Time Management Curriculum?

Cant Get Right

So I just got to parallel questions in the curriculum, and as I begin working through some of these and time is becoming a more challenging factor than the actual questions; I'm finding myself really wanting to see some questions hammered out in real time. I understand when to eliminate an answer choice and move on without reading further, I just feel like I need a more comprehensive, holistic vision of what this looks like over the course of a section. I know these are skills which will come more into play post curriculum during PT/BR phase, and I know this is something which each individual will have to develop individually for their own strengths and weaknesses; but I still think I would benefit a lot from a demonstration in the curriculum. Any chance of getting a lesson just showing @"J.Y. Ping" destroying an LR section? And maybe not even straight up timed, but just with explanations which would mirror our thought process (ideally) under timed conditions- kind of a culmination of everything coming together. Maybe using the diagnostic test? I think this could be a great tool to really demonstrate the full importance of time management strategy and an example to show us an ideal to strive towards. Does that make sense to anyone else? Plus, I just think it would be fun to really watch the master at work.

quinnxzhang

I'm not an LSAT "master", but I was consistently PTing in the 179-180 range by the last month of my study.

My time goals for LR were as follows:

45 - 60 sec per question on the first two pages, 60 - 75 sec for the middle two, and the remaining time for the remaining questions. This doesn't always work out, since sometimes difficult questions appear early, but I found it to be a decent rough guide.

The way I kept track was I'd check to make sure that the number of minutes I spent equaled the question number I just completed (on the first half of the test). By question 13 or 14 or so, I should have spent roughly 13 - 14 minutes. I usually found myself with roughly 7 - 10 minutes left for the last ~4 questions.

I think my time schedule is tighter than a lot of other high scorers who work on completing the entire section in < 30 minutes and devote the rest of the time to reviewing the harder questions, but I found that I did better investing more time upfront in each question because I was less likely to change an answer during review (I'd come back and just walk through the exact same thought process and end up choosing the same answer).

A good way to build up an intuition for time is to use the question bank on this site and actually hit the play button on the video of the LR question. The video length (1:24) is the average time you can spend on a question and finish the entire section (actually, you should be finishing a bit faster to accommodate bubbling time). If the video ends before you choose an answer, you know you're spending too long. After using the LR video question bank, you should be able to "feel" when you're taking too long on a question and therefore know when to select an answer and come back.

Cant Get Right

Wow, nice job on those PTs! My target timeline is similar to yours. I’m aiming for the first 15 in 15, and then the remaining 10 in 15-20. I like having the 5 on the end mainly to give me more confidence in skipping something if I need to.

I actually really dislike the timed videos for building intuition because I don’t think 1:24 is right for most questions. I think most 1/2 level difficulty questions need to be done in under 40 seconds, and I think most 4/5 level difficulty questions are just going to take a lot longer. I feel like I’ve got to earn that time on the easy questions: That’s where the hard questions are really won or lost. If I'm taking 1:24 on low difficulty questions, there’s no way I’m even coming close on curve breakers.

And that’s why I think it’d be useful to see it all play out. Time strategy is such a huge element to success, and I think it’s something that really happens over the course of a section. And obviously, the section happens question by question, but I’m not sure presenting it that way truly captures or demonstrates the concept very well. In the lessons, seeing JY eliminate an answer choice because of the first two words is incredible. Since it’s a lesson, it’s obviously important to then examine the entire answer choice; but I can tell that under timed conditions, that is such a powerful ability. I think seeing it in action would be a really valuable experience for a lot of students.

quinnxzhang

@"Can’t Get Right" said:
I actually really dislike the timed videos for building intuition because I don’t think 1:24 is right for most questions.

I agree it's not right for most questions. I was suggesting you use it as an upper bound, which is what I did. I built up an intuition for when roughly 1:24 had passed and knew that I should select an answer choice and move on after that mark had passed. This helped prevent me from getting bogged down on harder questions.

helenharris

You can find JY doing LR in PT69 S1+S4, and PT71 S1+S3. And Jon also had an epic timed LR section video, which took him only 19 minutes.

Cant Get Right

Right on. Thanks for sharing @kotokochan!

Cant Get Right

Also, 19 minutes!?

helenharris

Haha I know, that's insane and super inspiring!

Cant Get Right

Holy shit. Epic.