People who do 25 in 25 for LR, what is your process?

september

Do you answer every question by the 25 minute mark? Or do you skip some?

How do you pick which questions to re-do in your extra time (obviously if you haven't skipped any questions)? How do you know which ones you made mistakes in? Do you gauge importance based on your confidence level?

Alex

I tend to skip an average of 4 questions when I do 25 in 25. I just try to put eyes on 25 in the first 25 minutes.

I'm not sure I understand what the second part of your question is asking specifically?

Mellow_Z

Bubble in "C" for every answer and you'll finish 25 questions in 25 seconds

sillllyxo

@Mellow_Z said:
Bubble in "C" for every answer and you'll finish 25 questions in 25 seconds

haha.

TheMikey

I typically finish LR in 30 mins, not 25 so idk if you want to hear what I have to say but I'll say it anyways, haha.

This is what I do:
Do the first 10 or so each in about a minute, some even shorter depending on the question. I skip any question if i feel like i have no idea what i just read, I usually skip long questions if they are within the 12-20 range and save them for last, and that is pretty much it.. Get your fundamentals down and you might be able to finish in 20 minutes or less, because there are people who do that. It just depends on how good you are with the Q types honestly, that is where speed comes from.

september

@"Alex Divine" I meant what you do in your second go-around. How do you pick which questions to re-do in your extra time (obviously if you haven't skipped any questions)?

@TheMikey I am where you are now. I usually do well until I get to 15-20, where I lose the most time.

TheMikey

I think what Alex will tell you (is what I do too) is that the ones you go back to are the ones you circle because you're not too confident that you chose the right answer for them.

Sami

So I have a 4 tier system when I go through my section that tells me how much of a priority each question is.

I mark an X for questions that I never want to come back to because I have got the right answer with 100% confidence.

I mark a slash for questions that I didn't read all answer choices for because I am very confident I got this correct.

I mark a tilda next to questions that I think I got it but there was a lot going on in the stimulus that if possible I would like to take a second look at but I am unwilling to spend time on during my first round.

I mark a circle for questions that I am down to 50-50, or I eliminate all answer choices, or that seem very dense or complex and so would have required a lot of time up front. I think I can get these questions but something about them will make me sink time on my first round.

Then I have my double circle. These are questions that I know I will most likely miss because it looks incredibly hard. There is always 1 question on a section that I have a double circle on.

After I am done with my first round, under 25 min, I go back to the beginning of the section and do all the questions that I have a circle on. This is because these are the questions that I am most likely going to gain points on. I was close to getting it and time away from these questions would help me not make the same mistake reading things that I did the first time. Usually my second round on them is extremely fast and I see where I went wrong the first time. But there might sometimes be that one question that I still don't see it and then I upgrade it to a double circle.
(You still want to maintain your speed here and not be slow).

I then attempt my double circles, and I might be a bit slower here but not too slow. Maybe 2 min max. I still want to be fast. Also, I am willing to miss these questions. If I miss 1 question on this section I am still in the running for that 180 on test .

I then do my tildas if I have time, which you should If you followed the section strategy correctly and have more than 10 min left. These should be done in less than 30 seconds even now since these questions were very easy for you and you are just making sure that you didn't miss anything on your first read through. I rarely have to correct my answers but once in a blue moon I will notice a mistake and change my answers. These are what I call those silly errors that I might have made.

Often times at the end of this, I have pretty much blind reviewed my entire LR section under time. I may have to still look at the 1 question that gave me a lot of trouble and was my double circle in blind review but I actually feel very good that I got this section.

september

@Sami Thank you so much! I will be implementing this system.

Alex

@september said:
@"Alex Divine" I meant what you do in your second go-around. How do you pick which questions to re-do in your extra time (obviously if you haven't skipped any questions)?

@TheMikey I am where you are now. I usually do well until I get to 15-20, where I lose the most time.

@TheMikey said:
I think what Alex will tell you (is what I do too) is that the ones you go back to are the ones you circle because you're not too confident that you chose the right answer for them.

Yup! I just go back to the ones circled and go from there. I don't use any fancy double circles or anything like that to triage the questions I am unsure about, but it's actually a great idea!

Gladiator_2017

@Sami thanks for outlining your approach with such specificity! I am able to do 25/26 in 25, but always felt like what now with the ten minutes remaining. I'll be making sure to keep my pacing up during my second round and to prioritize my circled questions. Before, for whatever reason, I was randomly going through the section to decide which question to review. Smh what a waste of time that was!

Felix Mendez

Wow I thought I was starting to get really good at LR until I read Sami's comment. Jesus. I got lots to improve on lol

The Noodley

@Sami your notation strategy is amazing!

Cant Get Right

Thanks for sharing @Sami, that's a really great system and should be standard practice for anyone aiming high.

ZaTabler

I always skip parallel MOR questions. They SUCK

NotMyName

@"Connie Lingus" if you can get good at PR, this is one way to bank a lot of time. There is no better feeling than quickly eliminating ACs with wrong conclusions and answering confidently in 1 minute.

Alex

@jkatz1488 said:
@"Connie Lingus" if you can get good at PR, this is one way to bank a lot of time. There is no better feeling than quickly eliminating ACs with wrong conclusions and answering confidently in 1 minute.

I can't agree more with this. Up until recently I also hated parallel reasoning questions and would just automatically skip most of them. I then dedicated a few days to reviewing them, drilling them, and engaging in some helpful exercises (for example, spending time during BR to diagram all answer choices, and practice making the incorrect ACs correct) Jkatz is absolutely right that if you get good at them you can usually quickly eliminate the ACs and finish most of them without them being a major time sink. The great thing about PR questions is that the argument structures used are usually pretty simplistic. Now I kind of look forward to seeing them on a test like I do SA questions. I think the fact that they are long and a pain in the neck can make us feel like their more hard then they actually are.

tylerdschreur10

My LR strategy is fairly similar to many of you. I try to at least see each question in the first 25 minutes. For each question I slash through ACs that I'm 100% sure are wrong and circle ACs that I feel 100% sure are correct.
Each question with 4 slashes and one circle obviously I'm very confident, so I consider those finished and leave them unmarked. Questions where I have 2 or 3 slashes and one circle in pretty confident, but can't quite eliminate all choices (at high speed) so I circle the question. Then you have your curve breakers, either I don't understand the question, or there seem to be multiple correct choices, these i star and skip.
Once I finish my first run-through I go back through all the circles taking about a minute apiece, often fresh eyes render these easier on round 2, then whatever time is left i attempt to puzzle out the starred Qs.

rafaelito

@Sami said:
So I have a 4 tier system when I go through my section that tells me how much of a priority each question is.

I mark an X for questions that I never want to come back to because I have got the right answer with 100% confidence.

I mark a slash for questions that I didn't read all answer choices for because I am very confident I got this correct.

I mark a tilda next to questions that I think I got it but there was a lot going on in the stimulus that if possible I would like to take a second look at but I am unwilling to spend time on during my first round.

I mark a circle for questions that I am down to 50-50, or I eliminate all answer choices, or that seem very dense or complex and so would have required a lot of time up front. I think I can get these questions but something about them will make me sink time on my first round.

Then I have my double circle. These are questions that I know I will most likely miss because it looks incredibly hard. There is always 1 question on a section that I have a double circle on.

After I am done with my first round, under 25 min, I go back to the beginning of the section and do all the questions that I have a circle on. This is because these are the questions that I am most likely going to gain points on. I was close to getting it and time away from these questions would help me not make the same mistake reading things that I did the first time. Usually my second round on them is extremely fast and I see where I went wrong the first time. But there might sometimes be that one question that I still don't see it and then I upgrade it to a double circle.
(You still want to maintain your speed here and not be slow).

I then attempt my double circles, and I might be a bit slower here but not too slow. Maybe 2 min max. I still want to be fast. Also, I am willing to miss these questions. If I miss 1 question on this section I am still in the running for that 180 on test .

I then do my tildas if I have time, which you should If you followed the section strategy correctly and have more than 10 min left. These should be done in less than 30 seconds even now since these questions were very easy for you and you are just making sure that you didn't miss anything on your first read through. I rarely have to correct my answers but once in a blue moon I will notice a mistake and change my answers. These are what I call those silly errors that I might have made.

Often times at the end of this, I have pretty much blind reviewed my entire LR section under time. I may have to still look at the 1 question that gave me a lot of trouble and was my double circle in blind review but I actually feel very good that I got this section.

Hey Sami, question for you. What's the usefulness between differentiating between 100% confidence with an X and questions with a slash? What if A looks really amazing, too amazing to do POE, and you choose it and move one. Would that be 100% confidence or would that be slash to maybe come back to if you have time (which probably won't happen?)?

I've been doing a very similar strategy to you but with few categories. I'm trying to refine my approach though to add one more category, in between very very confident and mostly confident. Is that kind of what you're getting at with these? I find my over-confident errors are happening more quickly as my overall confidence goes up. Do you do a quick scan if you are mostly sure A is right? How many questions per section require POE?

Thanks!