For anyone having trouble with time on LR Forum

[fosterp]

I just wanted to share some advice that has seemed to help me immensely with getting LR down to -2 to -0 consistently. For me, one of my major problems affecting my score was the time constraint. The biggest hurdle it seems to jump in regards to time is disciplining yourself on the amount of time you allow for each question. The first 10 in 10 is a solid idea and a good goal to reach, more often my problem was in the later sections. There was always a few questions in the teens that I would get hung up on, unable to pin down an answer. I wouldn't move on to the next one until I was sure of my answer, and often my time invested didn't make me any more sure of the answer. If I didn't understand or wasn't sure at first, another minute almost never helped me. The time lost there caused problems later in the section - lack of time causing me to rush, resulting in more missed questions.

Once I started disciplining myself to just accept that I probably will miss that one, the time became much less of a factor. I would still miss the hard ones, but I wouldn't falter on questions that I used to go back and say "well that was stupid, I didn't read it carefully enough". After a few weeks of this disciplining, my time was getting a lot more efficient. I was just guessing on those questions - but I was getting to the end of section with a few minutes or more to spare. This allowed me to go back to the ones I was unsure about, and for some reason during this review, the question became a lot more clear. This has resulted in very consistent and predictable scoring.

Anyways, just wanted to share some tips if anyone is having the problems I did.

[RFKScott]

This is definitely my biggest issue with LR. When I get stumped on a LR problem in the teens it is psychologically very difficult for me to just move on and accept that I will probably get that one wrong. Its hard because I know with enough time I can get that answer right but this is ultimately costing me probably 2 more misses later on in the section and is compounded if I do miss the difficult one I invested so much time on. Any tips on getting my brain to shift away from this mentality? I know its affecting me in RC as well.

[bartleby]

They've been throwing in some curve balls at around #7 and #8 now too. Weird ones. I did LR for 50-60 this past week.

[fosterp]

You just need to recognize when a question is going to be a problem, and just simply guess and move on. You really don't have anything to lose. One of two things will happen - you won't have time to go back and review it, in which case skipping it was a wise move because you needed that extra time for later questions -or- you will have time to review it, in which case you can just go back where you left off. Wouldn't it be wasting time since you will have to reread the stim most likely? I considered this, but it seemed in practice that on the second reading after finishing the second, the answer seems to be a lot more comprehensible. Its not always the case but it seems that way more often than not. I'm not sure why this is, but my guess is that getting stuck on a question in the middle of a section may cause undue stress, which will mess up your thinking. The fact that I am finished with a section with time remaining sort of makes me feel relaxed and confident, and upon returning to the Q in that state, it seems to be a lot easier to reason through.

Ever gone to review your wrong answers, and upon re-reading the stim the answer just jumps out at you and you wonder what the hell you were thinking? It feels the same, except that you can change your answer.

[RFKScott]

ya thanks, I have been working my hardest on doing this and I can already feel myself getting faster. It makes complete sense about why coming back to an answer you skipped is more clear the second time around