having the same problem! I found that skipping the question after spending more than 3 minutes on it (lets say for LR), I would move on and mark it down. In the BR I would then go back and retry the question with unlimited time. I keep a log of questions I skip and started noticing a pattern, so I started drilling those types of questions and it has definitely helped!

Also, like people said above you will most likely get faster! Getting used to the pace of the LSAT test can be hard, but i am sure once you keep taking tests you will get the hang of it.

Best of luck I am sure you will do great!

akistotle

Since I know others are going to give you great advice, what I can do is to recommend this webinar:

Skip It! Skipping Strategies Panel

https://7sage.com/webinar/skip-it/
One of the hottest topics around, this all-start panel will explores each of our methodologies for skipping questions. Participants include JY Ping, Jimmy Dahroug, Corey Janson, and Allison Gill Sanford.

J.Y. and Sages talk about the benefits of skipping

Alex

@spitzy11 said:
Hi all,

I just finished my second PT and the timing just killed me. I think my attempt at further analysis of the questions is limiting my time even more than it already is. Is this something that improves as time goes on with more experience? My schedule is PT Monday, BR Tues-Fri (I work Tues-Fri.) and review struggling areas on Saturdays/Sundays. Would incorporating single timed sections help? Any suggestions are appreciated. I am taking in September Thanks!

So developing a good skipping strategy is going to be most helpful. I attribute the webinar @akistotle posted above for being the reason I went from missing 6-7 per LR section and sometimes almost not finishing to missing 3-4 and having a good few minutes to go back and check my work.

Is timing a problem on all the sections for you or just a particular section?

Cant Get Right

Skipping is an easy way to bank lots of time, and it's something that you can do at any level. Definitely get comfortable with that. More advanced pacing comes from mastery and it's not something you should probably be too too worried about until you're really killing your BR. The first few PTs in, you almost definitely need to be more focused on your fundamentals than anything else. Once you're to the point where your BR score is where it needs to be, then you can start doing footage review and confidence drills which really target advanced pacing. For now, focus on untimed section drills to continue developing your fundamentals. As that improves, so will your speed.

extramedium

@spitzy11

I definitely recommend checking out the When To Skip webinar. I found it highly useful when I was trying to improve timing. Another big one was confidence drills, which is basically just blowing through a section as fast as you can and quickly moving on from questions you're nearly certain you've gotten right.

Aside from that, I try to drill two RCs and two LR sections every week, alternating and not finishing my entire LR BRs, so I have some questions to do before I take another LR drill.

Good luck!

spitzy11

Thank you all so much! I am definitely going to watch that Webinar ASAP. I am also going to start incorporating timed sections as well. I'll start implementing the confidence drills once I am at my desired BR score. Thank you all for sharing your wisdom!