Drilling Methods? Forum

[Judgeasaurus_Rex]

What kind of approach to drilling LR question types does everyone recommend?

So far I have been doing a PT every day except for every other day when I drill specific question types, using Cambridge LR packets, on whatever my weak areas were on the previous days PT.

I was wondering how many questions one normally goes through on a typical day of drilling (including review, of course) and how to approach reviewing them? Is blind review recommended during LR drilling? Does anyone recommend focusing only on one specific question type at a time or drilling multiple types of questions at a time?

[MrBalloons]

What kind of approach to drilling LR question types does everyone recommend?

So far I have been doing a PT every day except for every other day when I drill specific question types, using Cambridge LR packets, on whatever my weak areas were on the previous days PT.

I was wondering how many questions one normally goes through on a typical day of drilling (including review, of course) and how to approach reviewing them? Is blind review recommended during LR drilling? Does anyone recommend focusing only on one specific question type at a time or drilling multiple types of questions at a time?

Yeah, I think that sounds fine. My August will look somewhat similar. I'm going through the Cambridge LR packets for PTs 1-40 and will be PTing twice a week. I don't adjust my LR review in respect to what I miss on the last PT, but I don't think that's a bad idea--especially if it's a question type you know you're bad it.

I normally go through about 30 untimed questions per sitting and don't do mixed drilling with types. If you drill untimed, you don't have to do blind review, though you definitely need to do a thorough review of any questions you miss. I've had good success with this technique, but timing has never been an issue for me. If you find yourself running out of time on PTs, you'll have to move past this strategy at some point to work on your speed.

[BlueprintJason]

Lot's of ways to drill LR. I'll mention a couple that have helped my tutoring students related to your comments.

If accuracy overall is not the issue (you are getting almost everything right untimed, and get almost all of the easy/moderate questions timed every single time), then drilling question types for speed can be helpful. What I have seen work is going a page at a time. Usually in drilling packets there are like 3-5 questions per page. You can set a stopwatch (rather than a timer) and try and do the questions for speed. Stop the timer at the end and see if your average is under 1:25 each. You can also do two pages in a row this way, especially since a page with just 3 questions might have a few questions that throw off the timing average. The more questions you drill, the more variability that eliminates. But, if you drill too many pages in a row, you may be proceeding to new material when you should first be learning from your mistakes.

While you are going through your 1-2 page drill, circle any that you are not 100% sure of. Blind review these. Also come back to them after a couple of days/weeks to see if you really mastered the concept. You'll be surprised how much you forget the more questions you encounter. They all kind of bleed together after a while.

However, I wouldn't drill question types timed unless you are already getting most of them right on a PT. In this case, I would slow down and focus on accuracy only, until you get almost everything right consistently.

HTH!

[Judgeasaurus_Rex]

What kind of approach to drilling LR question types does everyone recommend?

So far I have been doing a PT every day except for every other day when I drill specific question types, using Cambridge LR packets, on whatever my weak areas were on the previous days PT.

I was wondering how many questions one normally goes through on a typical day of drilling (including review, of course) and how to approach reviewing them? Is blind review recommended during LR drilling? Does anyone recommend focusing only on one specific question type at a time or drilling multiple types of questions at a time?

Yeah, I think that sounds fine. My August will look somewhat similar. I'm going through the Cambridge LR packets for PTs 1-40 and will be PTing twice a week. I don't adjust my LR review in respect to what I miss on the last PT, but I don't think that's a bad idea--especially if it's a question type you know you're bad it.

I normally go through about 30 untimed questions per sitting and don't do mixed drilling with types. If you drill untimed, you don't have to do blind review, though you definitely need to do a thorough review of any questions you miss. I've had good success with this technique, but timing has never been an issue for me. If you find yourself running out of time on PTs, you'll have to move past this strategy at some point to work on your speed.

By this ^^ do you mean that you do 30 questions per day of drilling OR 30 questions, review, 30 questions, review, etc. all in a single day?

Lot's of ways to drill LR. I'll mention a couple that have helped my tutoring students related to your comments.

If accuracy overall is not the issue (you are getting almost everything right untimed, and get almost all of the easy/moderate questions timed every single time), then drilling question types for speed can be helpful. What I have seen work is going a page at a time. Usually in drilling packets there are like 3-5 questions per page. You can set a stopwatch (rather than a timer) and try and do the questions for speed. Stop the timer at the end and see if your average is under 1:25 each. You can also do two pages in a row this way, especially since a page with just 3 questions might have a few questions that throw off the timing average. The more questions you drill, the more variability that eliminates. But, if you drill too many pages in a row, you may be proceeding to new material when you should first be learning from your mistakes.

While you are going through your 1-2 page drill, circle any that you are not 100% sure of. Blind review these. Also come back to them after a couple of days/weeks to see if you really mastered the concept. You'll be surprised how much you forget the more questions you encounter. They all kind of bleed together after a while.

However, I wouldn't drill question types timed unless you are already getting most of them right on a PT. In this case, I would slow down and focus on accuracy only, until you get almost everything right consistently.

HTH!

Ironically, this is what I was experimenting with this morning. 1-2 pages of questions at a time exactly as you recommend, BlueprintJason. Prior I had been doing more questions (10-15 at a time).

Regarding your comments about going back to old questions...I do find, however, that the correct answers for the most difficult questions, which I spend more time reviewing after first attempts, often stay with me when I see them again on a drill packet or a PT. When this happens, my brain just refuses to work. It's almost as if its saying "Pick answer choice C because that's what you remember from reviewing this question 4 months ago!"

Any way to get around this? I've made good use of the older PTs I had used only during my prep in 2014, but sometimes on the newer ones (40+) I legitimately remember an answer automatically, since I had used them most recently.




Anyone else want to share their thoughts?

[MrBalloons]

By this ^^ do you mean that you do 30 questions per day of drilling OR 30 questions, review, 30 questions, review, etc. all in a single day?

Definitely the former. I basically never put in more than 15 hours of studying per week. Usually more like 12. But that's what's working for me right now and I'm to the point that I can I've gone -1 on my last three timed LR sections.

Your schedule should ultimately work for YOU, though. Maybe the way that you see the most gains is by hammering those LR sections by doing 100 per day. That wouldn't be effective for me, but you could try it. Just don't assume that you necessarily HAVE to do the maddening 40 hour weeks that people put in around here. Working smarter (like what Jason described) is oftentimes better than working longer.

[BlueprintJason]

Ironically, this is what I was experimenting with this morning. 1-2 pages of questions at a time exactly as you recommend, BlueprintJason. Prior I had been doing more questions (10-15 at a time).

Regarding your comments about going back to old questions...I do find, however, that the correct answers for the most difficult questions, which I spend more time reviewing after first attempts, often stay with me when I see them again on a drill packet or a PT. When this happens, my brain just refuses to work. It's almost as if its saying "Pick answer choice C because that's what you remember from reviewing this question 4 months ago!"

Any way to get around this? I've made good use of the older PTs I had used only during my prep in 2014, but sometimes on the newer ones (40+) I legitimately remember an answer automatically, since I had used them most recently.

Anyone else want to share their thoughts?

The most important thing to focus on when using old questions is making sure you are using the exact thought process for answering the question type. I would focus on a step-by-step approach. Even if you remember the answer, if you think through each step consciously (i.e. 1st find conclusion, 2nd find relevant premise, 3rd What's the flaw?, 4th etc.) you are training you brain to follow the "model thinking pattern." The more times you massage that pathway, the easier it is to use on new questions. When you are going through the answer choices, don't just focus on the right one. Think through each of the others and definitely explain why it is wrong while eliminating.

You might have a better memory than I do, but (save the few questions I really banged my head over) I didn't remember a specific LR after drilling 100 or so questions in between. Eventually, they all start to look the same--just a variant of something else I've seen with the names changed to protect the innocent. Some students remember the correct answer easier than me for particular questions, but even they get a lot out of focusing on the process. Process to the right answer is more important than the particulars of that question, because mastering the process is what makes you brutally consistent and dominant in new questions.

[Judgeasaurus_Rex]

Ironically, this is what I was experimenting with this morning. 1-2 pages of questions at a time exactly as you recommend, BlueprintJason. Prior I had been doing more questions (10-15 at a time).

Regarding your comments about going back to old questions...I do find, however, that the correct answers for the most difficult questions, which I spend more time reviewing after first attempts, often stay with me when I see them again on a drill packet or a PT. When this happens, my brain just refuses to work. It's almost as if its saying "Pick answer choice C because that's what you remember from reviewing this question 4 months ago!"

Any way to get around this? I've made good use of the older PTs I had used only during my prep in 2014, but sometimes on the newer ones (40+) I legitimately remember an answer automatically, since I had used them most recently.

Anyone else want to share their thoughts?

The most important thing to focus on when using old questions is making sure you are using the exact thought process for answering the question type. I would focus on a step-by-step approach. Even if you remember the answer, if you think through each step consciously (i.e. 1st find conclusion, 2nd find relevant premise, 3rd What's the flaw?, 4th etc.) you are training you brain to follow the "model thinking pattern." The more times you massage that pathway, the easier it is to use on new questions. When you are going through the answer choices, don't just focus on the right one. Think through each of the others and definitely explain why it is wrong while eliminating.

You might have a better memory than I do, but (save the few questions I really banged my head over) I didn't remember a specific LR after drilling 100 or so questions in between. Eventually, they all start to look the same--just a variant of something else I've seen with the names changed to protect the innocent. Some students remember the correct answer easier than me for particular questions, but even they get a lot out of focusing on the process. Process to the right answer is more important than the particulars of that question, because mastering the process is what makes you brutally consistent and dominant in new questions.

Alright. Thanks for all of your input, BlueprintJason! Very much appreciated!

Does anyone else have anything to share regarding drilling methods?

[pittsburghpirates]

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