... to become appreciably faster at answering the questions before that point ... add the other elements of answering an LR question to--identifying ...
Sorry this is not answering your question, but I can't resist the urge to say that I immediately thought of the riddled basin of attraction RC passage when I see the word "riddle" ...It's a sign I've been thinking about RC quite a lot lately haha
@"Connie Lingus" if you can get good at PR, this is one way to bank a lot of time. There is no better feeling than quickly eliminating ACs with wrong conclusions and answering confidently in 1 minute.
Perhaps, do a test where each section is 40 min instead of 35, to get your mind back focused on answering the questions and not so worried about the time?