Timing upwards or downwards while practicing?

navilsat

Hey everyone! Hope your LSAT studies are going well.

I am currently in the process of fool-proof drilling logic games (on PT 15), and usually set a timer upwards. Yet, I realize that I tend to go way over time for many of the games.

My question is should I start timing myself downwards using the suggested time as a limit. Or would it be better to keep timing myself upwards to see my natural pace.

Thank you.

hon132

You might be too focused on the time if you're going upward, it's not a "natural pace" if you keep thinking about how long you're taking and upward requires you to shift more focus on the time. Set an 35 timer with an alarm and make sure you can't see the time or do single games with an expected time.

NotMyName

I will give a competing opinion to @hon132 .

The most common reason we go "slow" on logic games is because we haven't memorized all the inferences, game setups, answering strategies, efficient drawing tactics, etc yet. Speed on games doesn't really refer to hand speed. Sure, we can't take our jolly good time. But if you watch the videos of 7Sagers doing games, you'll see that they're physical speed is not so fast and yet they finish the section in less than 35 minutes. That is because they recognize the inferences etc. FAST! They read a stimulus/rules and just know what sort of things to look out for and pay attention to because they've hammered these lessons into themselves.

If you set a timer for the suggested time, and do no work once the timer ends, you are missing out on a lot of learning. Chances are, you don't even have the knowledge to complete that game in the recommended time because that time is a function of completing the whole set in 35 minutes. For that reason, I recommend using a stop watch and "timing up" until you are completing games close to the suggested time regularly. And even after that point, when you are completing full timed sections of games, I continue to work after the timer goes off but to keep tack of the answer you made within the time constraint.

Alex

I'll keep it short, use a count up timing if you're fool proofing and mark down the times you take to complete each game. As you repeat them and fool roof correctly, that time should start to get lower. The problem with count down timers is once you run out of time, you don't have any reliable way of knowing how much time it actually took.

No matter what, just make sure you are keeping track and noting your time on games.

navilsat

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the advice as always.