How many LR questions do top scorers skip in their Round 1?

youbbyun

How many LR questions do top scorers completely skip in their Round 1? How many do they circle due to under confidence/uncertainty (but still chose an AC) and then return to?

For me, in a LR section, I usually completely skip around 5-6 questions in my round 1. So I end up finishing my LR round 1 pass at about 27 minutes, and I have about 8 minutes to go back and finish those 5-6 questions I completely skipped.

Those 5-6 questions I completely skipped are usually long formal logic questions, long parallel reasoning questions, tough sufficient assumption questions which I suspected need a lot logic mapping, or questions I read the stimulus twice and didn't understand and skipped in about 1 minute.

In addition to those 5-6 questions I completely skipped, I also have around 2-3 questions I circled and filled in an answer choice but was uncertain because I was down to 2 answer choices (one AC at 60% confidence level and another at 40%, and I filled in the 60% confidence level AC).

Those 2-3 questions I also wanted to get a second look at, but I often can't/run out of time because I'm rushing to complete those 5-6 questions I completely skipped.

Am I completely skipping too many? Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

drbrown2

@username_hello said:
Those 5-6 questions I completely skipped are usually long formal logic questions, long parallel reasoning questions, tough sufficient assumption questions which I suspected need a lot logic mapping, or questions I read the stimulus twice and didn't understand and skipped in about 1 minute.

You don't know if they are tough, or if they require logic mapping, if you are completely skipping them. I would read the stimulus first, try to find the gap in the argument (or understand the structure if it is a parallel question) and take a pass through the answers.

I don't know if you are skipping too many, but just figure out what works for you. Every test taker is different, and some people have trouble with easy questions just because of concentration issues, or misreading, and then it is time to skip. You have access to all the PTs, and on the more recent tests there are videos of top scorers working through each section on a fresh take. You can watch those to see what JY does for his skipping strategy.

NotMyName

This was the approach I used to score high 160s/low 170s consistently. The only difference was that for the 2-3 I answered but was only 60% sure on, I used a little squiggly instead of s circle so that I knew not to return to it unless I had time left over. One thing to keep in mind is that you should continue to skip in the second round if you're having trouble with a question. I returned to a question 3-4 times before (though rarely). We skip so that we don't sink more time into a question than we need to so we should continue doing that in the 2nd round which may lead to a 3rd round.

You will get more comfortable with the process over time. Speed at this point will probably come from cookie-cutter review.

eRetaker

@username_hello you're gonna see a lot of different opinions on this. Other users utilize the skipping strategy very effectively and found great success with it. Another sizable portion of us find that it's better to just answer everything in the first round and presume that there will be no time to check. My personal strategy was to spend at most 3 minutes on a question before deciding on an answer, and I make sure to not skip. This method causes me to use up all 35 minutes usually by the time I finish the last question. However, this works for me and it also prevents bubbling errors. I think most bubbling errors come from ppl skipping around too much and filling in the wrong bubble for a question they skipped.

Cant Get Right

I've actually got some beef with the term "skipping," which @drbrown2 hints at, so I'm going to air some grievances here, lol.

"Skipping" really only covers one extreme of what is actually a much broader spectrum: If you read a stimulus and have no idea what's going on, you should move on immediately. Even in this case, you haven't really skipped; you've made an attempt which you very quickly realized was unlikely to be fruitful were you to continue, and you wisely chose to move on from the attempt. I prefer the term "moving on" because it can cover a lot of moves which are vital to a good time management strategy and which are excluded by the term "skipping."

Let's look at some instances where we need to move on:

1. You're looking at a parallel reasoning question that stretches the entire length of the page. You know the ones. You read the stimulus, then you read AC A and it's a perfect match; you're about 90% confident this is the answer you'll end up with. Move on. That extra 10% confidence is not worth the extra minute it will take you to eliminate the remaining AC's.

2. You're dealing with a tough question, you recognize pretty quickly it's a curvebreaker, but you feel like it's in your range. You eliminate three AC's confidently. With a second look at the remaining contenders, you still don't see a clear winner. Move on. You've actually made pretty good progress here. You'll get it right at least 50% of the time which isn't bad for one of the hardest questions on the section. If you could go 2/4 on the hardest 4 questions on the section, that's pretty good. Maybe you can push this further and crack it open, maybe you can't. For now, take your sizable gain and move on to the next question. When you circle back you can start with fresh perspective. If you can crack it, great, getting it at the end is just as good as getting it right here and now. If, on the other hand, you can't crack it, you've saved a significant amount of time that you'll get better value on elsewhere.

3. You're reading a stimulus about frogs which reminds you about your dog named Frog. You realize you forgot to feed Frog this morning. He'll survive [In fact, he's a bit chubby. (The vet says no more table scraps, but he just looks so sad you can't help it!)], but you feel bad because you know he probably feels very dejected and neglected right now. Move on. These things happen, and you're in no position to attempt this question at the moment. You've likely read it all the way through and may even be working through the ACs by the time you realize you haven't the slightest idea of what's going on. Maybe you feel overcommitted at this point. You aren't. If you start over, you're going to be rushed and flustered. Just circle the question and pick it up on your second round.

So that's my beef with "skipping;" it's misleading at best, and largely inadequate at worst. As far as answering your question as to how many questions I move on from in a section: I usually have about four or five single circles (questions I'm confident I can get with another shot) and two or three double circles (questions that I'm unlikely to crack with high confidence). Like @NotMyName, I make the thornier questions lower priority and make sure I pick up my single circles on my second round. Then, on the third round, I go to work on my double circles. I'm not trying to get to 100% on these, I'm unlikely to achieve that and so that goal will prevent me from working the whole set. I'm just trying to bring up my average. If there's three of them and I can bring up my average to about 65% confidence, I should expect to get two and miss one. That's an excellent outcome. With the time left from there, if any, I'll go back through for a fourth round and confirm the questions I was particularly aggressive on--like situation 1 from above. I mark these with a slash through the question number. If I don't make it back, fine, I'm highly confident I got it anyway, and I can rest assured knowing I absolutely got better value on that time elsewhere.

Rev_Lefe

I found replies above extremely helpful. Thanks so much!

Cant Get Right

I saw the subject line here and opened this up to respond in detail, haha. It was a great question five months ago; it's a great question now. Glad to see this bumped.