Opinion on practicing LR sections under less time?

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• 1 Like

  italian_taco Member

  January 2021 158 karma

  Hi!

  I personally tried lessening the time and for some reason it just made more nervous. When I do practice sections and when I do full PT I am someone that looks at the clock after every passage, every game, and after every 7 or 8 questions on LR. So when I tried lessening the time, idk it just got in my head because those extra 3 minutes near the end are huge for just quickly checking questions you weren't 100% sure about.

  What has helped me improve in LR (I average -2/-1 timed and -1/-0 on BR from about -6/-5 timed and -3/-2 on BR) was instead keeping track of the time of when I do my first go-around of the questions. I cannot talk about how much skipping/flagging has helped me. I flag like 12 questions (but tbh I flag when even I'm 99% sure on a question which is why while this sounds like a lot it's really not) and skip like 5 or 6 during the first wrap around lol. But there's just something so fire/comforting of when you look at the time after your first go-around and you see you have like 12 minutes left that just gives you that boost of confidence to finish the section out strong. Granted I did just start with 12 minutes left over, that's something I worked to improve which is something I recommend everyone try to improve!

  To get back to your question, I personally would recommend to try and improve the speed of your first go-around instead of just taking 3 minutes off the top. I do think it's worth to try the 3 minutes off the top method because it might work for you, but as someone who uses the clock to gauge progress in the section rather often, it was just another layer of stress that I didn't need haha.

  I hope this helps!
• Auntie2020 Member

  January 2021 552 karma

  @italian_taco

  YESSS THIS IS exactly what i was looking for. I appreciate the advice SO much. I am still trying to build consistency and I am looking for different strategies.

  If I am reading this correctly, you go through the entire section as quickly as possible (without sacrificing accuracy ofc) flagging anything that you're unsure of. Then you go through your flagged answers the second round?

  Right now I don't skip very much. I skip like one question and sit there when I'm stuck lol.
• 1 Like

  italian_taco Member

  January 2021 158 karma

  @Auntie2020

  Exactly!! So to better break it down, my process is like:
  I read the question and if I have a solid understanding of what it's saying and what it's asking me for try and predict the right answer (if you can) and go through the ACs. If I can choose the right AC and eliminate the wrong ones with 100% certainty click it and move on, don't flag. If I choose an AC and eliminate the wrong ones but I'm not 100% (like even when I'm 99% sure) flag it and come back to it later---this actually happens a lot more than than I'd (or maybe you'd) expect in the first half of a the section even on the easier questions. I would just find myself like double guessing/rereading the stimulus/ACs if I'm not 100% but when you do that for like 4 or 5 questions before you get half way through the section that time adds up.

  But when I get the questions where I read the stimulus once, and I'm just like "what the fuck is this saying?" and then I reread and if I'm still just like "wait ??? what ???" that's when I just go NOPE, flag it and skip it---it's not worth spending time on it if I don't get it right away. And I also flag and skip if I have an okay understanding of the stimulus but then the AC are those where they using similar verbiage in all the ACs and I really gotta dig through each one to find the answer that's when I'm like NOPE i'll do this later.

  And I do this for every questions. I give an actual honest shot at each question and for me I usually do this with about 10-12 minutes to spare for the second go around.

  Then once you loop around you'll be surprised how much clearer certain questions are. For those that I flagged even though I was 99% sure about them, the second go around is when I'm like "oh ya this other AC I was maybe debating between uses X phrasing which means it's wrong. Dope next" and it's so quick. For those that I skipped, I'm essentially reading the stimulus/AC for a 3rd/4th time without wasting that much time because I didn't trap myself really trying to understand it the first time. And for the most part, those questions that didn't make sense to me the 1st go around by the time I get to them the second time around something just usually clicks or I see something that I missed the first read (from the fog of war) and I get it right away.

  But as always there's like 2-3 questions (either I'm just missing something (for me it's NAs that usually do me dirty) or they're, 8 times out of 10, the curve-breaker questions) that majority of the banked 12 minutes go to. But now you know "hey I have 5 minutes left and I can give all my focus to these 2 or 3 remaining questions? hugeeeee"

  Try it out and let me know if it works for you! It's done wonders for me.
• Auntie2020 Member

  January 2021 552 karma

  @italian_taco

  Thank you so much for that write-up and your time. Really, really appreciate all of this!!!

  I'm going to try it out the next week or two while I am still drilling and then I'll let you know how it goes. This sounds like a really great strategy. Much better than just randomly trying to be 3 minutes faster lolol.

  Thank you again for your help