Does timing really improve? Forum

[179orBust]

Recently began studying for the June LSAT. My accuracy is pretty high for all three sections at this point, however, my timing sucks.
RC:takes me around 10-11 minutes per passage
LR: Each question takes me around 2 minutes
LG: Haven't done much yet in terms of LG, but my timing is WAY off for this section.

Is this cause for concern? How much can my timing realistically improve over the next few months? I've seen many posts here where people say that timing improves as you do more questions, but I'm a bit skeptical. Any advice on how to improve timing would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS TLS.

[ilikebaseball]

Recently began studying for the June LSAT. My accuracy is pretty high for all three sections at this point, however, my timing sucks.
RC:takes me around 10-11 minutes per passage
LR: Each question takes me around 2 minutes
LG: Haven't done much yet in terms of LG, but my timing is WAY off for this section.

Is this cause for concern? How much can my timing realistically improve over the next few months? I've seen many posts here where people say that timing improves as you do more questions, but I'm a bit skeptical. Any advice on how to improve timing would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS TLS.

Yes, it definitely does. My diagnostic I was 44 minutes to complete RC. I tried a techinique that really worked for me, but obviously everyone does their own thing. I set my timer for 25 minutes and made sure I was completing 3 passages of my drill sections before then. I'd then have 10 minutes to complete the 4th passage, and if I managed to stay on that pace I'd have like a minute or more to spare. The fact is, you naturally get better the more you do it. Just keep going and going and going

[179orBust]

Recently began studying for the June LSAT. My accuracy is pretty high for all three sections at this point, however, my timing sucks.
RC:takes me around 10-11 minutes per passage
LR: Each question takes me around 2 minutes
LG: Haven't done much yet in terms of LG, but my timing is WAY off for this section.

Is this cause for concern? How much can my timing realistically improve over the next few months? I've seen many posts here where people say that timing improves as you do more questions, but I'm a bit skeptical. Any advice on how to improve timing would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS TLS.

Yes, it definitely does. My diagnostic I was 44 minutes to complete RC. I tried a techinique that really worked for me, but obviously everyone does their own thing. I set my timer for 25 minutes and made sure I was completing 3 passages of my drill sections before then. I'd then have 10 minutes to complete the 4th passage, and if I managed to stay on that pace I'd have like a minute or more to spare. The fact is, you naturally get better the more you do it. Just keep going and going and going

Thanks for the advice, good strategy. How much did your accuracy drop though once you started with this technique?

[ChoboPie]

Don't feel too down. Your timing WILL improve if you keep at it. If you were 3 weeks out, concern might be warranted--but you're not, you've got plenty of time. If your accuracy is already good, then that's awesome. Timing will come with practice, familiarity, and more efficient processes as you start seeing patterns in many of the question types.

Slowly start chipping away at your time as you get more comfortable with your techniques--if you're used to spending 10.5 minutes on a passage, maybe strive to complete the next passage (so long as it's not a crazy one) in 10 minutes, and then 9.5, etc. These are just arbitrary time cuts, and the "right" time cut is the amount of time you can cut while still retaining accuracy. That is, go quickly enough such that at no point are you dillydallying or feeling slow, but don't rush to a point where you don't carefully consider the question and each answer choice.

I think the biggest tip I can give is: DO NOT SACRIFICE ACCURACY FOR TIME, especially not this early when you have so much time to improve and work on your processes. Keep at it, and improvement will come for sure.

Also, you said that each LR question takes around 2 minutes. This is a bit odd, because LR question difficulty varies quite a lot, and some questions should just naturally go a lot faster than others. That is to say, don't think to yourself that each LR question should take X amount of time, each RC passage should take Y, or each LG should take Z. Instead, honestly assess the difficulty of the passage/stimulus/game+question: was it something really basic that you should've done quicker? Or maybe it was pretty difficult, and it damn well deserved the extra amount of time you put in. Best of luck!

eta: this isn't to say you should completely forget about pacing. Many people try to do the first 10 LR in 10 min, first 15 in 15 min. I think this works well once you've gotten to a point where you're comfortable with your techniques and have already practiced a good amount.

[ilikebaseball]

Recently began studying for the June LSAT. My accuracy is pretty high for all three sections at this point, however, my timing sucks.
RC:takes me around 10-11 minutes per passage
LR: Each question takes me around 2 minutes
LG: Haven't done much yet in terms of LG, but my timing is WAY off for this section.

Is this cause for concern? How much can my timing realistically improve over the next few months? I've seen many posts here where people say that timing improves as you do more questions, but I'm a bit skeptical. Any advice on how to improve timing would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS TLS.

Yes, it definitely does. My diagnostic I was 44 minutes to complete RC. I tried a techinique that really worked for me, but obviously everyone does their own thing. I set my timer for 25 minutes and made sure I was completing 3 passages of my drill sections before then. I'd then have 10 minutes to complete the 4th passage, and if I managed to stay on that pace I'd have like a minute or more to spare. The fact is, you naturally get better the more you do it. Just keep going and going and going

Thanks for the advice, good strategy. How much did your accuracy drop though once you started with this technique?

I didn't start using this strategy until after I was already at just about 35 minutes, but I wanted to try something different to see how it would work. Believe it or not, the first few times, my accuracy actually increased because instead of sitting there contemplating two choices, I was forced to choose my gut in order to beat the clock. Although I can pretty much guarantee that most other people trying this wont be THAT lucky. It really did raise my accuracy as well as helped me beat the clock in no time

[RZ5646]

Didn't you say in the June thread that you were spending 2 minutes on LR main conclusion / main point questions? You may just be overthinking things. Since you should always be determining the stimulus's logical structure as you read it, you should be able to answer questions like that immediately. Instead of rereading the stimulus and overanalyzing things, try just going with your instincts (the Trainer's elephant) on the easier question types and see how that goes. You'll probably get those questions right while simultaneously saving time for the hard questions.

I have really terrible timing problems in LG, and my theory is that mastering the basics and gaining experience are the keys to improvement. If you repeatedly work on the same foundational skills in untimed practice they'll become second nature, and since so much of the LSAT is about pattern recognition, simply immersing yourself in the material will develop your subconscious LSAT knowledge base. Fortunately, drilling accomplishes both of these tasks at once.

[MattM]

Don't feel too down. Your timing WILL improve if you keep at it. If you were 3 weeks out, concern might be warranted--but you're not, you've got plenty of time. If your accuracy is already good, then that's awesome. Timing will come with practice, familiarity, and more efficient processes as you start seeing patterns in many of the question types.

Slowly start chipping away at your time as you get more comfortable with your techniques--if you're used to spending 10.5 minutes on a passage, maybe strive to complete the next passage (so long as it's not a crazy one) in 10 minutes, and then 9.5, etc. These are just arbitrary time cuts, and the "right" time cut is the amount of time you can cut while still retaining accuracy. That is, go quickly enough such that at no point are you dillydallying or feeling slow, but don't rush to a point where you don't carefully consider the question and each answer choice.

I think the biggest tip I can give is: DO NOT SACRIFICE ACCURACY FOR TIME, especially not this early when you have so much time to improve and work on your processes. Keep at it, and improvement will come for sure.

Also, you said that each LR question takes around 2 minutes. This is a bit odd, because LR question difficulty varies quite a lot, and some questions should just naturally go a lot faster than others. That is to say, don't think to yourself that each LR question should take X amount of time, each RC passage should take Y, or each LG should take Z. Instead, honestly assess the difficulty of the passage/stimulus/game+question: was it something really basic that you should've done quicker? Or maybe it was pretty difficult, and it damn well deserved the extra amount of time you put in. Best of luck!

eta: this isn't to say you should completely forget about pacing. Many people try to do the first 10 LR in 10 min, first 15 in 15 min. I think this works well once you've gotten to a point where you're comfortable with your techniques and have already practiced a good amount.

^^^^This....sacrificing accuracy for time is shooting yourself in the foot....Accuracy first and then speed will follow