How do you skip questions/passages??

Lolo1996

I did PT 78 today (spoiler alert?)

I got stuck on a few LR questions I did not realize were difficult until I spent 2 minutes on them (I read the stimulus slow, but I only realize a qusetion is difficult once I get through all the ACs).

I also noticed the last RC passage was easiest, but was put off by the "science" topic (and I saw it had very few questions, so I figured it would be hard). I spent too much time on the second passage, which I found the hardest since I had no clue what was going on

I was hesitant to start the last passage because I did not want to be "jumping" aorund, or what if the last passage was harder? Did I waste all this time?

So, this sounds like a stupid question but -- how do you know when to skip? How do I know if an LR question will be easy or hard? Sometimes what looks easiest, given the stimulus and the passage, turns out to be the hardest, and vice versa.

I know when to skip games (think PT 77 game 3 lol yikes)

Does anyone have any advice on this issue?

Little Grasshopper

@Lolo1996, I give you a good example. I was blind reviewing the law passage in Test 87 yesterday. It didn't sink immediately and felt was getting lost. After reading the second paragraph, I decided to skip because it was not clear and was not liking it. I felt I was saying to the author "Get to the point and stop wasting my time by beating around the bush". I did fine on the other passages. I decided to read it again a couple more times. After I got to third paragraph I had put low res summary to it. It started to click. If you don't understand what is being said after the 2nd paragraph, you should skip it and come back to it later.

The harder LR questions are the ones like parallel flaw questions and questions where the stimulus shows a bunch of premises and a conclusion where it is buried. I skip those and save them for later. I like main point, MSS, MBT, Point at Issue,strengthening,weakening, discrepancy, necessary assumption, flaw, sufficient assumptions, psuedo sufficient assumption and principle questions because they are my stronger questions.

The others I have think about them to figure them out especially if they appear longer than 4 sentences. Harder questions are designed to one thing that is eat up your clock time, and the writers at LSAC know this. For any question that doesn't click right away, you skip it and come back to it.

RealLaw612

For me it's simple and effective. For LR questions, if the answer choices are three or more lines each, I select C and skip knowing I'll be coming back to it. Additionally, if I am not 100% sure of my answer choice, I flag it. If I am taking too long - say over a minute and a half - I select the "best" answer, flag it, and move on. I usually have at least ten minutes at the end for coming back to my (typically) 3 - 5 flagged questions. My LR average is -0/-3 per section.

I never skip RC questions but, just like LR, if I'm not 100% sure of my answer I'll flag it to come back if I have time. I must say, though, it is more time-consuming to attempt a skipped RC question so the key for these questions is to master your summarizing of the passage and it's parts.

For LG I skip strategically. I answer the orienting question first, then skip ahead and answer all the local questions (those that start with "if.") The local questions typically require you to create mini-diagrams and leave your scratch paper full of possible (or impossible) scenarios that help save time answering the remaining questions.

Ms Nikki

In LR, when your brain starts to mush, or you are looking back up at the prompt over and over again, just skip it. It is hard to do intuitively, but the second time around it should look easier. And if it doesn't, well it was good you skipped it and saved that time for other questions.

For me, the questions I spend the longest on are the one's I tend to get wrong. So if I am going to get them wrong anyway, why sink more time into them? You arn't aiming for a perfect score, but probably -1 to -4 or what not per section. If you rush through the section using skipping, you get that time to check over the one's that don't work.

For RC, a question is difficult if you find yourself looking back through the passage. If is very difficult if you have to go back thru the ACs more than once. In that case, skip it and move on. In RC you don't really have time to get sucked back into the passage more than once or twice. In reality, sometimes going thru other questions help to get the point of the passage better.

It's like what JY says in his explanations. You are always trading time for confidence. If you are not 100 percent confident, that is fine, but how much extra time will it take to get there? If you arn't confident at all, just skip it!

I also flag all questions I wasn't 100 percent confident on or took a bit of time. I try to write the questions I really need to get back to on paper (digital testing) and tackle those first before doing a read thru of the rest, time permitting.

In LG, I usually don't skip a game unless it is a very unusual one. But I will skip questions that ask me to do a lot of work. If it is one that removes a premise or changes one so that you have to redraw the board for example.