Tricks to Increase LR and RC Speed. Help! Forum

[dannyde7]

Does anyone have any good tricks? Right now I finish at the buzzer, which makes me a little leery. I realized that I end up needing to read a lot of stimuli twice to "get" them, and spend a lot of time checking RC answers that I already know are right.

These things aside, what are some strategies I could employ to increase speed? Can I succeed in this in two weeks?

Thanks,

Danny

[MF248]

For RC do some timed sections with 4 difficult passages you put together. Also do an extra RC section at the very end of your practice sessions when your most fatigued.

[ZombiesAhead]

The only way: Do sections in 30 minutes or less. The newer tests put you under even more time pressure IMO so if you are working with tests before the late 40's do them in 26-28 minutes.

[dannyde7]

Okay. But how do you do the sections in 30 minutes or less?

[PoliticalJunkie]

LR: You have to learn to read the stimulus once - you're losing a lot of time by rereading the stimulus. Try doing the first 10 questions in 10 minutes. For my practice, I did the first 15 questions in 15 minutes and on the real thing actually duplicated my performance at 100% accuracy.

RC: not sure about the value of rechecking your answers on every question. I read for structure, circling key words, etc. I spent about 2:00 for reading and the rest for the questions. This is simply practice. I started read RC passages at 3:30 a piece but was able to shave off time simply through practice and understanding the basic jist of how LSAT passages are put together and anticipating the types of questions I would get by the type of passage I read (this helped immensely).

You seem to be unsure of your skills (rereading LR and second guessing your RC questions). The only questions you should be second guessing are those that you had difficulty on.

[7ED]

Ya, the later exams are definitely harsher on the RC. What worked for me was to do the first 15-18 LR or so, and then go to the back and work backwards, checking the clock only when i flipped to the back. I managed to shave a minute or two off my time that way.

As for reading comprehension... do the ones with the most questions first, and u should be retaining enough of the passage that u can answer half the questions without referring back to it, and the rest, only to double check, that definitely saves time. some passages are a tad harder, but if u can manage that for most of the passages, ull have extra time for the harder ones.

[cubswin]

I liked saving the comparative reading passage to do last. I found it easier to skim them and then answer the questions, since many of the questions focus on how the main ideas of the passages differ. It let me spend a little more time on the 3 full-length passages, where the questions are less formulaic IMO.

[dannyde7]

Thanks gents. My accuracy is generally pretty good, but finishing at the buzzer or 30 seconds afterward has definitely got me worried about test day.