Goals for Timed Sections

daanishbhatti32

Hello, I was listening to a 7sage podcast and the hosts mention having clear set goals that you establish before taking a drill, timed practice test, or timed sections. Does anyone have an example on what those type of goals should be? I feel like mine are way too general like read the stimulus carefully or understand stimulus completely before getting to the answer choices.

SubpoenaColada

Hi there,

Goals are going to look different for everyone depending on individual strengths and weaknesses, but that's a major part of it - identify your weaknesses and select goals that specifically target them one at a time.

Your goal of reading the stimulus carefully could be more specific. Try to identify what it is that you're trying to be more careful about. Example: For LR it might be to understand the purpose of each sentence in the argument/stimulus (context, premises, conclusion). Or, if you're struggling with conditional logic, it could be to practice mapping out the argument untimed for accuracy. Then, once you are getting q's right under untimed conditions, to work on adding speed to the accuracy under timed drills.

Or, let's say that your weakness is understanding passage structure for RC. A goal might be to map out the structure of the passage more carefully via a more precise low res so that there is a clear understanding of the purpose of each paragraph before going to the answer choices. Then, compare your low res to the video explanations after answer the q's to check your accuracy and reflect on how you can get better next time.

For a practice test, it might be something like working on section timing so that you don't have 5 questions left unanswered when the time runs out.

Questions to ask yourself to prompt more specific goals:
What does it mean to read the stimulus carefully? Not glossing over words? Details?
What does it mean to understand the stimulus completely? Details? Argument structure?

Basically, make sure that it is something that is measurable and attainable. If you just go into a drill with the goal of being more careful, how is it that you can measure that you are actually being more careful?

Hope this helps, and happy studying!