Transition from drilling to timing Forum

[logicgames_darling]

I've been drilling LR for a few weeks now, but it's mostly been just that - drilling. Somehow when I add in timing though, I end up making the most ridiculous mistakes. Like if I look back on the answer after the fact, I can clearly see where I just wasn't focusing enough/fell into a trap or whatever. I know that ideally when you really know a question type like the back of your hand, you won't fall into any traps but I honestly think its a function of the timing. I'm pushing myself to go fast enough to complete the section in time, which then results in me getting -5 compared to the -1/-2 that I get without timing myself.

So any advice on what to do here? I'm thinking about maybe just running the timer in the background while I do a section to see how long it takes me, feeling comfortable and not rushing? So that I can keep my accuracy where it is. But I'm not sure...it's just strange and I'm not sure where to go from here to fix this issue.

[Otunga]

Your timing should get better with time. It's been true for me, anyway, particularly on LR and LG. The longer I've been studying, the better I've gotten at getting through sections. Not that I have much to spare when I'm done. So hopefully it continues to get better. But these skills we acquire for the LSAT, they take time to really sink in. For example, I picked up Manhattan LR a little over a month ago. My accuracy, more or less, instantly improved, and yet I was moving like a snail through some questions. Aside from L4 questions, that isn't a problem now. I usually prephrase, grasp the core fairly quickly, and get to the right answer. A lot of that has to do with drilling the Cambridge packets, which in so doing allows you to continue to hone your approach.

[jrsbaseball5]

I'm in the same boat as you OP and I agree with the above poster. A lot of it is just doing more and more problems and getting used to the questions types. You start to recognize the way that the test makers are trying to trick you and can notice the area from the stimulus that they will likely question you on. This allows you to quickly dismiss answers rather than mull them over in your head for a while, which is where most of the time is wasted.

The key though is that you need to be able to get -0 or maybe -1 if its a particularly hard question when you review the problems before grading. If untimed you are unable to determine the correct answer then you don't understand the question type well enough and speeding through it will cause you to make plenty of silly mistakes.