Timing myself during CC?

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• 1 Like

  Sami Live Member Sage ⭐ 7Sage Tutor

  October 2017 10789 karma

  @CurlyQQQ said:
  BR is still slightly confusing in the sense that I'm not sure if the first time around (when I'm doing question sets) if I'm supposed to be timing myself. Or am I supposed to take as much time as I can since I'm still in the CC stage? I'm currently doing my Question sets timed and then doing BR after.

  Is it less than beneficial to time yourself so early when you're just learning concepts? I don't quite know how to approach this?

  Why so confusing?? ?

  Start by timing but doing it without a time limit. That way you have time as a component in the back of your head but your focus is on learning the strategies and doing things correctly. Speed really comes from getting better and not the other way around.

  So currently your focus should be on doing things correctly and being methodological about this. But keep a tab on how long its takes you but don't rush. As you get better and do more questions you'll see your time will start to decrease.
• 3 Likes

  Nunuboy1994 Free Trial Member

  October 2017 edited October 2017 346 karma

  @CurlyQQQ In my experience, and from what I've heard from other 7Sagers and my friend who scored a 179, it's actually highly recommended that you practice sections untimed especially logical reasoning. A lot of timed practiced tests done prematurely are bad because if you don't know the fundamentals you'll just tire and unnecessarily stress yourself out under timed pressure. Furthermore, the logical reasoning section is not meant to be something people can do intuitively well on; the test wants you to think in a certain way when approaching the LR section. In the LR section, for example, there's trap answers that appeal to common sense but don't logically address the argument. There's also common themes on the LR section. If you get a question reading something like

  Sally: "If Tanya kicks the apple tree, then an apple will fall down. An apple just fell down, therefore Tanya MUST have kicked the tree"

  Which of the following describes the error in Sally's reasoning?

  What would be the error of reasoning? The answer choice may read something like "it confuses a condition that is necessary for something to happen for a condition that is sufficient." What that basically means is just because the apple fell down that doesn't necessarily mean Tanya kicked it because thunder or something other factor could have caused the tree to fall down...multiple ways. BUT if know that you kicked the tree then you do in fact know that an apple fell down.
  I highly recommend practicing conditional statements. If I could go back into the first two months of my LSAT practice I would have heavily drilled conditional statements such as "If A then B," "A unless B" "A if and only if B" You need to understand how to correctly negate these statements if you don't already. When I did LR sections in my first two months of practice I would get like 11-14 correct. BUT after a few months of doing a lot of conditional logic statements I would get around 20-22 correct. And a few weeks after that I was able to get like 20-22 correct timed and consistently. A lot of the controversy surrounding untimed practice I feel is directed at people who develop bad habits in logic games. Under timed pressure you simply don't have time to draw out every possibility in a logic game; but you can still learn a lot from practicing logic games untimed. Just don't try to draw out every possible situation in an LG- try to think of some of the situations as a puzzle game. There's ways to draw diagrams that clearly cover multiple possibilities. Once you can wipe out an LG section untimed and get like 4 wrong tops then it may be a good idea to switch over to timed practiced.
• Nunuboy1994 Free Trial Member

  October 2017 edited October 2017 346 karma

  I also want to add that it took my friend 2 years to score a 179. They are now at YLS but they started practicing sophomore of college and by senior year were able to hit that score. It just goes to show you that sometimes you just have to focus on yourself and not mind what others are doing. Don't worry about whose getting 170 timed or whose getting 141 untimed...there's just what you can control and what actually manifests test day. Also, Reginald Dwayne Betts spent like 6 years in jail and when he got out went from community college to UMD to YLS so it just goes to show you sometimes anything is possible.
• tringo335 Alum Member ⭐

  October 2017 3679 karma

  I do not time myself during the CC. I use that time to truly learn the fundamentals. I may take note of about how long a section took just because I'm curious but if it takes me longer than it should I don't stress over it or try to beat the clock next time. Like @Nunuboy1994 said this is a slow and steady race. Fight the urge to rush or feel like you should be farther ahead than you are. Everyone is different.
• CurlyQQQ Alum Member

  October 2017 295 karma

  @Nunuboy1994 That makes so much sense. I find that when I rush I'm simply reading over the stimulus. Thanks for that feedback. I can't afford to just rush through the fundamentals.

  @tringo335 That sounds like a plan. I think I'll time myself but not rush to beat the clock. It puts too much pressure on me and then I lose focus.
• tringo335 Alum Member ⭐

  October 2017 3679 karma

  @CurlyQQQ said:

  @tringo335 That sounds like a plan. I think I'll time myself but not rush to beat the clock. It puts too much pressure on me and then I lose focus.

  I totally feel you; the pressure is almost unbearable when being timed lol. I sat on a call here on 7Sage once and the tutor actually said everyone has that problem because your brain literally cannot think of two things at once -- the time and the problem. So overtime you have to learn not to think about it throughout the entirety of the test .. .just to monitor it. I can't wait till I get there cause right now the timing gives me the most stress. If I had 24 hours on test day, it'd be so easy lol!
• Alex Alum Member ⭐

  October 2017 23929 karma

  I think if you're learning you are best served learning the different questions types untimed. I think timing yourself while learning can lead to bad habits and is just overall ineffective. Maybe once you're comfortable with the strategies you can add-in time via a stopwatch instead of counting down.