On increasing speed and accuracy. Forum

[Treky]

Hello,

For two months I studied LR, RC, and AR books from Powerscore. With a time averaging around four minutes per question I'm able to maintain an 83-90 % accuracy on a complete LSAT exam. However my percentage drops significantly when I force a faster pace. My score comes in around 144-145 while I'm unable to even read majority of the questions.

I'd appreciate any thoughts some of you might have that could help me improve. Ill be taking the October 6th exam and my strategy for the next month is to speed practice at least 40-50 questions 3-5 days a week while studying more thoroughly on my weaknesses.

Have any of you been in a similar situation after studying with Powerscore or other books, and how did you overcome these or similar challenges?

Thanks for your response!

[Funkycrime]

You should just punk out with your junk out dude.

[Treky]

I will try that. Thank you.

[Br3v]

Hello,

For two months I studied LR, RC, and AR books from Powerscore. With a time averaging around four minutes per question I'm able to maintain an 83-90 % accuracy on a complete LSAT exam. However my percentage drops significantly when I force a faster pace. My score comes in around 144-145 while I'm unable to even read majority of the questions.

I'd appreciate any thoughts some of you might have that could help me improve. Ill be taking the October 6th exam and my strategy for the next month is to speed practice at least 40-50 questions 3-5 days a week while studying more thoroughly on my weaknesses.

Have any of you been in a similar situation after studying with Powerscore or other books, and how did you overcome these or similar challenges?

Thanks for your response!

Do whole 35 min sections, but keep doing them quicker and quicker untill you can do them in at least 34:30. Not too crazy advice I know, but just doing times sections is the only way to improve

[Techsan23]

I found this tip in the forums. I would go through a section timing each question individually. I would give myself 1:15 per question and then stop myself and move on to the next question and repeat the process for an entire section. This really gave me an idea of how fast I need to be answering each question. This is what worked for me on LR. For the other sections you have to do timed practice. 8 mins per game or passage.

[Treky]

Thank you all for chiming in. I see your point that this part of preparing for the LSAT is mostly about building endurance, and speed.

[BlaqBella]

For LR, try and answer each of the first 15 questions in 1 minute or less. They tend to be easier than the remaining questions which will require more time given increased level of difficulty.

For RC and LG try and complete 3 out of 4 passages and games, respectively, focusing more on accuracy than getting through all questions. Drop the passage and game with the fewer questions. As you get more familiar with the exam your speed will increase naturally.

Remember to focus on accuracy before speed.

[bp shinners]

With a time averaging around four minutes per question I'm able to maintain an 83-90 % accuracy on a complete LSAT exam.

You first need to figure out what you're doing for 4 minutes, because there's a LOT of wasted time in there.

If you just read the words without thinking, it would take you maybe 30 seconds. Maybe. So you're spending 3:30 thinking and debating between answer choices. That's enough to get someone going at the right pace through 2 questions.

I usually find (at least) one of the two following things is true:

1) You're losing focus, thinking about everything else, and doing a lot of work that isn't helping you get to a correct answer. Halfway through the question, you're thinking about dinner, and then you start figuring out something that would weaken the stimulus despite it being a main point question, and then the fly that's buzzing around your head needs to be killed, and...

If this is your issue, you need to have a set method you follow for each question. Not a general, "I know kinda the strategy here." You need a step-by-step for every question type so you can keep yourself on track.

2) You spend the first minute narrowing down to 2-3 answer choices, and then another 3 minutes coming to a final decision. That's way too much time - for the most part, people are 90% sure of their initial choice. That extra 10% certainty isn't worth the 3 minutes you're spending on it, so fill in the bubble and move on.

[StrawHat__]

For LR, try and answer each of the first 15 questions in 1 minute or less. They tend to be easier than the remaining questions which will require more time given increased level of difficulty.

For RC and LG try and complete 3 out of 4 passages and games, respectively, focusing more on accuracy than getting through all questions. Drop the passage and game with the fewer questions. As you get more familiar with the exam your speed will increase naturally.

Remember to focus on accuracy before speed.

Amazing advice. I am too trying to gain speed. I see a bit of improvement with mine. Like someone else said. Continuously take timed sections and try to do the first 10 questions in 10 minutes.

The more tests you take, the more familiar the questions get and the faster you answer them. After a while they all are just variants of one another. You begin to see it when you continue to take tests.