Maximizing points when you only have 3-4 mins for the final LG or RC passage

Rockthistest

Hey all! I have always had strong accuracy, but struggled with timing. I am making improvements with speed, especially in the LG section which has historically been my slowest. I am at the point where I usually get 100% (or close to it) on the first three games and then have about 3 minutes left. This is enough time for me to set up my game board but not enough time to get to the questions. I usually do a little better at getting through RC but on my last PT I also on had about 3 minutes left going into the final passage. I read the passage and then ran out of time. Anyone have ideas about how to best use an awkward 3-4 mins on the fourth game or passage? Also, any other time improving strategies overall would be welcome. Thanks!

Logician

For LG be sure to foolproof, and keep doing so until you're capable of completing all 4 games in the section. LG is the most learnable section, be relentless.

For RC, you may want to try different strategies- this could be something as simple as spending less time up front on the passage or even forcing yourself to select answers faster (of course I cant say for certain, but you may be making inefficient trade offs in regards to time spent per question).
If you have high accuracy you can likely speed up a little without foregoing too much accuracy (this would be a good trade off). Trying out new strategies will allow you to determine what works best for you, for instance, if you try speeding up and realize that your accuracy suffers, then obviously that is not the appropriate strategy for you given where you currently are.

Lastly, speed is a result of proficiency and experience. The more questions you answer and subsequently analyze, the more you will experience and learn from those questions, which will ultimately help you become faster. There are people who are capable of going faster given their current knowledge/fundamentals and there are people who are not. Make sure to figure out which you are, because as the saying goes, you're only as good as your fundamentals.

Rockthistest

Thanks for your response. I am definitely trying to relentless drill games. It seems to be working. I went from getting at least -10 at the beginning to averaging -5. The other sections I am seeing less improvement, though I started out better on these sections. I am noticing when reviewing my LR and RC sections that I often have a relatively long green line at the end of questions. I think this means that I selected the correct answer but then spent a long time before moving on. Is this correct? I feel like I have been trying to hesitate less and chose an answer and move on but I guess I need to continue to work on this. Sometimes its hard to know when to commit to answer choice that seems right and when to double check by eliminating all the others.

WouldRatherBeEating

@Rockthistest said:
Thanks for your response. I am definitely trying to relentless drill games. It seems to be working. I went from getting at least -10 at the beginning to averaging -5. The other sections I am seeing less improvement, though I started out better on these sections. I am noticing when reviewing my LR and RC sections that I often have a relatively long green line at the end of questions. I think this means that I selected the correct answer but then spent a long time before moving on. Is this correct? I feel like I have been trying to hesitate less and chose an answer and move on but I guess I need to continue to work on this. Sometimes its hard to know when to commit to answer choice that seems right and when to double check by eliminating all the others.

Yes the long green line indicates how long you had the correct answer selected before you actually moved on. I struggle with my RC timing (but same as you, I usually have good accuracy on the first few passages). One thing to keep in mind is the format you are practicing RC on. 7sage is nice because it tells you how long your spent on each question/answer choice, but it doesn't highlight excerpts from the passage. When I switched to lawhub to take RC, it slowed me down because sometimes excerpts from the passage are referred to by sentence # and paragraph # rather than highlighted as I expected. You may want to familiarize yourself with the lawhub format as well before the actual exam. Lawhub also breaks apart the questions for each passage so right off the bat you can see which passage has the most questions and skip to that section, if you want. I have been using this strategy to position the passage with the least number of questions associated with it as the last passage I read, meaning I have to guess on fewer questions.