Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
- 33.4K All Categories
- 28K LSAT
- 17K General
- 5.2K Logical Reasoning
- 1.4K Reading Comprehension
- 1.7K Logic Games
- 70 Podcasts
- 193 Webinars
- 12 Scholarships
- 194 Test Center Reviews
- 2.1K Study Groups
- 111 Study Guides/Cheat Sheets
- 2.5K Specific LSAT Dates
- 26 November 2024 LSAT
- 18 October 2024 LSAT
- 9 September 2024 LSAT
- 38 August 2024 LSAT
- 28 June 2024 LSAT
- 4 April 2024 LSAT
- 11 February 2024 LSAT
- 22 January 2024 LSAT
- 37 November 2023 LSAT
- 43 October 2023 LSAT
- 14 September 2023 LSAT
- 38 August 2023 LSAT
- 27 June 2023 LSAT
- 30 Sage Advice
- 5K Not LSAT
- 4K Law School Admissions
- 13 Law School Explained
- 10 Forum Rules
- 636 Technical Problems
- 285 Off-topic
Related Discussions
Timed vs untimed practice tests
James Beadl
Member
I seem to be paralyzed when it comes to timed tests and am wondering if changing my approach might help. I have now taken 4 practice tests and scored roughly the same on all of them - a 154 and 3 152s. Now, my Blind Review scores are 162-166, so I know I can do much better, but seem to get tripped up by the time. In my job, I preach following the procedure untimed to reproduce it accurately and confidently, then speed comes with practice. I wonder if it would make sense here as well to go through the full test a few times untimed, but monitoring where I am at specific points, to get used to the process before diving right into timed PTs immediately after finishing the curriculum. How have others approached this? I'm scheduled to take the December test and want to make the best use of my time to maximize my potential. Thanks in advance.
Comments
Timed pressure is a majority of this exam. Though I have to say, untimed practice is very important in the beginning, during the learning stages. I'm sure theres alot more qualified people to give advice than me, but from my perspective, it seems like you are still learning the exam.
Once you feel like you've gotten a good grasp of the strategies - I would say then simulate test-like conditions. I actually did a gradual entry into timed tests. First I did untimed problems, then I began to time individual questions (with the timer counting up, not down), then I did whole timed sections and finally timed tests.
I think almost everyone, in spending most of their energies on learning the skills that the LSAT explicitly requires, misses the simple fact that the LSAT is an execution, a performance, a recital. And it's a timed one. So always be trying to get more comfortable with performing your best under timed pressure. Untimed work can certainly be a valuable way to achieve this.
I think there’s a ton of value in untimed drilling and PTs. They will allow you to focus on your accuracy, which will ultimately improve your speed as well. Second, any mistakes you make on your untimed test will be a function of the deficiencies in your skill set, which will help you focus on the areas that need the most work.
What I would also recommend is recording yourself taking a PT/timed sections, this way you can objectively analyze yourself and how you approach each section.
Timing is a HUGE component of this test and everyone does worse when the clock is ticking. Unfortunately, the only way to really get better under timed conditions is to keep doing them.
What sections are slowing you down? One reason BR scores and timed PT's may be marginally different is because of fluctuations in LG scores. LG is one of the sections, IMO, that you really want to be careful and meticulous with how you study untimed particularly how you diagram and practice games untimed. Just because it's untimed that doesn't mean you should draw out every single possibility on a game- you'll never master LG if you do practice like that. LR and RC there shouldn't be too much of a difference. On LR are you taking too much time on easier questions?
Thanks everyone. My bigger issues seem to be with LR and RC. It takes me a moment to organize my thoughts after reading the stimulus or passage before attacking the answer choices. Yes, it's taking me too much time on the easier questions as well. I have a pretty good understanding of the concepts, just takes a moment to "click." With LG, I just need to keep practicing, but the other sections I'm a bit slower at.
Your BR score seems to indicate that you don't have as strong of an understanding of the fundamentals as maybe you think. I don't mean that as an attack. What leads to that 160-ish BR score? Over-confidence errors where you are not reviewing questions that you got wrong? Or gaps in fundamentals where you are getting questions wrong even in BR?
Yes I think that can be applied well to untimed LSAT practice as well. Based on what you've shared, I think you should be doing more untimed work than timed at this point because it doesn't sound like you have a strong enough grasp of fundamentals, cookie-cutter stimuli, or cookie-cutter wrong AC yet. That comes with exposure and mindful practice. Mastery of these things is what allows someone to go fast.
Speed doesn't come from rushing -- ever. Speed comes from recognizing gaps in reasoning and cookie-cutters more readily so that you don't need that extra 10-15s every other question to see what is going on. Speed also comes from recognizing when a question is beyond your ability to answer. Maybe it's better to describe that as recognizing when a question is too expensive. Can you get this 5 star SA question correct? Sure. Will it take you 4 minutes to do so? Well then that's a really bad expenditure of precious little time.
I would suggest drilling small sets of problems (5-10 questions) timed. But BR the shit out of them! Spend a looong time looking at them with a clean copy. Don't stop BRing a question because you're sure you got it. Pick out patterns in the argument. what makes it difficult? how could they have made it more difficult? are these wrong ACs cookie-cutter? How could i augment the argument so that this wrong AC would be correct (an extremely difficult exercise which basically forces you to create your own stimuli)? Diagram ALL the logic after trying to see it in your mind's eye first. This is how you improve your fundamental knowledge, pattern recognition, and intuition and THATS how you go faster with accuracy and confidence.
Best of luck. I am in a similar boat myself.
I think its fine to do sections you have taken before untimed and see when you get done compared to how much time you have. See if you can record that section and make notes on what held you back and formulate strategies to overcome that under time.
For me, I needed to skip hard questions and not try to solve them no matter what. This gives me time on other questions.
I think as other people have pointed out, you should still work on raising your blind review score to 170's at least. Raising your potential can really help with raising your score an dhow fast you go under time.
Let me know how it goes. Best of luck
.
Thanks again. I really appreciate the input.
It's correct that I don't easily recognize all the cookie cutter answers. There are times when I can anticipate the correct answer quickly and other times not so much. For example, in the NA question sets in the curriculum, I completed them all within an average of 1:20 for the set and got over 90% correct. However, in my trend analytics, this is one of the question types I seem to get wrong the most.
No, my BR score is not where I want it to be nor where I think I can get it. Since the baseline test at the beginning it has increased 10 points whereas my actual score has stayed the same. That's why I'm trying to figure out the most effective method for me to get that better understanding of the fundamentals that will lead to an increase in both my BR score and my timed test. I'm not feeling defeated or anything like that. I have the confidence that I can get where I want to get, I just need to find the right study method to get over this hump, and continuing to take timed tests when it doesn't seem to be leading to any improvement goes against my better judgment. That said, I realize that timing is a big part of the experience, and December 2 is only about 5 weeks away. Realistically, I may be looking at 2019 instead of 2018 if I don't see some improvement across the board soon, but I'm not giving up on making it yet.
Facing the time is something you must do in order to get over the fear. I used to practice by myself in the library and time myself, but was forgiving if I went over by 30 seconds or so. Then I had a friend proctor me, and cut me off at exactly 35 minutes, and it was a totally different feeling - at first it tripped me up and there were moments I couldn't even focus because I was worried I was running out of time. But then I got used to the pressure and can now finish each section with a few minutes to spare. Of course you shouldn't be rushing through questions you don't understand. I started out with a 156 (taking 6 hours to finish the test), and got a 167 in September (have been getting in the 170s on my PTs now - I'm taking again in December). The confidence that comes with knowing you can finish in time I think greatly improved my accuracy. I spent most of my time going slowly through LR and LG, and I take about 1-2 PTs per week.
How much time did it take you to get from 156 to 167? How much time did you spend on BR?