Circling Strategies

NotMyName

I've heard very little about this. Does anyone use a particular method for triaging LR questions you want to return to? Dark/light circles/squares? Marking a question "completed" after you return and feel 100% confident?

Thanks!

AllezAllez21

I do a circle for questions that I skip or feel very unconfident with my answer, a circle with a dash in the middle for questions that I feel medium/low confidence for, and only a dash for questions I am pretty sure I got right but would like to double check if time allows.

I'm not sure any more nuance than 3 levels of priority is really any more helpful, it seems marginally beneficial for the extra work.

NotMyName

@AllezAllez21 that makes sense to me. thanks for sharing

dml277

I do three different kinds of circles too. The key seems to be training yourself to know immediately what kind of circle the question deserves and having a rough idea of where to go to first after you have reached the end of the section. For that reason, I also put a tiny dash next to the question number on my scantron for questions I'd like to return to first (the very low confidence ones). That way I don't have to worry about forgetting to go back to the most urgent questions.

TheMikey

If I feel 100% on a question, I just choose an AC and move on. If I don't feel confident then I circle the questions number and go back to it later.

nathanieljschwartz

I use a circle on questions i skipped and a triangle on questions i am less than 80 % on

Alex

@jkatz1488 said:
I've heard very little about this. Does anyone use a particular method for triaging LR questions you want to return to? Dark/light circles/squares? Marking a question "completed" after you return and feel 100% confident?

Thanks!

I don't think I've ever even considered using a method like this. Pretty awesome idea to have different shapes perhaps to delineate different levels of "completeness." I think I may implement something along these lines.

Cant Get Right

I also use three different markings:

A slash for questions I have high confidence on but would like to confirm. These are the lowest priority for when I return at the end. If I don't make it back to them, it's okay: I probably got it right anyway.

A circle for something where I understood and just seem to missing some key detail. These are often the questions I've gotten down to two answer choices and just can't make an intelligent differentiation. I'm usually 50/50 or 60/40 on these. I usually give these top priority because I can usually answer them with high confidence very quickly once I come back to them. Great returns on the time investment.

A triple circle for something I didn't understand at all, or that I just know is going to take a lot of time and effort to figure out. I just don't want to get bogged down on my first pass. I prioritize these below the circles but above the slashes. These will be the hardest questions on the section and so they're the ones I'm most likely to miss anyway. Getting them right often requires a very large time investment that I'm not willing to make until I have every other point first.