Top Law Schools

How many mins per question do you spend?

I think I figured out my biggest problem on LR. I usually get 3-6 wrong on one section and about 1-4 wrong on another section.

It seems like my comprehension speed is slow, and I've done just about every prep test that I could find, and I can only do about 19 questions at my speed (usually get 18 to 19 questions right) and then rush through the remaining questions (I tend to get most of these wrong).

I find that when there is only 5 mins remaining on the time , I usually have somewhere between 4-6 questions left that I'm forced to rush through to get to them all.

My first question is 1) what is your method when doing LR?

I read the stimulus, find the conclusion, think about the question to understand exactly what is being said and see if I can figure out any holes on my own, and finally read every answer choice and mark each one as contender or not and then finally pick an answer choice.

What is your way of doing it?

2) Any tips on how to speed this up without losing accuracy?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for reading this thread.

I read the question first. I'm not sure why people don't do this.

If it is main point, strengthen, weaken, I know to zero in on the conclusion.

If it is assumption, flaw, justify, I know I have to think a little more abstractly and prep myself to paraphrase.

If it is method or principle, I cry.

My method is to basically keep moving - I read the stim, read the question, then eliminate the responses that are obviously incorrect (there are usually at least 2 that are clearly wrong). If you're getting all or most of the questions you answer correct, you should be able to eliminate at least 2 responses. Once that's done, I give myself about ten seconds to think through the remaining responses. If I can't identify an answer quickly, I circle the question and move on to the next question. That way you don't get bogged down working on that one really tough stim and end up missing easier questions later in the section. Once I get to the end of the section, I go back and focus on the ones where I couldn't quickly figure out an answer.

Reading the question first has helped me with LR because it allows me to figure out what I'm looking for when reading the stimulus. It's a time saver.

Dr. Strangelove wrote:Reading the question first has helped me with LR because it allows me to figure out what I'm looking for when reading the stimulus. It's a time saver.

Do people in the 170's do this?

It seems like all the best prep companies advise against this but I just hate wasting time parsing the stimulus for a main point question only to find out I didn't need to comprehend the whole thing and should have just ID'ed the conclusion.

ZombiesAhead wrote:

Dr. Strangelove wrote:Reading the question first has helped me with LR because it allows me to figure out what I'm looking for when reading the stimulus. It's a time saver.

Do people in the 170's do this?

It seems like all the best prep companies advise against this but I just hate wasting time parsing the stimulus for a main point question only to find out I didn't need to comprehend the whole thing and should have just ID'ed the conclusion.

I do it. And while I haven't taken the real thing yet, I've been scoring in the 170s on PTs. I don't know who advises against it, but the class I'm taking (with Kaplan, mind you) recommends reading the question first. It just seems so much easier than reading the stimulus and guessing as to what you should be looking for.

For what its worth, I saw immediate improvement in my LR scores when I switched to reading the question first.

i think they advise against it because you basically end up reading the question 2x. mileage may vary i guess.

i read the stim first, and i PT in the mid-170s, but LR is my strongest section. i've never tried the question first.


as a time saver, try NOT reading any more answers once you find the right one for the first 1-15. i find a lot of time is wasted ensuring "A" is the correct answer by reading B-E.

There's a risk you'll screw up a question once in awhile via this method, but if you can manage to get to 2-3 more questions in the time saved, it's a winning tradeoff.

also, try doing 1-15 then 22-25/26. 17-21 are the hardest questions, i find, so if you're going to guess at some, may as well make it the most difficult questions. just make sure to keep track of your time and not fall into the false sense of security when you're on #24 with 5 minutes left.

Finally, if you have to skip, skip based on time allocation. if you just guess at every parallel reasoning question, you'll be able to spend that time doing 2x the shorter questions, such as assumption or weaken.

How many mins per question do you spend?

nycparalegal wrote:How many mins per question do you spend?

I dont have any predetermined amount of time I spend per question. I try to do the first 15 questions in no more than 20 minutes, but preferably around 15-17. The later questions take more time. Some questions are always going to require more time than others, so allotting the same amount of time for every question may be counterproductive. For me, at least.

i usually clear the first 15 in around 15-17 min, then the rest in 30-35 depending on how many damned para reasoning Qs there are.


remember, the first dozen or so questions are generally EASY. if time is a big issue, don't give them the same amt of time you do the questions you know are harder!

afa_brandon wrote:i usually clear the first 15 in around 15-17 min, then the rest in 30-35 depending on how many damned para reasoning Qs there are.


remember, the first dozen or so questions are generally EASY. if time is a big issue, don't give them the same amt of time you do the questions you know are harder!

The first batch of questions are the easiest. I would try to finish the first 15 questions in 15 minutes.

Then you have 15-17 minutes for the final 10 or 11 questions, and a few minutes to check your answers.

One of the keys is, don't spend three minutes on a single question. If you can't figure it out, take your best guess and circle the question. Come back to it and you'll often see something the second time through that you missed.

I was at the very bottom of 170's, but with a bathroom break during my first LR section that ate up about 3 minutes, and having still done well on it, I'll let you know that I never read the question first. I think you might just need to keep hitting the practice tests and sections until you start to see patterns. Practice practice practice...there's no real secret, I don't think.

If you see a huge daunting one, don't be afraid to circle some good looking answer choice and move on. I ALWAYS skipped the quarter-page parallel reasonings and came back. If you know your weakness, skip it and don't waste time on it. Better to take a chance on 1 or 2, than to miss 3 or 4 in the back end of the exam that you could have answered correctly when you weren't rushing to beat the clock. You can get a 170+ score and still miss a couple of your LR's in each section...

The key is to let go of a problem if you are unsure if it is right and move on. I have spent a lot of time looking at an answer choice that I selected and I think is the wrong answer but it is right. Just keep moving and dont worry about whats behind you.

I guess do what works for you, but I've always just read all parts of the question in the order in which it was presented. Well over 50% of the time I can tell what the question is going to be based on how the argument/fact set played out.

As to the original question, I spent about 10 minutes on the first 10 (in LR) and usually finished with 3-5 minutes left. If you take a ton of practice tests (25+), you'll get a good feel for how much time you should be spending on each question.

.

I try to get the first 15 finished in 15 minutes, that way I'll have ample time to finish the rest.

I'm not a huge fan of skipping questions, if I've exhausted my options for eliminating answers, I'll re-read the stimulus, which will 4/5 times clear up the question for me. If it doesn't I guess (hate that term) and move on.

You should have 1-2 minutes left over, go back and double check the ones you're not 100% sure over. Never settle for the answer you "guess" is correct if you don't absolutely have to.

Maybe I get a little OCD sometimes, but I like to make sure that I read through and cross out ALL the wrong answer choices on LR, even in the first 10 questions, before I select the right answer choice. It eliminates the possibility of "half-reading" an answer choice and leaping to conclusions, and I'll know for sure that I picked the answer for the right reasons.

Like others here, I try to do the first 15 questions in 15-17 minutes. I usually have about 5 minutes left to check over my answers.

As for reading the question stem first, I don't usually, unless I spot a certain pattern in the stimulus that makes me think I know what the question is, then I glance down to make sure. Usually this happens with "Main Point" questions, because the conclusion is often nestled in the middle of the stimulus, so it's very obvious.

Another thing I've found to be helpful while doing LR questions is that I circle important information in the premises and bracket the conclusion. This is especially helpful for Assumption, Justify, Strengthen, and Weaken questions because I'll know what to hone in on without getting tricked or confused by the answer choices.

One thing I've noticed for myself that I didn't see mentioned here was don't pay so much attention to the time. If you are worrying about how long to spend per question then you probably are worrying too much about time when you are taking practice tests, perhaps even checking your watch every few questions.

For me, at least, this throws off my rhythm and focus. I used to check the stopwatch every 5 questions or so. But when I took it down to checking only once or twice for the whole section, I was finishing 5 minutes faster.

This may not work for you -- it may not even apply to your situation -- but I thought I would mention it since I saw noticeable gains in my speed once I stopped focusing on the clock.

On average- 1 minute per question for me.
I usually have about 5-10 minutes left over after each section to fix careless errors I might have made.
On the test I took this afternoon, if I didn't find two careless errors I made on Logical Reasoning and one on Logic Games- I could of had a 169 instead of a 172.
You want to make sure you have knowledge of all the questions on a section at least ten minutes before the exam is over!

I targeted to get through the first 10 on LR in 10 minutes and then 13-15 minutes for the next 10, followed by whatever was left (usually a little over 10 minutes) for the last 5 or so.

I've been consistently scoring -2 to -3 on both LR sections combined, I'm a minute a question usually unless its a long parallel reasoning one (can't stand them) I usually bring it down to 2 choices, pick my answer, circle the question and come back to it, because I always have about 7 minutes left at the end. The questions I do get wrong, it always happens to be my second choice that is the right answer but there is no pattern as to what type of questions they are.

bceagles182 wrote:I targeted to get through the first 10 on LR in 10 minutes and then 13-15 minutes for the next 10, followed by whatever was left (usually a little over 10 minutes) for the last 5 or so.

+1 this is how I started out

I read the question first. 174 PT avg; 170 on the real thing (bombed the games section).

The key is to annotate the question once you've read it. Most questions are generic: they're not asking you something specific so much as "what must be true?" or "what is the necessary assumption?"

In these cases, there's no need to re-read even if you read the question first as I do. As soon as you read and interpret the question, write a unique symbol on the left margin. For instance: MBT for "Must Be True." This way, once you're done with the stimulus, you have that there to jog your memory if needed.

I usually finish LR with 3-4 mins, which I use to double check answers about which I have lingering doubts.