Not Finishing on Time

Namritakt

Hi there! I'm really struggling with finishing sections on time, and hoping someone might be able to offer me some advice. I have been consistently drilling and reviewing LR/RC (I keep a wrong answer journal for LR) and do each logic game I encounter two times at a minimum (once as a dry run, and again upon watching an explanation video until I am able to complete it within the recommended time on 7 sage). I have been studying for 4 months now, and cannot seem to finish sections on time. Going 15 mins over per section, I got a 166 on PT 73. I am well aware that I will have to finish within the allotted 35 minutes on test day, and did go into the test with the mindset that I would only have 35 minutes (I just decided it would be a best to finish the remaining questions, and by no means count this test as representative of my actual scoring ability under timed conditions). Currently, I am able to do the first 10 in 10 minutes with near perfect (if not perfect) accuracy on LR, but its the later questions that seem to eat up my time (I'm usually able to finish the remaining questions with an additional 5 minutes or less, but this was one of my first tests in the 70's and I found LR a bit more challenging than the 50's/60's). For LG and RC, I am only ever able to finish 3/4 games/passages with decent accuracy. I feel like I have exhausted all study methods (10/10 method for LR, using a wrong answer journal, reading passages in order of interest/familiarity, etc. ) beyond simply drilling and reviewing. Sorry in advance for the long post, I'm just really at a loss for what next steps to take to reach the 160's timed, and then hopefully the 170's. For reference, I took PT 38 untimed and scored a 172, and took PT 77 timed and scored a 158 (left many questions unanswered).

goforbroke

I had a similar issue with timing. I forced myself to do timed sections and timed PTs. It forced me to get faster because there was no other option. Either my brain learns to process faster, or I get better at choosing to skip questions I think will take a long time, or I leave of lot of blanks. And leaving a lot of blanks was a nonstarter for me. After a couple of times of forced timed practice, I noticed that I could now miraculously finish on time. I think taking away the luxury of the optional extra time made me a more efficient test taker.

A caveat is that I was confident that I understood the fundamentals of the LSAT and each question type (I had gone through the CC twice at this point).

Namritakt

@goforbroke thanks for the tips!

workingforit

If you have a while to prep then try timing how long it takes you to complete each section and then incrementally shaving off a minute or so with different sections until you reach 35 mins or under. i.e take a reading comp section and it might take 40 mins to complete. Then, keep trying to shave off a minute (39 > 38 > 37...)and whenever you begin to lose accuracy, drill the section and question types until you are able to meet the new timing. This overall strategy helped me identify and narrow in on specific time sink question types and then target them during practice while actively trying to meet the new minute goal.