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Related Discussions
Timing Anxiety Loop!
yellowavcable
Alum Member
I'm sort of in a dilemma: I use a watch because I need to keep track of time in each section, but when I look at my watch and if I see I'm a bit behind my pacing, then I get stressed about not having enough time to finish a section, and do worse!
RC is a good example. Sometimes I'll get to the last passage with, say, 6 minutes left, but then I get stressed that's not enough time to answer all of the questions, and I ultimately do worse overall on that section than if, I imagine, I kept on going and maybe did not reach the last question. Same with LR; if I don't finish the first 10 in 10, then I feel pressured to rush through the next questions, and see my performance drop overall.
The takeaway seems that I need to improve on timing so I don't feel rushed (which I imagine also will improve my LSAT confidence). I've also thought about no longer using a watch.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation or have any advice?
Comments
@yellowavcable I was always told that the timing would come with confidence. You're spending too much time answering questions. See if you can narrow down which question types you're spending a great amount of time on and return to the curriculum and then drill. Also, see if you can look at the questions you circle during BR to determine the question types you're iffy about.
Yes I have the same problem. I have been told that this is normal. Your mind is going through two conflicting thoughts: stress from figuring out the problem and stress from keeping an eye on the time. I was told that the best way to combat this is to not watch the time during each question but to move through as quickly confidently and accurately as possible. I'm sure over time we'll naturally begin to get quicker and intuitively get the timing down.
@tanes256 and @tringo335, thanks for the advice! Will keep on studying!
An Oldie but a goodie from Nicole Hopkins about how to build an internal time clock:
https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/4734/how-often-do-you-check-the-time
hope this helps & I will look for another post that can help... brb
Not finishing 10 in 10 is not reason to be flustered b/c LSAC is throwing curve balls in the earlier questions and learning how to skip efficiently and effectively is paramount to avoid the time sink traps.
If you have built a good internal time clock of how long 30sec - 45secs - 1min, it will pay huge dividends to excel at skipping strategies.
The following will be way below your capabilities because you are finishing sections, but it can represent a similar concept from learning how to complete a section to advanced awareness and learning how to skip questions within a section and trust your internal time clock to pull you out of time sinks!
from cjones76:
I calculated how much time that allowed me per question and knew that if I was going over I needed to move on. So, for 18 questions it'd be about 1 min 55 seconds. Then I used a loop timer to plug in that amount of time and periodically look up at my computer to see what loop I should be on and how that measured up to what question number I was at. Therefore, I knew I was spending too much time or if my speed was improving. Allowing myself to visually see where I should be really helped develop a sense of timing. Because prior I was allowing myself spend way to long on easier questions, but wouldn't realize it. This forced me to focus on increasing my speed.
Obviously, you won't have that benefit during the real test, so once you get to where you want to be or close to it I would stop using the loop timer.
And to echo what everyone else said, you need to learn how to devote less time easy question and to not spin your wheels on hard questions. When a question is easy don't question it and second guess yourself (real thought process: "that was way too easy, I need to redo that to confirm thats right"). Instead take it and run- move on to the next question. When you can't figure out what a stimulus is telling or can't figure out the answer circle it answer move on. Don't sit there and compare answer choices to each other.
Increasing speed is also about hounding in fundamentals, so they come more as second nature.
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/loop-countdown/ <--- loop timer
Hope this helps:)
Great advice on this thread. While I think having a clock is important, you do not want to worry about it. As @twssmith pointed out, recent LSATs are including more difficult questions early on (Question 8 is the bane of my existence on many modern PTs
) This means that it is not always possible to make 10Q in 10 minutes. The clock is just there as a general tool to make small adjustments to your pace.
The really important thing is building an internal timer to tell you if you are spending too much time on a single question. You want to develop a feel for when a minute has passed and you have made no progress on a question. Many students have found videotaping themselves taking a PT and analyzing the footage to really help with this. They find that they spend way too much time on certain answer choices or bouncing between answer choices. By skipping these questions, you will have more time and less stress towards the end of the test.
Yes! as I said
Haha. The first citation of you in the first paragraph is also connected to my second paragraph.
I love the advice given above.
This is how I see it. Some questions on LSAT are supposed to be 20 sec questions, some 30, 40, 50, a minute and some even two minutes, some are best missed and not have time sunk on them. The problem is that these minute and up questions can be within the first 10 questions and are even supposed to be the ones we miss. So if we spend much time on them from the start, we will not make 10 questions in 10 minutes.
Here is how I look at it, I don't want to spend any more than 1 min per question, so if I encounter a stimulus that's hard or I am stuck between answer choices or I can't find the right answer, I am in really good shape if I can skip that question in 30 sec. I am in okay shape if I can skip that question less than a minute anything more and my section is about to be bombed in a horrible way.
Sometimes i will get to the end of section and its 25 min mark but I have skipped 3 hard questions entirely, 2 questions I was 50-50 about, and1 or 2 I just want to make sure. That to me is a great section. Had I spend that 1 min or more on those 3 hard questions I skipped and the 2 I was 50-50 about, I would not only have gotten them wrong but my chances of missing the easy ones go high as now I am rushing through these easy questions and my probability of making a mistake goes up. Having a good second round is key to getting more questions correct rather than spending time upfront on them. My score literally went from -5 LR combined to -3 range on both sections now because of a good second round section strategy.
It's similar with RC. You want to spend time on reading the passage but you want to go through questions fast. No question should take you more than 40 sec on the first round.
Here is my advice: Video tape yourself. Write down the time you spent on each question for your first round and second round. I want you to notice the questions that you should have skipped as soon as your realized you can't do it at this moment. Write down the difficulty rating for those questions. If it was a 5 start questions and you didn't have it in a minute and didn't skip it, write down at what point when you were taking it should you have skipped it. Same with easy questions. The 1 to 3 start questions should be 20 sec to 40 sec max. Anything longer and you want to break down the question and figure out what took you so long. Figure out and see if it was a conceptual issue or a grammar issue or a focus issue. I want you to congratulate yourself if you skip a hard question in 30 sec and came back to it at the end and spent a minute more, and even if you had a 3rd round on it at the very end of the section and it took you 3 minutes total. That's a great section strategy and is likely to maximize your score.
I hope this helps
@twssmith, that's great advice about building an internal time clock, thanks for passing along. I'm definitely going to try the highlighting technique you linked to. And I agree, I think I often over-dwell on both easy questions ("is it that simple?") and more difficult ones ("why can't I get this, AAAGH").
@Daniel.Sieradzki, Yes, something I started trying is shifting from answering the first 10 questions in 10 minutes to netting 10 questions in 10 minutes. This allows me to skip questions that are harder, skip flaw questions on the first pass, and instead focus on my strongest question types (MSS, AP, ID etc.). Still experimenting with this approach, but it's worked out pretty well so far.
@Sami, it's great to hear your personal approach; I like your max 1-minute cutoff per question strategy. I think building an internal time clock will help give me a sense of when one minute has passed. And I think just having an overall strategy will give me a greater sense of confidence, and prevent me from falling in these anxiety time loops!
Thanks for the great advice, everyone!