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How long does your BR take and why

2RARE2CARE2RARE2CARE Member
in General 248 karma
I'm just curious and trying to gauge how long other people take because sometimes I feel like I'm taking forever. I also clean copy BR

After I take the LSAT, I usually BR the RC and half of a LR Section. This takes about 2-3 hours so my total time for that day plus LSAT is 5-6 hours. At this point, my brain is drained and I don't think I'm doing myself any favors by continuing.

The next day, I BR the other half of the LR and the other LR. This can about 2-3 hours. Then. It takes me about 3-4 hours to throughly review the questions I missed. I type out my reasoning after watching JYs explanation.

Then I review the RC, which takes about an hour to 1.5 hours.

Then I do the games/watch explanations and re-do them. About 2-2.5 hours.

All in all, I usually can't even finish in 2 days. It takes me about 12+ hours to throughly finish. Am I hitting diminishing returns? Thanks.
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Comments

  • DumbHollywoodActorDumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐
    7468 karma
    How many PTs have you done? Approximately how many questions do you circle?
  • PacificoPacifico Alum Inactive ⭐
    8021 karma
    BR takes as long as it takes. Everyone is different and individuals will differ throughout their prep.

    That being said, how far along in your prep are you? And how many questions are you circling? Once you're into 20+ PTs or are in the 165+ range you really need to lower that bar of 100% certainty to 90% or so in order to develop more confidence and circle fewer questions. If your method is working for you, then by all means continue. But if you're spinning your wheels when it comes to improving, then I would suggest mixing it up a bit whether that means reviewing some curriculum, drilling your weaknesses a bit more, or consulting with a tutor. If you're still circling 5-10+ questions per section after 20+ PTs you really need to cut that number down and get more efficient with your prep.
  • 2RARE2CARE2RARE2CARE Member
    edited January 2016 248 karma
    @DumbHollywoodActor @Pacifico Im in the low 160s (163 last PT) and basically just BR entire section of whatever I do. I've probably done like 17 PTs. Don't even circle. I suppose I should just only go after my uncertainties and that would save a lot of time
  • PacificoPacifico Alum Inactive ⭐
    8021 karma
    Oh yeah you definitely need to start circling. You're likely wasting an inordinate amount of time on easy questions. If you're in the low 160s you should be circling 5-10 questions per section at most. You will save yourself a ton of time and learn more about your confidence errors. Doing BR for the whole test is okay in the very beginning but for the level you're at you really need to fine tune this.
  • 2RARE2CARE2RARE2CARE Member
    edited January 2016 248 karma
    @Pacifico thanks man, I have some pretty bad OCD so I thought I'd do clean copy forever. But I'm starting to see diminishing returns on such a long BR. Thanks again! But what do you mean but confidence errors and how will this fix this
  • DumbHollywoodActorDumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐
    edited January 2016 7468 karma
    @2RARE2CARE said:
    Don't even circle.
    This is a mistake. Confidence is an important element in being a high scorer. It’s not just about being able to answer the hard questions. It’s about being able to answer the easy questions as efficiently as possible. That comes with confidence, and if you’re not practicing that, it’s more than likely that you won’t improve. Go back and watch JY’s videos about blind review. The circling process is a huge part of Blind Review.
  • PacificoPacifico Alum Inactive ⭐
    8021 karma
    Clean copy is important but it doesn't mean you BR the whole test. And I think Dave addressed the confidence issues very well in his last post.
  • 2RARE2CARE2RARE2CARE Member
    248 karma
    @DumbHollywoodActor gotcha, apparently I didn't listen closely to the BR tutorial. I thought I was doing the right thing. My only question is how this is going to make me answer easy questions quicker/more efficiently.
  • DumbHollywoodActorDumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐
    7468 karma
    I’ll give you an analogy from LG. Do you know how JY will say on some questions (like acould be or must be true) when you figure out it’s B, you circle B and move on without checking C, D, and E. That’s exhibiting confidence in that answer. To be a high-scorer, you need to something similar on LR for a number of questions. That comes with confidence. By not circling a question, you’re exercising the same muscles required to answer an easy question quickly. Under-confidence is just as dangerous as over-confidence on the LSAT.
  • 2RARE2CARE2RARE2CARE Member
    248 karma
    Interesting, thanks again for taking the time out. Definitely saved me endless hours of nonsense. I will be sure to heed your advice, brotha @DumbHollywoodActor
  • guitarnaraguitarnara Alum Member
    365 karma
    It takes me anywhere from 1-2 Hours. But it used to take me longer because I used to review all the questions. With practice, you become better at discerning which questions you are 90-100% certain on and which ones you are not. These days, I rarely get a question wrong that I did not circle, and end up with a fair ratio of "circled questions" to "wrong answer choices". I used to circle 10-15 questions per section, but I am down to 3-5 questions per section. You definitely get better with practice.
  • 2RARE2CARE2RARE2CARE Member
    248 karma
    So what do you do for RC when you have circled questions during BR, do you guys find that you immediately re-read the passage to get a better understanding of it before answering the circled question under BR or does it just depend on whether or not you had a weak/good understanding of the passage, initially @Pacifico @DumbHollywoodActor @guitarnara
  • PacificoPacifico Alum Inactive ⭐
    8021 karma
    Totally depends on the passage. If I don't remember where the evidence was I will read all the ACs and then read the passage over again so I can effectively get rid of four wrong ACs.
  • StopLawyingStopLawying Alum Member
    821 karma
    OK, so I gotta admit that I've been guilty of this too. I wouldn't circle questions during the test and afterwards I'd just BR every single question. Like the OP said, it takes an incredibly long time and the process is really slow. Doing this really only let me take around 1-2 practice tests per week. My BR scores are typically in the mid/high 170's and my timed scores are gradually making their way up so I guess it's helping a bit. But I definitely see what you guys mean about the confidence issue. A few weeks ago I asked here on the forum why I have no idea how I do on a PT after I take it and how it's hurting my performance during the timed test since I always think I'm underperforming and this is exactly why. I wasn't able to accurately pinpoint which questions I was confident on so the whole test was one big mush, if that makes any sense.
    So I really appreciate the advice you guys gave here in this post. I'm really happy I discovered this now instead of like 20+ PT into my studies. I just have on question: Due to some timing issues, I typically don't use POE for like the first 10 questions if I don't have to. If I see an answer I like I just go with it. Today, I took a PT and didn't circle these questions since I was fairly confident I had the right answer. Should I review these during BR since I didn't really go through the remaining answer choices or should I just mark them right away since I have to see if my intuition is accurate? I feel like if I just do the former I'd be repeating the same thing I did before and I obviously want to avoid that. Thanks guys and sorry if this post is a bit incoherent, in a huge rush!
  • PacificoPacifico Alum Inactive ⭐
    8021 karma
    Don't review those on BR. You'll catch them as confidence errors if you get any wrong once you score the test and then you will still review them at that point.
  • StopLawyingStopLawying Alum Member
    821 karma
    @Pacifico thanks, really appreciate it.
  • amipp_93amipp_93 Alum Member
    585 karma
    Interesting question that came to mind as I read this thread. So, lets say that you got an answer down to B via POE on real time PT, but have no idea why that question is right but are 90% sure the other 4 are wrong. Is that something that counts as BR worthy or if you don't know why the answer is right, BUT know the other four are wrong, you can be confident about it and move on without circling that question?
  • amipp_93amipp_93 Alum Member
    585 karma
    I meant "no idea that that ANSWER CHOICE is right*
  • Nicole HopkinsNicole Hopkins Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    4344 karma
    @amipp170 said:
    Is that something that counts as BR worthy or if you don't know why the answer is right, BUT know the other four are wrong, you can be confident about it and move on without circling that question?
    Don't you want to understand why a correct answer is correct so that you can identify patterns and succeed in the future?
  • DumbHollywoodActorDumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐
    7468 karma
    @amipp170 said:
    Is that something that counts as BR worthy or if you don't know why the answer is right, BUT know the other four are wrong, you can be confident about it and move on without circling that question?
    More often than not, I think it is BR-worthy. Though, I think it depends on the question type and the context.

    On the one hand, the correct answer for many MSS questions is so general that the best (if not only) way to find that answer is to eliminate the 4 wrong answer choices without really having a stronger reasoning than “well, that’s an easy sentence to support". I think in that instance, I’d feel confident answering that question without circling the question for review.

    On the other hand, if it were a subtle descriptive flaw question in which the correct answer is something the argument failed to consider and I got to an answer by eliminating 4 descriptively inaccurate statements, I would circle for review (because I don’t really see the actual flaw). I only know that the other answers are wrong.

    The other thing you want to consider when it comes to circling a question is the mindset that “were I to finish this section with 10 minutes to spare (I can dream!), which questions do I need to go back to review or to modify?” That is probably the best criteria with which to decide “Do I want to review this question?"
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