Best Strategy to Improving Time Overall?

pizzaqueen

Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone has some suggestions on the best way to drill/study/practice in order to improve speed. I finally feel really solid in my fundamentals. On my last PT (74), I scored a 168 with a BR of 176, which is typical of my most recent PTs (usually more of 169/BR173). I'm at the point where I'm understanding all the problems and most of my wrong answers are due to rushing/guessing when I'm running out of time, or just generally rushing through the section and making dumb mistakes. On a typical PT, I usually don't get to at least one question at the end of an LR section, and my last RC passage is usually started with only 6 minutes on the clock.

I know my biggest obstacle is time and that this will be fixed with more and more practice. I'm taking in October and have a lot of time (only working part-time) and have a lot of material left that I can use (Cambridge packets, PTs I've never taken, etc.).

Right now, I'm doing 2 recent PTs per week. What should I do as far as practice in addition to this? Should I drill questions in Cambridge packets so I can gain more familiarity and answer questions faster? Should I drill entire sections of old PTs? Should I give myself less than 35 minutes when drilling sections or taking PTs? Any help is so appreciated.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have!

emli1000

@pizzaqueen said:
Right now, I'm doing 2 recent PTs per week. What should I do as far as practice in addition to this? Should I drill questions in Cambridge packets so I can gain more familiarity and answer questions faster? Should I drill entire sections of old PTs? Should I give myself less than 35 minutes when drilling sections or taking PTs? Any help is so appreciated.

YES, do all of the above! Never stop drilling. Also, keep a spreadsheet of all of the answers you've gotten wrong say 15-30 questions and use as a separate section to drill under timed conditions.

c.janson35

Just keep practicing! Really. That's the only way to get faster at the test. Speed is directly related to proficiency, and I think the best way to "gain" speed is by (1) slowing down your stimulus read so you can articulate flaws and predict answers and (2) being awesome at POE. How do you sharpen your POE skills? By knowing exactly why wrong answers are wrong, and being able to quickly and affirmatively eliminate them. You can only do this by being really good at the test.

So, long story short: keep practicing and sharpening your skills and you'll see that you'll be moving through the test faster than ever.

pizzaqueen

Thank you @emli1000 and @c.janson35 !

nicole.hopkins

@pizzaqueen said:
I usually don't get to at least one question at the end of an LR section, and my last RC passage is usually started with only 6 minutes on the clock.

The key to better timing on the LSAT for someone in your score range is self-discipline.

For LR:
You must cease allowing yourself to spend longer than 1:20 on any single question on your first attempt at it. At 1:20, your job is to box it like crazy, dog ear the page, and pull the trigger on a guess.

How do you learn what 1:20 feels like? Do not waste seconds glancing at the analog watch and doing math in your head. I don't have any advice for how to train yourself at becoming a watch-reading guru. I can give you advice on how to "wind" and synchronize your internal clock.

Do a few sections with a stopwatch app and lap every time you move on from a Q naturally. Write down how long you spend next to each Q. I guarantee you are spending a lot longer than you think you are on a good number of Q's. I also guarantee that you are spending an astonishingly small amount of time on plenty of Q's. Train your inner clock to know exactly what 1:20 feels like. Perhaps set the timer on your phone for 1:20 over an over again during the day while doing random tasks.

Once you have learned what 1:20 feels like, you'll be able to move on before you spend too long on Q's.

Because I know you are spending very small amounts of time on many questions, and because I know you that you will no longer spend longer than 1:20 on any single question on your first attempt, I can confidently estimate that you will have a good amount of time left over after Q 25/26. You will use that time to go back to the pages you dog-eared and re-attempt the Q's you boxed.

For RC:
Comments about timing on Q's and self-discipline apply. Be extremely wary of ever spending longer than 1:20 on a RC Q. In fact, never do it on your first go through. Box. Dog-ear. Guess. And return.

You must give yourself cut-offs for RC passages. At 8 minutes, you might move on to the next passage. Or, you might go with question by question cut-offs (and a passage read should not take you more than 4 minutes; you just don't have the time to take longer than that under any circumstances).

Ending up with 6 mins for the last passage is nerve wracking and about 2 minutes from ideal. You're not far from ideal. The way you avoid that is by cutting yourself off on passages 1-3.

Be especially wary of passage 1. I find that it is the most prone to regrettable time sinks. Man how fricken stupid is it to do the crap out of passage one only to find you spent 13 minutes on it. THE. WORST.

@emli1000 said:
Never stop drilling.

I usually tell folks to stop drilling once they finished the curriculum and have a few PT's under your belt. At your score range, do not waste time drilling. Take fully timed PT's; at a minimum, timed sections. Exceptions to this: if a particular Qt is plaguing you, or a particular game type. I think drilling LG is probably productive at all stages, but probably more so as a fifth "experimental" section taken as part of your timed PT's.

Your time is precious. Drilling is not the highest and best use of your time, with those exceptions noted.

vtl

@nicole.hopkins said:
The key to better timing on the LSAT for someone in your score range is self-discipline.

I agree with this 100% I feel like I'm in the same boat as many people who are scoring in the 160s with 170+ BR... I need to be honest with myself and remember that I have to get better at not sinking too much time into questions.

pizzaqueen

Thanks so much @nicole.hopkins. That was so incredibly helpful. You're so right -- it's really easy to allow questions or passages suck up a ton of time. It's also really easy to just set a time limit and move on and come back later. This was so helpful. THANK YOU!!

c.janson35

"You must cease allowing yourself to spend longer than 1:20 on any single question on your first attempt at it. At 1:20, your job is to box it like crazy, dog ear the page, and pull the trigger on a guess."

I do want to add a caveat to @nicole.hopkins's advice because I don't think it applies to every single question. The difficulity of the test varies and there's a huge range between the easiest and most difficult questions. The very easiest questions you'll likely do in 30 seconds or so which will inherently give you more time to spend on the toughest. So, in that sense, you can definitely spend more than 1:20 on a given question as long as you take care of business on the easier ones. This is why I like to advocate just getting better on the test rather than a cutoff for the amount of time being spent so that you can take advantage of the time you're saving with your skills and have it to use on harder questions. Also, by increasing your familiarity with the test you'll be able to more readily identify those questions that you just don't know what to do, and after a couple read throughs you'll know to just move on rather than being sucked into it and wasting time. I also think that timing yourself doing questions may induce some level of rushing because you're up against a clock. (Even if this isn't true, I do want to warn against rushing through questions because you don't get faster at the test my reading faster, but by actually taking the time to understand and analyze what you're reading.)

I agree with Nicole's recommendation against spending too much time on a question because it's important to know when to cut your losses and move on. I just don't think the best way to achieve this is by placing a 1:20 time limit on yourself.

nicole.hopkins

@c.janson35 said:
I just don't think the best way to achieve this is by placing a 1:20 time limit on yourself.

It's also impossible to do this exactly on the test—thus the recommendation of training yourself to be able to "ballpark" 1:20. And ultimately, if you are moving on within a reasonable amount of time (let's say 2 minutes as a maximum), you will have time to come back and spend as much time as you want—thereby spending as much time as is needed on those really tough questions. the danger is in allowing yourself to stick it out with too many of the really tough ones without picking the low hanging fruit that may come later on in the section—thus the wisdom of skip and return.

lpadr009

using an analog watch when doing pts. i use this one and LOVE it, mostly cuz it was the cheapest lol, but also cuz it takes all the work out. it's just you and tthe 35 minutes (divided into 4)
http://www.amazon.com/35-Min-Watch-Timer-Bezel-LSATMax/dp/B00TED8MBI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1441752956&sr=8-3&keywords=lsat+watch
oops it's a bit pricey now,when i bought it was like $17

But seriously, practicing with a watch is a LIFE SAVER!!!

nye8870

@nicole.hopkins I love your advice. As a matter of fact, I love it especially because I started doing just what you said with a timer a couple of weeks ago. I use much older PTs and I don't care if I've seen the questions before. I still work through them by POE and I simply won't allow myself to linger past (for me) the 1:40 mark. Incredibly, when I score them my rate of correct answers is better then without timing and I get to see them all. I am a fan! I only do it as practice, though. When I am PTing newer tests I still just set the 35min and go for it.

jyang72

@nicole.hopkins, your idea is awesome. After I got low 160s but stopped improving, I realized that I always spent too much time on questions that I got wrong anyway and I ended up having no time to do what I am capable of. If I could have enough time to do what I am capable of, my score would definitely be higher.

nicole.hopkins

@nye8870 said:
When I am PTing newer tests I still just set the 35min and go for it.

Well, if it's working for practice, why not try it for PT's ?!?!

nye8870

@nicole.hopkins said:
Well, if it's working for practice, why not try it for PT's ?!?!

Hmm...There may be some trust/confidence issues I am still working on. The system is a bit herky jerky .. pondering....

nicole.hopkins

@nye8870 said:
There may be some trust/confidence issues I am still working on.