LR Section - What's your game plan?

Trusttheprocess

Hey 7sagers,

Need some advice...

Currently in my studying stage, I am in the midst of doing timed sections. When I am doing a timed section, I attempt about 19 to 21 questions and miss the rest because of time constraints. I get approximately 15-17 questions correct. However, in my BR I usually get about 21 to 23 correct.

I have read and heard from folks that when you are doing a timed LR section that you should try to train yourself and aim to do about 8-12 questions in about 10 mins. However, when I am doing my sections, at the 10 minute mark I am usually not on that mark and gets me nervous and messes me up for the rest of the section. I feel like between the first 10 questions, there is always one or two questions that are time sinks for me, but I try to stick to doing them because I know they are easier then other questions in the section (something I know I have to stop doing being because it takes up so much time).

Just wanted to know how did those who were able to get the entire section done and have time to review in the 35 mins time slot train themselves to do that? What were some skipping strategies that you developed and incorporated? Did you have certain process when you were doing a LR section? How did you train yourself in 10 mins about doing 8-12 questions? How did you get the balance between speed and accuracy?

I want to try and set up some small bench goals for me: for example from 21 questions in 35 mins to move to 23 questions and then to about 25 etc. Did you have any small stepping stones that you put into place? I am still at least a few weeks from going into full test prep phase but wanted to iron out my process before I get there.

Any help would be awesome.

Thanks!

BlindReviewer

I feel like a sticky post would be good for this forum because this is kind of a common question and I always think back to a couple of good resources:

https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/13346/confidence-drills
https://7sage.com/webinar/skip-it/
https://7sage.com/webinar/timing-and-levels-of-certainty/
https://7sage.com/webinar/post-core-curriculum-study-strategies/
https://7sage.com/11-7sager-notmyname-148-to-174-lsat/
https://7sage.com/1-ama-w-7sager-cant-get-right-152-to-176/

But as for your specific questions and my personal experience, I have to say that I probably still struggle with this at times. I can generally get to the end with 5-10 minutes to spare now, and then go back, but on the real exam I felt more pressured to put some kind of answer down rather than skip entirely, so we'll see how that worked out in a couple days haha I think I do have a process now, but depending on the section I may have more or less time. Before going into details on how I got to where I am, I will say that you do have to do a lot of different sections in order to figure out what is and is not a red flag. For example, sometimes I only have 5 minutes at the end to go back, but I've only skipped one or two questions. Other times I have 10 minutes but I've skipped like 8 questions (yikes).

There are two primary things you can gather from the webinars above:

1) Speed is a function of accuracy/mastery. I never totally believed this until a later phase in my prep, but once you've seen the same cookie cutter flaws/questions over and over and over again, you know what you are and are not looking for. You also know when a question is difficult and probably something you shouldn't even attempt for round 1. Most helpful for this is looking across questions in your review to see what the common themes/tricks are. Ask yourself, "Have I seen this before?"

2) Confidence and strategy go hand in hand. You may not be fully confident in skipping, but you can be confident in your strategy. There are multiple components to this. One is momentum -- you need to keep pushing through the questions on round 1. That doesn't mean go fast, nor does it mean you won't feel resistance on some questions, but it means learning how to gauge when you aren't going to get further with the question. This may be in the first 10 questions (actually it often is, because you're nervous or because questions can be so easy they seem a little too easy). Skip it and come back to it later. This also means that through doing many sections you'll start to realize when you have done all you can for that question in round 1 (let's say you mapped out the logic, but it still doesn't click -- it's very unlikely it's going to click in a short enough period of time for it to be worth it). If I go through and eliminate every answer choice even though I feel like I should be able to get the question, I leave it for round 2.

In terms of your personal concerns -- if a question in the first 10 is easy but you aren't getting it, you should be able to do a sweep of every question first and then prioritize the easy questions at the end. The first link I posted with confidence drills has a deeper explanation of how to prioritize what you're skipping and coming back to in order to maximize your returns.

I feel like I just kind of rambled on a lot because there's so much to talk about on this topic, so feel free to reach out with any questions that my write-up/links might not have covered!

Trusttheprocess

Greatest response I have ever gotten... I really appreciate it.

I totally agree - with the more practice I get on timed sections the more my flow & plan will come through.

How did you start off? Did you get like 14 questions right and then moved on to 17 questions as you got your pace correct?

BlindReviewer

Glad it helped! I started off with very little grasp of the fundamentals, so it's hard to say because my "common sense" logic with no real training worked well for some sections and others I just got totally destroyed (and really frustrated because I would get so many questions wrong). Even after I did the core curriculum on 7Sage, I think I thought I knew the fundamentals a lot better than I actually did.

I don't think there was a very linear increase in scores because it really can depend on the section. I think I was in the -6 to -9 range first, and then moved into the -4 range, and from there I think the only way to close in to under -4 is through better test taking strategies (which take time to learn and implement because there's a big "feel" component to it). But yeah there were many days earlier in my prep where I would get a lot wrong and just start panicking towards the end, and then in the -4 range it's especially frustrating because you feel like you know everything but feel really screwed over by the time. I wouldn't even say I'm solidly under the -4 range yet, but I think that's probably more due to a process in gaining mastery rather than an issue with strategy at this stage.

I think another piece of advice I would give for students earlier in their prep is that you shouldn't get too hung over by the number you get wrong. One of the most infuriating parts of prep for me was that I felt I had put in so much time yet quantitatively I was still kind of in the same scoring range for LR. But LR, more so than the other sections, has a harder to pinpoint variability -- you may be bad at something really small like "most" statements and catching a mistaken reversal for a "most" statement, or you may not have a razor sharp understanding of comparative sentences, etc. So when you get the same -4 wrong, it's not as if you haven't made progress, it's just that you have to gain a wide and deep range of mastery over the material in order to be ready for whatever comes at you in a fresh section. It's that mastery that pushes you into a higher scoring band. I think @"Jonathan Wang" wrote somewhere that the LSAT is a "mastery level test" maybe here: http://7sage.com/forums/discussion/2584/why-knowledge-is-not-enough

Attaining mastery is slow and takes time -- it's hard to see, and can be frustrating when you focus on numbers!