Timing for LR

Trusttheprocess

When should you start focusing on studying with timing/timing questions for LR?

I know when you are doing the core lessons it is not recommended. However, if you are doing the problem sets, should you practice with 1:30 timer per question? I am just trying to figure out ways I can start helping myself prep in a manner to build that "internal clock" that is needed when doing timed sections in the future.

Any help would be much appreciated!

keets993

Even with the problem sets, I wouldn't recommend timing. It's more important to build up fundamentals and then worry about timing instead of having good timing but missing a ton of questions because you don't have solid fundamentals. You can keep a timer on when you do problem sets if you really want, but don't have a stop watch. There's no point in finishing 5 questions in 4 minutes and getting 3/5 or 4/5 when you could get 5/5 right.

Vibrio

@keets993 said:
You can keep a timer on when you do problem sets if you really want, but don't have a stop watch.

I think what @keets993 means to say is that you can use a stopwatch and take note of how long you take to do each question but not a timer set at 1:30.
I also recommend focusing on the fundamentals at this stage. Speed comes from mastery in picking the argument apart and recognizing patterns. So, try to focus first on identifying argument parts and assumptions and understanding/articulating why the answer choices are right/wrong.

Trusttheprocess

Thanks everyone!

keets993

@Vibrio yes that's what I meant! Thanks for catching it.

Leah M B

I personally feel like it's not that helpful to time individual questions (at least for quite a while). When it comes to taking a test, the questions are going to take varying amounts of time. Some will be super easy and you should do them in less than 1:30, and some will be difficult and you'll maybe need 2:30.

I think first you focus on fundamentals, how to do the questions. Once you are ready to start doing timed sections, I think you should start out using a stopwatch instead of a countdown. Find out how long it takes you to go through a section accurately. Does it take you 40 minutes? 50? That will give you a gauge in how much time you need to pick up. Then you can start working on reducing your time.

The first 10 or so questions in a LR section tend to be pretty easy, so those ones you'll want to do pretty quickly. The harder questions are interspersed, but tend to be more concentrated toward the end. So the quicker you can do the easy ones, the more time you'll have for the tougher ones. It's all sort of on a spectrum. I think you shouldn't worry too much about the timing for individual questions until you get to the point where you are trying to do full sections in 35 minutes.