When do you know when it's time to move on?

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• 3 Likes

  Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  October 2015 8021 karma

  If you can't find the conclusion, if you can't find the flaw, if you pre-phrase and that answer isn't in the ACs, or if you don't have any clue what you just read then get the hell out of there.
  
  FWIW, you are likely spending too much time on easy questions as well as hard ones the first time through. There are usually ~12-15 questions that should take less than a minute. A few should take 20-30 seconds. Getting those questions quickly is where you really gain a lot of extra time that allows you to finish 5 minutes early so you have time to return to the hard questions.
• Accounts Playable Live Sage ⭐

  October 2015 3107 karma

  I know this doesn't exactly answer the question, but one thing that I commonly due (not so much anymore since the more PTs you do, the better you get at managing your time) is when I get to the last "fold on the exam" for LR (i.e. questions 20ish-25, where the last 5 or 6 questions are on the last 2 pages), I work backwards. I usually find questions 23-25 pretty easy/have relatively fewer words than questions 20-22, so I would rather attempt those before reading 20-22 simply because I can read them more quickly. Questions 20-22 usually have a parallel reasoning question, and although these questions typically are not that hard, they can take a TON of time to read, especially if the correct answer is D or E. I would rather run out of time doing the parallel reasoning question (and miss that one), than miss 2-3 relatively simple/fast questions.
  
  As I said before, the more PTs you do, the better your timing is going to get. I used to have the 5 minute call at around question 19, but now, I can often finish the section with 2-3 minutes to spare. That is all thanks to doing PT after PT after PT.
• GSU Hopeful Core ⭐

  October 2015 1644 karma

  This goes along with what others have said, but I think its important to develop that internal 1:20 clock. There are some questions that won't take that long, but by developing that internal clock you are essentially cutting bait and moving forward when a question is taking too long. Most of the time, if you haven't made significant progress at the 1:20 mark you're most likely spinning your wheels anyway. Circle the question, guess and move forward. Come back to those that you circled if time permits. By doing this, you're reaching more of the low hanging fruit that you might not otherwise get to if you burn 2 or 3 minutes on multiple questions.
• Petrichor Alum Member

  October 2015 359 karma

  Which section are we talking about? For RC, if I can't narrow it down to 2 choices within 90 seconds I move on immediately. LG, pretty much only skip on the rule switch question if I can't solve it within 2 minutes. LR, this is kinda tricky, I can usually solve the first 10-12 problems in under 10 minutes (sometimes 6 or 7) and I expect to take longer in the mid-to-high teens questions, occasionally I do get bogged down but generally try to reach 20 questions within 25 minutes.