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1 Like
Skipping Q’s
LivePumpkin
Free Trial Member
Hi everyone,
I am wondering what type of skipping strategies you all use. Also, what are some common question types that you skip when pressed for time?
Thanks!
Comments
So most people have a varied strategy for this. Some people are willing to circle and entire question and skip it and then returning to it later. I can't get myself to do that, so I have a modified approach.
When I start an LR section I answer 100% of the questions on my first pass. The way I've sped up is by committing myself to an answer on a hard question. If I find myself tossing 2-3 answer choices back and forth for too long, I force myself to pick one and move on.
I have 3 degrees of "difficulty" that I mark.
If I put a triangle over the question # that means it was extremely hard and I had no idea. It was an educated guess.
If I put a circle over the question # it means I got it to about 50/50 and just couldn't justify why one was better than the other.
If I put a Tilde (~) next to the question # it means I'm fairly certain I have the right answer. I just have a little bit of a "fog" left about it.
This way my stubborn ass does not feel like I'm skipping questions, but at the same time, I have a method on how to return to questions with extra time. This is something new I've started to work on fairly recently. I tend to finish an LR section with anywhere between 5-8 minutes now. It has sped me up quite a bit..
One thing I do suggest though is to not target a specific question type.
What if it is a stupid easy parallel flaw question and you can eliminate answer choices super fast and get to the answer? If you skip it to save time, you'll still have to come back to it right?
I suggest only skipping hard questions. Ones where it doesn't make any sense at all. Ones where you feel like you have NO idea what it said then it warrants a skip.
My strategy is to answer each question at the first pass (so I have at least a filled in bubble for every question and don't run out of time and then lose the chance to guess at any questions I don't know the answer to). But, if the question is more difficult or time consuming, then I willl guess pretty quickly (like in the first 20 seconds or so) and move on, and then circle back to all of those trickiest ones at the very end (usually there are 5 or so of them total). With this strategy I end up with 10 or 15 minutes at the end to circle back to the 5 or so most difficult questions
EDIT:
This is a modified approach to what @"Cant Get Right" does. This is 100% credited to him.
I've worked my way up to doing the first 25 questions in 25 minutes. I don't skip any particular question type, though. I just skip the ones that when I read leave me thinking "WTF did I just read, huh?" Yeah if I read a stimulus twice and still feel that way, I just circle it and move on. Sometimes all you need is to distance yourself from it. Other times, It's just a super hard question that ends up being something I'll miss even on BR. Which in those cases, well, thank god I skipped.
I don't have enough time to go back through my ACs, so when I skip I like to put a tick by the relevant question on the bubble sheet.
I tend to skip questions that I know are more time consuming for me (parallel questions) or those that have content I don't understand at all.
@LSATcantwin and @"Alex Divine" I'm going to try out both of those strategies! I'm just starting to be more conscious of my skipping methods and both of those look like solid solutions to weaknesses in my LR.
I probably lean close to what @LSATcantwin does. I generally will pick an answer, not skip it entirely. If I narrow it down to 2 or 3, go with my gut and pick one just in case I don't have time to come back to it. I circle all the questions I'm not 100% sure about and darker circle ones that I really really don't know about (like circle it 2 or 3 times). I generally can finish in time but it varies if I have enough time to go back and check ones that I circled.
My biggest question with skipping is, say you finish with extra time but not a lot - maybe 3 or 4 minutes. What's the best way to prioritize your time? Triple checking the ones you're already mostly sure about to make sure you get them right? Or dedicate the time to 1 or 2 really hard ones that you were only maybe 50% sure about? Thoughts?
I don't think you should be attempting all questions unless you are moving on from the hardest ones in under a minute. Those two hard questions are really not worth it if you can go -1 or -2 on a section. I am more and more seeing the section as a probability game and more about achieving maximum points than a test of knowledge. When we think each question weighs equally on our LSAT score we lose the sight of the whole picture. Which is -1 or -2 on each section can still give us a high 170 score.
I think a good rule of thumb that says that you have a good section strategy is that there should at least be one question you have skipped during your first round and at the end of section you should know which question you will be ready to miss.
Going -1 on an LR section is great. You really do not need -0. But the strategy to get from -5 to -1/-0 is really to know which ones to attempt and which ones to miss. So instead of equally trying all questions you have circled or skipped, based on your first round see if you have a feeling on which ones you can probably get correct and which ones are so difficult that you'll miss. Depending on that information, spend the most time getting those question correct that you think you actually can. After you are done maximizing what you can get correct, you can spend the left over time or no time on the question you might miss anyways. So if you have five minutes left at the end of section and 4 questions you circled. Attempt the ones that you know you can get right first and either you don't do the hardest one or spend the least amount of time on it.
I don't think a question type should dictate what questions you will skip. For example, there are easy NA questions and there are really hard questions. And although the easy questions tend to be in the beginning of the test, the LSAT writers vary the difficulty level of questions throughout the test. You can have a 5 star NA question thats question number 8 and a 2 star question that number 17. The skip should be based on if you think you have a grasp on the stimulus. If you find that you continuously need to skip a certain question type you should be doing question type drills to address that.
if I don't get a question, I read it quickly again. if I don't get it still I just circle it and move on and go back to it later.
@Sami nailed it. That is exactly what i am trying to implement but it is freaking hard lol i keep finding myself in time sinks.