First 10 questions of LR (speed q)

beezmoof

Hi everyone (sorry for the second post in one day),

Just starting my PT grind, and I've noticed I usually fail to get to the last 2-3 questions in LR. I also feel myself spending too much time on the first ~10 questions on LR, which is concerning because everyone tells me these are the "freebies."

So is there a rule for the general amt of time I should be spending on these questions? I want to say I heard someone say 10 min for the first 10 but I'm not sure if I'm making this up.

I'm thinking about taking old PTs and drilling the first 10-15 LR q and forcing myself to get them all right under a certain amount of time so I have more time for the more difficult q at the end of the section.

Thanks!

10000019

@beezmoof what PTs have you taken? I don't think it's a good idea to rush yourself through the first X number of questions. The recent PTs I have taken throw in some more challenging questions earlier on.

Do you have a skipping strategy? Do you read at an adequate pace? How much do you comprehend during your first read? Do you have to reread the stimulus multiple times?

Alex

When I began doing timed sections, I tried to do the first 10 in 10 minutes. Then work my way up gradually to 15 in 15, and eventually 25 in 25. There's no hard and fast rule on the amount of time you should spend, but it's good to aim to knock the first 10 out quickly because 1. they are generally easier, 2. it puts time in the bank to use on the harder questions.

Never sacrifice accuracy for speed though. So make sure your skills and accuracy are where they need to be before trying to fly through the first 10. They certainly aren't all "freebies" and going faster than you're comfortable with often leads to silly mistakes you wouldn't have made otherwise.

beezmoof

Thank you for both of your responses!! I really thought about speed vs accuracy and I decided I should watch more of JY's explanation videos for LR to feel more confident about eliminating answer choices and zero-ing in. My understanding is there, given my high BR scores, but my confidence isn't.

TheMikey

people usually say to do the first 10 in 10 mins.

this doesn't mean you should read the stimulus at super speed though. everyone is different, and you need to find your sweet spot. I personally found my accuracy dwindling when I tried to read super fast for the first 10. even though I was getting through them in like 9 or 10 mins, most of my time was spent in the ACs. I tried out spending most of my time in the stimulus though and reading at a normal pace and flying through the ACs. This worked best for me and I was still finishing the first 10 within like 7-10 mins.

practice more and find your sweet spot

good luck!

m.c lshopeful

it seems like the answer choices in the first 10 problems are all so entirely different from each other. if you just read thoroughly and understand the argument then the correct answer should stick out. once your confidence builds in this early area then you'll feel better at moving onto the next question when you find the answer you were looking for without checking all the answers to save time for the really time consuming questions late in the test.

Habeas Porpoise

I used to be the same way! When I first got into PTing after the CC I used to have about 5 questions that I didn't even get to at the end of my LR section.

For me, it was a confidence issue. After circling the right AC in 30 seconds, I would spend an extra 45 seconds+ checking other ACs and crossing them off. Sure this makes me more confident about my choice, but it's an inefficient use of time.

Confidence drilling really helped me. Now I go for 10 in 10, though I qualify this by saying that I do circle questions that I think are trickier and make sure to come back to them after my first round through the section; they sometimes throw in a couple 4-star/5-star problems in the first ten. That said, I usually have anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes to go back and check the questions I've marked, since I employ a skipping strategy.

You can't force yourself to get questions right in a certain amount of time -- speed comes second to accuracy, and that comes with practice. You'll get faster as you get better at recognizing certain "cookie-cutter" questions, understanding arguments, spotting flaws, mentally translating logic, etc. But you can get more efficient with how you use your time, both by addressing any confidence issues you may have, and by adopting a good skipping strategy. I suggest watching this webinar if you haven't already: https://7sage.com/webinar/skip-it/

goingfor99th

First ten in ten is a good rule of thumb, but personally I would not recommend going for 25 in 25. It's okay to pace yourself to work sequentially and finish the final question as time runs up. The most important thing to be comfortable with is skipping questions and returning to them. Don't feel the need to rush through the more difficult questions or have 25 answer choices ready to go at :25 mark.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for everyone, but I had a lot of success working through my LR sections sequentially from 1 to 17-19 or so and then working from the back of the section to wherever I left off in the middle. The difficulty of LR sections peak around 17-19 and then difficulty trends upwards from the end of the section back to the middle.

Seeking Perfection

I would say 10 in 10 is a good idea. That said, it is a measuring stick not really a goal.

I would usually do the first 10 in about 10 minutes and check my watch around then. Therefore, if I was slower I knew I might need to pick up the pace a hair. If I was faster I knew I had plenty of time and should calm down and work methodically rather than rushing.

What I did not do and would not recommend is say glancing at my watch every minute or two to see if I was on pace to hit 10 in 10 and rushing if I wasn't. Don't make the first problems a mini test of their own with a whole extra set of anxieties. Just use them as an approximation of whether you are on pace.

goingfor99th

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
I would say 10 in 10 is a good idea. That said, it is a measuring stick not really a goal.

I would usually do the first 10 in about 10 minutes and check my watch around then. Therefore, if I was slower I knew I might need to pick up the pace a hair. If I was faster I knew I had plenty of time and should calm down and work methodically rather than rushing.

What I did not do and would not recommend is say glancing at my watch every minute or two to see if I was on pace to hit 10 in 10 and rushing if I wasn't. Don't make the first problems a mini test of their own with a whole extra set of anxieties. Just use them as an approximation of whether you are on pace.

Yeah, this is important. Developing an internal clock is pretty integral to success on the LSAT, I would say. Meditation helped me to let go of the performance anxiety that would cause me to check my watch too often.

Sami

@beezmoof said:
Hi everyone (sorry for the second post in one day),

Just starting my PT grind, and I've noticed I usually fail to get to the last 2-3 questions in LR. I also feel myself spending too much time on the first ~10 questions on LR, which is concerning because everyone tells me these are the "freebies."

So is there a rule for the general amt of time I should be spending on these questions? I want to say I heard someone say 10 min for the first 10 but I'm not sure if I'm making this up.

I'm thinking about taking old PTs and drilling the first 10-15 LR q and forcing myself to get them all right under a certain amount of time so I have more time for the more difficult q at the end of the section.

Thanks!

Hey,

Instead of seeing how you can get 10 questions in 10 minutes, see if you can instead adhere to the strategy of finding opportunity to "bank time" for hard questions. This is because the easy questions and hard questions tend to be mixed throughout the section. For example, If you look at the difficulty level for questions on a particular LR section sometimes you will find that a 1 star question as number18 sometimes and a 5 star question that's number 8. At maximum I have found five 5 star question on a section but a lot more 1 and 3 star questions scattered throughout. The question you should be asking yourself is without knowing the difficulty level for these questions how can I do that question 18 in under a minute and either do the 5 star question in a minute and a half or skip it and mark it for second round.

The hard part is that on a fresh PT you will not know which ones are 5 star and which ones are 3/1 star. What you need to do is trust your strategy for dealing with questions that seem easy or hard to you. So if you encounter a particularly easy question in number 18, instead of second guessing and overthinking that there is a trick here, see if you can get that question right fast without reading the rest of the answer choices which means you are saving the time from this question for a hard question in second round. If you encounter a difficult question that either you don't understand the stimulus/ eliminated all answers/ or just cannot tell which one is the right answer, you need to circle and get out of there. If you get out of here fast enough like 30 seconds after reading the stimulus, you have now banked time for this question on a second round. Also, this is the question you would use the time you have saved from question 18.

I think the worst thing you can do is to do a drill in which you are forcing to get first 10 correct in 10 minutes. A better drill would be to take a section and make sure you are skipping the hard questions fast and banking time with easy questions. If you are not, try to identify what kept you from doing that.