Best advice to mastering the time constraints on the LGs?? Forum

[locthebloke]

Hello, everyone. I've been studying for the LSAT for about a month. I am getting the hang of RC and LR questions under the time constraints but when it comes to the LGs/AR under time pressure I just implode... Without the time constraint the LGs are really not too much of a problem for me. I did a grouping that contained 100 total questions and got 86 right working at my own pace. It's encouraging to know that I got that many right but extremely discouraging when I consider that I got that many right... *eventually*. I would say on average a given game and its few questions took me like 20 minutes at the quickest and 45 minutes at the slowest... Considering on the test you have an average of a little less than nine minutes to finish each of the four sets respectively, I'm just very frustrated.

At the very least I'm fairly set on using the "focus on three and guess on one" route to give myself more time... but any advice would be greatly appreciated...

[northwood]

definately focus on 3 games. Try doing each game multiple times, with an emphasis on finding and getting all of the deductions right the first 2 times, ( and seeing how and why they work). The third time, try to finish the game as quickly and accurately as possible. YOu will have to make multiple copies of each game, and do each game on a separate day in a random order.

I was in the same situtation as you. It took me 12-20 minutes to do each game. Right now, doing this, i can do linear and 2-d games in about 7-10 minutes each. I have been doing this for about a month, and find that its very helpful.

There is a way to do the questions. Do specific ( If) questions first, then do general rule questions ( which) second. If there are other types of questions, do these last.( If you do it some other way, it will take longer.) Also, keep a timer handy so you can see how long it takes to do each question type per game. I like to document this to help me focus on specific strong and weak areas.

Dont do 100 questions at a time. you will either burn out, or create bad habits that will take a long time to fix. do around 30-40 a settting, then move on to something else ( LR or RC or take a break)

[CurlyKat]

I agree with above, don't do many games without actually going over them properly and trying them again and again until you get them right. I have been doing games by type, using the LGB and Kaplan explanations for ones that are not in the LGB and I couldn't figure out. Anyway, I kept going over the hard ones until I got them all right, not in the row. For example, say I'd do a game A, B and C and had 4 out 7 wrong on A, so I'd go over them and try and figure out the right answer on my own. After I got it, I'd go over the explanation and compared it to my notes (diagrams, rules, inferences etc.) and find out what I missed and why. Then I'd leave it for a day or two or more, and do the game again. If I had any wrong, I'd repeat the process. Keep in mind, I read the relevant LGB chapter first.
Timing, however, is my problem, too. When I started out, without ever seeing any LSAT games before, it took me about 20 minutes, sometimes much more, to finish a game! After a few weeks and many repeats, I started averaging at around 13 minutes a game. Now it's anywhere between 9 and 13 minutes, but most commonly around 11 minutes a game and I can't seem to get that down.
Anyway, the morrow of my long story is that the original 20 minutes should go down in a few weeks, with practice. I just hope it'll continue to decline..
That's the best I can offer at this time, hope it helps at least a little. Best of luck!

[03121202698008]

I copied games from all of the prep tests before i took them. After I took the complete test, I did drills a few times a day where I did a game or two timed. Eventually I got much much faster and more accurate.