How to develop internal cues to not spend too much time on a question

btownsquee

I've been focusing on the LR section of the LSAT. I realized I can spend up to 3 minutes on a question during timed test conditions. This is...ridiculous...lol. I don't realize I'm spending so much time on a question. To me, it's like only a minute and a half has gone by.

I am not good at accurately assessing how much time has passed. How do I get better? I have a habit of checking my watch at the question 10 and question 25 mark. Maybe I should start checking my watch after each page of questions?

Do you have any habits/internal cues that help you keep track of time during the test (any section: LR/LG/RC) and ensure you don't spend too much time on any one question? Please share.

gparmar92

I know what you mean, I have the same issue. One thing that helped me, was this: pick a test that you're not going to do fully timed (I'd recommend an earlier test) and go through each LR question with a timer on your phone set to 1:25 seconds (you're supposed to have 1:25 seconds per question on LR).

The first couple of times I did it, I found myself reading answer E as the timer was going off which was a sign that I was reading way too slow. I found that doing this helped me gauge or build the internal timer you're talking about, because you actually have a specific time frame in which its expected that you should be able to finish the question, and the alarm as a reminder of when time is supposed to be up. Another bonus of doing this was that it helped me understand how to skip questions better; e.g. if 45 seconds into reading stimulus I'm lost, I stop the timer and circle the question making a note that this type of question would be worth skipping during a full timed run, in order to follow JY's low hanging fruit strategy.

Dunno if this helps but it helped me! Good luck with your studying

Simple Man

Honestly I wouldn't even worry about time. It is a factor yes, but at the end of the day it's another element distracting you from the task at hand - getting each question right. Micromanaging each question is only going to cause you anxiety that inhibits your performance. Churn and burn baby, one question at a time.

That being said, I take timed sections with the 7sage proctor, but I don't use a watch. This has increased my accuracy immensely. The 5 minute reminder is really all you need. The more timed sections I've taken, I've come to realized a couple of things. I pay less attention to time, and more attention to the questions I'm trying to answer correctly. Time used to make me a ball of stress, but now I'm always relaxed as I calmly maneuver through the material.

I really try not to skip any questions. There are a couple of scenarios where I do.

LR: If I read through the stimulus twice and I can't understand it. Or, if I go through the ACs twice and am unable to definitively eliminate 4 incorrect or identify the the 1 that is correct. I'll chose the one I think is most likely and come back to it if there is time.

LG: I really try not to skip LGs ever. They are pretty straight forward for me. Usually, if I am unable to set up a board up front, and feel like I truly don't understand it, I will move on. But LG is the easiest section for me.

RC: You can usually tell which passages are more difficult than others. If I'm interested in the content, I'll dig in and tackle it. If I don't care about the subject material, I'll skip that passage entirely. There are also questions in RCs that I feel are time sucks. If I find myself not remembering exactly where in the passage it is asking me to focus, or none of the ACs are standing out, I will skip it and come back.

I guess what I'm ultimately trying to say is I approach each question with calm intention. I know there is limited time, I can't control that. What I can control is my attitude towards each question. When I'm calm, I've found I'm more focused, and more accurate. At the end of the day, it's more about the quality of your AC than the quantity of questions you attempt. I'd rather know I'm going through and getting everything right than having time as a distraction and making me less accurate. You're most likely not going to get a180, so it's ok to miss a few. Just get the questions you do attempt right. Hope this helps

saraheq1

I'm interested to see what others will say about this, because it's something I haven't mastered either!
Recently, I watched the timed commentary that JY does on a top-scorer's LR section. (It should be included in the basic subscription, since that's what I have.) Watching it was honestly crazy, because you watch her get through all 26 questions in roughly 18 minutes. The key thing here is, she skips a ton of the questions. JY does a great job of explaining her tactics and how she's moving through them, so I'd definitely recommend watching it if you haven't already.

What I personally took from that was inspiration to take each question at face value, read effectively through the stimulus, and if possible, eliminate 3 of the answer choices off the bat. Once she was down to two, and still couldn't determine the right answer, (in like 8 seconds) she circled it and moved on. Just by doing this, she got through all the questions with another 17 minutes to go through again and again (like... whAT).
Another interesting thing I noticed was how little she wrote on her paper, parsed out, and annotated. As someone who's always writing everything I think could help when answering the question, this looked crazy. But I tried it out on the next LR timed section I did, just marking what was totally necessary (P/C/key indicator words for logic) and felt a lot calmer, which I think added to the time I had in the bank, since as I get more stressed and anxious, the worse I am at managing my time. This is anecdotal, but that section I did -4, when my average is -7/8.

All of this is obviously dependent on how comfortable you feel with your skills in LR and the core curriculum, and how accurately you can answer questions untimed. Likely, you wont improve overall until you've got a good foundational knowledge of answering question types. But I would say check it out and try to channel her calm and deliberate approach when you try your next one! Best of luck!

btate87

@saraheq1 thanks for the heads up about that video - I'm putting it on my LSAT to-do list!

I time myself by page turns on LR - when I fill in the bubbles - and every five questions. My goal is to make it to the last two pages in 20-25 minutes. My natural pace puts me at one/minute until roughly question 15-17. If I notice I'm getting off of that pace, I lower my threshold of skipping. Never do I try to speed up to catch the benchmark - that's how mistakes happen. I just skip more frequently until I'm back on track. Over time I've gotten my threshold for skipping fairly well intuited so I don't get off super often. I do like having a watch though. I've tried without and I end up panicking for the last half of the section dreading being caught off guard by the five minute mark

Krystell C.

@saraheq1 Thank you so much for that information. Where can I find this video?!

KeepCalm

@saraheq1 THANK YOU!

saraheq1

It's in PrepTest 37, "Live Commentary" @Wilhelmina @Castillo !

Admin edit: https://7sage.com/lesson/preptest-37-live-commentary-video-1/

TexAgAaron

I too struggle with this. One thing that was suggested to me is the "rule of 2". If I read the stimulus and don't see what is going on, I will read it once more and if I'm still not grasping it then I will move on. This includes going through the AC's on the first pass if I feel like I had an okay grip on things.

I'm extremely stubborn and it hurts me substantially when I'm down to 2 AC's and I need to push back on the stimulus. At some point you have to decide to cut your losses and move on. If you are spending too much time on a question, your odds of getting that question are lower. You instead should allocate that time towards other questions that are easier/making a second pass (something I'm working on).

In the end, you know you the best. You will develop that feel the more you practice. At minimum, don't go so fast that you won't give yourself a chance to understand what is going on. Hang in there! There are many people struggling with the same thing! Good luck!

_oshun1_

@saraheq1 said:
I'm interested to see what others will say about this, because it's something I haven't mastered either!
Recently, I watched the timed commentary that JY does on a top-scorer's LR section. (It should be included in the basic subscription, since that's what I have.) Watching it was honestly crazy, because you watch her get through all 26 questions in roughly 18 minutes. The key thing here is, she skips a ton of the questions. JY does a great job of explaining her tactics and how she's moving through them, so I'd definitely recommend watching it if you haven't already.

What I personally took from that was inspiration to take each question at face value, read effectively through the stimulus, and if possible, eliminate 3 of the answer choices off the bat. Once she was down to two, and still couldn't determine the right answer, (in like 8 seconds) she circled it and moved on. Just by doing this, she got through all the questions with another 17 minutes to go through again and again (like... whAT).
Another interesting thing I noticed was how little she wrote on her paper, parsed out, and annotated. As someone who's always writing everything I think could help when answering the question, this looked crazy. But I tried it out on the next LR timed section I did, just marking what was totally necessary (P/C/key indicator words for logic) and felt a lot calmer, which I think added to the time I had in the bank, since as I get more stressed and anxious, the worse I am at managing my time. This is anecdotal, but that section I did -4, when my average is -7/8.

All of this is obviously dependent on how comfortable you feel with your skills in LR and the core curriculum, and how accurately you can answer questions untimed. Likely, you wont improve overall until you've got a good foundational knowledge of answering question types. But I would say check it out and try to channel her calm and deliberate approach when you try your next one! Best of luck!

I feel like this just saved my life omg I didn’t think watching that would be so useful. I never knew that THATS what people meant when they talked about skipping strategy.

keets993

It could also be lack of confidence. Try drilling the specific question types you spend too long on and BR them thoroughly, reinforcing the right reasoning may help you become faster. I'm doing this right now for NA and flaw question types. I realized I'm often down to 2 answers and am so confident which is the correct one but I still spend time trying to reason to myself why the other one is wrong. Which is a real time sink so I'm drilling so that I'm reinforcing the right reasoning so that when I do it timed I trust myself more.

btownsquee

Hi all! I wanted to follow up on this. Sorry my reply is so late!

I believe I was being slow due to a lack of confidence. What helped me get faster was doing questions from problem sets and timing myself. I realized I didn't need that much time to see the right answer and move on. I also realized I didn't need to blind review WHILE I was taking the test. My knowledge is good enough that I can read through the answer choices, intuitively know what the right one is, pick it, and move on.

This is still a work in progress but progress has been made. Thank you all for your replies and suggestions!!