How to Improve on Timing

skrishnan

I am currently finishing the section in about 36.45 minutes. I have just started drilling RC today after realising my issue with the timing.
When I do individual passages I usually do it in 9-10 minutes with -0 but with timed sections it's closer to -5 or -6.
I'm also worried about bubbling in the answers within the 35 minutes, as right now i spend close to 4m on reading and about 6 min with the answers which gives me hardly enough time to even finish all the questions
I'm slightly worried, I'm planning to take the December Lsat, is it possible for me to reach my goal of -2 within time by then?

Any strategies, turning points stories would be great!

Thanks

OlamHafuch

6 minutes on the questions is way too much. Are you spending time going back and forth between answers?

skrishnan

Not always. 6 minutes for the passages with 7-8 questions.
Although, sometimes I do refer back to the passage, but I feel the time sink is strangely reading the question stem, I've made mistakes with that previously when they are asking for something very specific, so now i'm extra paranoid with that.

OlamHafuch

How long are you taking to read the question stem?

Victoria-1

I was having the same issue, so I tried foolprofing RC like you would LGs. Worked wonders! I think sometimes we need to re-enforce what correct pacing feels like. Worked for me at least

amedley88

@"Victoria-1" said:
I was having the same issue, so I tried foolprofing RC like you would LGs. Worked wonders! I think sometimes we need to re-enforce what correct pacing feels like. Worked for me at least

That's an interesting idea... Has anyone else done this before? If you could explain more, that would be great... How many did you do per day? Did you BR afterwards? What was your exact method? This is a pretty rough section for me as well so I want to get a good system going for the December test. Right now I'm at about -8, would like to get that up to -4 for the test...

acsimon

I've seen these questions often arise on the threads (in regards to RC). I've been meaning to write up a more thorough strategy guide for the RC, but have too much on my plate right now (as I'm sure most of you do).

In lieu of that, let me chime in here.

(1) If you're not doing well on RC because of struggles with the question types or with the content in general, slow down. Don't even do timed sections!--Set aside like 5-10 PTs just working on the memory method, your favorite highlighting strategies, or what have you. Don't even do the thing where you keep track of your time without trying to complete the section under the alotted 35min.

Two reasons. First, you're going to rush yourself when you're clocking yourself--it's just a tendency. But at this stage, you do yourself a disservice--you just want to spend as much time you need to be comfortable with the passage and the question types, without even thinking about time. And then you'll of course review and reflect and do this again for other sections/passages (btw, at first, you probably should just do individual passage, review, individual passage, review...after a while you can move onto sections, still untimed).

But, lest I forget, second reason. You are really in no position to do well on a timed section and, unless you have some natural talent with the RC (some do, many don't), your score will be negatively impacted and you don't need that negativity at this stage. You're trying to build up empirically supported confidence, not trying to kill yourself by letting yourself know how bad you are too early--often when it will be unhelpful and even detrimental to your improvement.

So much for support. Remember, at this stage don't worry about time.

(2) But it sounds like you have some basic understanding of the RC down and some accuracy. Here, I would transition into just timing yourself (on individual passages and then whole sections), but not necessarily trying to complete the section in the allotted time. Review and repeat. Really, you want to really hone the strategies you've been practicing untimed and note both your accuracy and the time it usually takes.

There's a lot more to be said about this stage, but...shit, I'm lazy, and have to get back to my thesis:)

(3) Well, once you're pretty decent with the RC sections as far as accuracy is concerned (I'm talking no worse than -4 usually), then do a couple of complete timed passages. Note your accuracy, how many you get right, how many you didn't get to, etc. I would say don't do more than 3-4 like this.

(4) Unless your percentages on the answers you complete drop way off--this does not count the ones you are not getting to in time---you can do this to improve your time. Print 5-10 individual sections, and do them--but timing for 30mins.

I've seen people say that the 7sage apt timing scroller is stupid...nah, homie--it's not. Pushing yourself through passages (after your have a fair degree of competence with the RC, of course), while knowing that your are really under the gun, helps with two things:

(A) You naturally develop strategies to process the passage more efficiently: you'll mark the passage more effectively and not too much, you'll really home in on certain aspects of every passage that every question set will hit upon, and so on. This really helps because you'll find yourself looking back a lot less at the passage and also looking back more efficiently as well.

(B) I don't know about y'all, but a lot of time I spent on RC came from reading the q-stems and also hovering between multiple answer choices. Doing sections when timing for 30mins eliminates that shit. You simply have to get good at scanning through the question stems in a couple of glances, comprehending what the question is asking, and barrelling through the questions. Two answer choices look good--guess what? you don't have time to iny miny moe those mofos for 30-45 seconds, you still have two passages left.--Your subconsicous will tell you to pick one and more the f' on. You'll be surprise how much quicker you make it through passages & questions this way after you do a few.

Of course, you want to review afterwards. If you drop off--well, you can use some more work on the substantive strategies you're employing. If you don't but still are getting a few of those questions where you thought that two (or more!) answer choices looked good, you'll want to look hard at these. Perhaps you just made a mistake or perhaps, there's some general lesson that can be taken away and employed subconsciously to RC sections in the future. For instance, it might be that both answers seem right, but one is more specific to the particular passage you're reading (in this case, choose the more specific). Or it might be that one answer choice makes a stronger claim than the other, both of which are somewhat connected to the material in the passage (in this case choose the weaker)

Anyways, this is a method that I've just recently employed because I felt like the RC section was just pushing me to where I was always uncomfortable as far as timing on the 4th passage. I hated it. But now I can finish a given RC section in 30 min with (-2 to 0--usually -1 unfortunately; always make that one damn mistake). I figure, if that's the case, then I'll be able to finish the actual thing in 35 min, no problem. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking?:)

skrishnan

@uhinberg I haven't timed it exactly yet. Will do a passage today and let you know.
@Victoria-1 Wow, I hadn't thought of that. However, I'd like to know a bit more. Don't you inherently retain the details a lot more with each read and begin to memorise the answers, I thought that way before starting to foolproof LG as well, so I totally believe it works. Any insight on how you spaced it out?
@acsimon Thank you so much for this! I can't wait to get to a point where i can finish the section in 30 min! But I'm excited to put in the work it takes for that. I'm doing pretty well on the untimed sections and passages, but yes i do need more familiarity with the question stems!

Thanks again and good luck with your thesis

amedley88

@acsimon said:
I've seen these questions often arise on the threads (in regards to RC). I've been meaning to write up a more thorough strategy guide for the RC, but have too much on my plate right now (as I'm sure most of you do).

In lieu of that, let me chime in here.

(1) If you're not doing well on RC because of struggles with the question types or with the content in general, slow down. Don't even do timed sections!--Set aside like 5-10 PTs just working on the memory method, your favorite highlighting strategies, or what have you. Don't even do the thing where you keep track of your time without trying to complete the section under the alotted 35min.

Two reasons. First, you're going to rush yourself when you're clocking yourself--it's just a tendency. But at this stage, you do yourself a disservice--you just want to spend as much time you need to be comfortable with the passage and the question types, without even thinking about time. And then you'll of course review and reflect and do this again for other sections/passages (btw, at first, you probably should just do individual passage, review, individual passage, review...after a while you can move onto sections, still untimed).

But, lest I forget, second reason. You are really in no position to do well on a timed section and, unless you have some natural talent with the RC (some do, many don't), your score will be negatively impacted and you don't need that negativity at this stage. You're trying to build up empirically supported confidence, not trying to kill yourself by letting yourself know how bad you are too early--often when it will be unhelpful and even detrimental to your improvement.

So much for support. Remember, at this stage don't worry about time.

(2) But it sounds like you have some basic understanding of the RC down and some accuracy. Here, I would transition into just timing yourself (on individual passages and then whole sections), but not necessarily trying to complete the section in the allotted time. Review and repeat. Really, you want to really hone the strategies you've been practicing untimed and note both your accuracy and the time it usually takes.

There's a lot more to be said about this stage, but...shit, I'm lazy, and have to get back to my thesis:)

(3) Well, once you're pretty decent with the RC sections as far as accuracy is concerned (I'm talking no worse than -4 usually), then do a couple of complete timed passages. Note your accuracy, how many you get right, how many you didn't get to, etc. I would say don't do more than 3-4 like this.

(4) Unless your percentages on the answers you complete drop way off--this does not count the ones you are not getting to in time---you can do this to improve your time. Print 5-10 individual sections, and do them--but timing for 30mins.

I've seen people say that the 7sage apt timing scroller is stupid...nah, homie--it's not. Pushing yourself through passages (after your have a fair degree of competence with the RC, of course), while knowing that your are really under the gun, helps with two things:

(A) You naturally develop strategies to process the passage more efficiently: you'll mark the passage more effectively and not too much, you'll really home in on certain aspects of every passage that every question set will hit upon, and so on. This really helps because you'll find yourself looking back a lot less at the passage and also looking back more efficiently as well.

(B) I don't know about y'all, but a lot of time I spent on RC came from reading the q-stems and also hovering between multiple answer choices. Doing sections when timing for 30mins eliminates that shit. You simply have to get good at scanning through the question stems in a couple of glances, comprehending what the question is asking, and barrelling through the questions. Two answer choices look good--guess what? you don't have time to iny miny moe those mofos for 30-45 seconds, you still have two passages left.--Your subconsicous will tell you to pick one and more the f' on. You'll be surprise how much quicker you make it through passages & questions this way after you do a few.

Of course, you want to review afterwards. If you drop off--well, you can use some more work on the substantive strategies you're employing. If you don't but still are getting a few of those questions where you thought that two (or more!) answer choices looked good, you'll want to look hard at these. Perhaps you just made a mistake or perhaps, there's some general lesson that can be taken away and employed subconsciously to RC sections in the future. For instance, it might be that both answers seem right, but one is more specific to the particular passage you're reading (in this case, choose the more specific). Or it might be that one answer choice makes a stronger claim than the other, both of which are somewhat connected to the material in the passage (in this case choose the weaker)

Anyways, this is a method that I've just recently employed because I felt like the RC section was just pushing me to where I was always uncomfortable as far as timing on the 4th passage. I hated it. But now I can finish a given RC section in 30 min with (-2 to 0--usually -1 unfortunately; always make that one damn mistake). I figure, if that's the case, then I'll be able to finish the actual thing in 35 min, no problem. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking?:)

I really liked this, thanks a lot for posting that man. I will use this as a blueprint for my intensive RC preparation that begins TODAY!

acsimon

I should also mention that you don't have to be a memory master/giant to benefit from this. I, myself, had a hemorrhage about ten years ago which has affected some aspects of my memory (so hard for me to remember the lyrics to rap songs after a few listens like I used to--for me, the worst) and so don't let things like your thought that you're "below average" at retaining information give you a reason to be satisfied on this section. You can improve on it, both on accuracy and definitely on timing!

Good luck to you all!--A.c.S

Victoria-1

@amedley88 @skrishnan

This is my basic method:

1) Do the passage timed (note how long it took)
2) Blind Review - I do this by doing the entire passage and questions untimed, generally writing my reasoning next to each answer choice and noting where in the passage I found support for it.
3) Check answers, correct any reasoning issues.
4) Usually the next day (being kind of done with RC on the previous day haha) I will 'foolproof day 1' the passage. I do this by setting a time (usually shoot for under 8 minutes and as low as 5 for the easier passages) and do the passage over and over until I get all the answers correct within the time I set for myself (if incorrect answers, I may consult my BR copy to see the reasoning I wrote down for that question). After doing a section or two of this, I now usually only have to do the passage once or twice to be in the correct time.
5) The next day I will do the passage one more time (like you would logic games) to ensure I can still do it correctly and in good time.

Of course, I do remember certain details after doing the passage repeatedly. But I've found that I have also been able to remember more details upon first viewing a passage since foolproofing like this. I find I am also better at anticipating questions as time goes on, but that may be just from doing more RC in general, so take that with a grain of salt. The primary advantage to doing this is timing.

I decided to try this when I realized that, while my accuracy untimed was pretty good, I was only able to (barely) finish 3 passages when PTing. After foolproofing somewhere around 4-8 passages I PTed again, and I finished both RCs in time (used one as an experimental). Now my accuracy under timed conditions certainly does need work, but I am now consistently finishing sections, which is certainly a step in the right direction

Anywho, hope that helps