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Related Discussions
2 Likes
How do I get better at getting through 25 questions in 25 minutes?
btownsquee
Alum Member
Hi all, I think my problem with LR right now is not having enough time to do a thorough second round. I have tried for a long time to get through the 25 questions in 25 minutes but have not been able to do it. Right now, I usually complete the questions in ~30 minutes, leaving me ~5 minutes for a second round. I do try and skip questions--I skip around 3/4 if I can't understand the stimulus/don't like any answer choices.
If I had 10 full minutes, I really think I could get my score higher. For those who have achieved answering 25 questions in 25 minutes--how did you do it??
Comments
Are you doing any cookie-cutter review?
What exactly is cookie-cutter review? I know the common argument flaws if that's what you're asking.
I started to cut out the LR questions I've missed/had trouble with and review 5 each day, like notecards.
For context, I'm missing 4-6 question on LR sections currently.
Consider each of those questions carefully in addition to any easy questions that took you longer than ~1 minutes to complete and try to categorize them into "cookie-cutters". For example, a common cookie cutter that I found was "A decision w/o enough info" and that looked something like "Tom is deciding between two cars. He wants the fastest car. Car A is extremely fast, so Tom should choose car A".
@NotMyName Thank you! I'll start doing this.
If you're missing 4-6 questions I wouldn't try to be hitting 25/25 just yet. I'd try to work on getting that number down to only missing 3-4 tops. There's more important things you can do to get better at LR at that point. Remember, going faster is just a function of your ability to implement the correct strategies you've learned more intuitively.
I'd also highly suggest you work your way up to 25/25. Start aiming to do 10/10 and then 15/15 until that becomes more comfortable.
You can also do cookie - cutter review for all questions. Not just flaws but see what the structure of the stimulus and answer choices are. Example of structure: argument by analogy; correlation-causation; phenomenon-hypothesis; problem - solution, and so forth. By identifying the structure as cookie cutter you make each question less unique and start to see how it's similar to others. You can also do the same thing (and should) with answer choices. Describe them if you're struggling with MoR or Ap or flaw. Look at the answer choices that gave you trouble in eliminating or choosing the correct one and why it is. Chances are that the issues you have repeat in other questions. You can do this with RC and LG too. For example, I found out that I was weak in games where they tell you x and y can't be together. I wouldn't take my analysis another step further to figure out who x and y can be with and as a result, do we have any other game pieces that can't be together bc they must accompany one of x/y.
Also, I'd focus on reducing those questions you miss per section down to 3-4. Since you're spending 30 minutes getting through the 25 questions try to focus more on accuracy than speed. See which questions you're skipping and why.
I wouldn't stress about those last five minutes too much. 25 in 30 is good enough to go -0/-1. The stress of thinking it isn't enough time might be a problem on your second go around? I think the review ideas above are your best bet. Redoing sections from several months before also helped me establish some more automatic mental timing reflexes. The only immediate fix I would consider is experiment with skipping more quickly. Even if you've only read the stimulus and it turns out to be the easiest question on the section (even question #1), move on immediately if you feel your understanding is shaky. That being said, my advice is not to obsess on 25 in 25 too much.
Yeah agree w all the above. I never actually made it to 25 in 25... I usually finished my first round between 27-29 minutes and returned to 5 questions max. My LR avg was -2.
I agree with all the other posters above. I think if anything you should just spend the time up-front to answer the questions correctly the first time. For reference I take almost all 35 minutes for LR sections and average -0/-1. Speed comes from accuracy, not the other way around.
I think your problem is trying to do 25 questions in 25 minutes. extremely arbitrary...as is "10 in 10" or "15 in 15"
just focus on doing the questions correctly and you'll go faster in time
@NotMyName @Alex @keets993 @btate87 @eRetaker @Tom_Tango
Hello all! Thank you so much for all your advice. I've been doing cookie cutter review and I stopped worrying about rushing. I finally took a practice LR section today and I got -2! I will keep at it and hopefully this becomes the norm. I really appreciate you taking the time to give me advice. THANK YOU!!!!
Sounds like you got the help you needed already, but just agreeing with the others. I mean, you don't need 10 minutes to review if you get them all right on the first pass. If you do 25 in 35 but you get them all correct, it's totally fine. Or even if you use up all your time but end up only missing 2 or 3, that's still obviously a better score.
I do keep an eye on my progress and like hitting around 10 in 10 and 15 in 15, but that just gives me enough time to really process the harder questions that come along and tells me I haven't lingered too much on the easier ones. I've never hit 25 in 25, but speed improves as your accuracy does.
@btownsquee Congrats! That is very strong progress.
Nice! Cookie cutter review basically unlocked a consistent upper 160 score for me. Keep at it!
Ps.. there are a lot of different takes on cookie cutter reviews so don’t be afraid to ask around for opinions
@Alex
Great advice bro! Exactly how I am treating LRs right now. I went from 10/10,15/15, 20/20 to now getting 22/23. Still a workin progress but making those small goals has helped tremendously
Also great post @btownsquee, the advice and comments in this post could help so many others!
Are there any webinars or extra lessons on this cookie cutter review? I definitely do not know as much as I should know about this and if it has helped you greatly already then I need to dive further into it immediately.
Or is this just one of those things that becomes intuitive after tons of practice and many problem sets/PT's?
Just a side note, I'm amazed that you're still stuck under 170 if you're consistently finishing both LR sections in under 30minutes and averaging -2 on them. Maybe your time is better spent focusing on the other sections?
I initially was going to concur with Alex's recommendation, until I saw that you already average -2 on LR... in that case, I think the only thing you can do to improve your speed is confidence drills. If you're not familiar with that, it's essentially a drill to practice skipping. I think some of the sages are too technical when describing how they do it, such as 80% confidence corresponding to an 80% correctness, or something along those lines. For me, I just divide it between yes and no, and skip as soon as I see an answer that I think is a yes. There are better definitions and guidelines to this method, and you should definitely search it up. When doing confidence drills, I usually can finish 25 Q's in 25 minutes, and basically only completely read 8 or 9 questions, half of which are because their answers are E.
Hope this helps.