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So I have gone through the full Kaplan Lsat 3 book set, spent some time online looking up strategies, and I believe I am aware of most of the strategies necessary in order to do well on the LSAT, however I am still running out of time on about every section, whenever I try to do them in 35 minutes. Here's how my times sections generally go:

For Logic Games: After setting up the diagrams to the best of my ability, I usually finish 3 games in time, rarely missing a question, if I continue past time and finish, again, i rarely miss any.

For Logical Reasoning: After reading the question, then analyzing the stimulus, I finish with anywhere from one to five questions left. Usually getting several wrong.

For Reading Comprehension: After circling/underlinging keywords and important information, and creating a roadmap, I rarely get to the final passage.

My main question is this: Should I practice stopping when the timer goes off, no matter where i am, and move on to the next section? If so, should i go back and do the questions i didn't do after I'm done with all four sections? If not, should I continue to try and finish the problems as quickly as possible, then move on to the next section whenever I finish.

crob93 wrote:So I have gone through the full Kaplan Lsat 3 book set, spent some time online looking up strategies, and I believe I am aware of most of the strategies necessary in order to do well on the LSAT, however I am still running out of time on about every section, whenever I try to do them in 35 minutes. Here's how my times sections generally go:

For Logic Games: After setting up the diagrams to the best of my ability, I usually finish 3 games in time, rarely missing a question, if I continue past time and finish, again, i rarely miss any.

For Logical Reasoning: After reading the question, then analyzing the stimulus, I finish with anywhere from one to five questions left. Usually getting several wrong.

For Reading Comprehension: After circling/underlinging keywords and important information, and creating a roadmap, I rarely get to the final passage.

My main question is this: Should I practice stopping when the timer goes off, no matter where i am, and move on to the next section? If so, should i go back and do the questions i didn't do after I'm done with all four sections? If not, should I continue to try and finish the problems as quickly as possible, then move on to the next section whenever I finish.

LG Section: For me, the only thing that helped this was breaking down the games and timing the individually. You have roughly 8 and a half minutes per game(if im not mistaken) and you should time yourself on ONE game at a time. Then once you can consistently complete one game in 8.5 minutes, start to string them together. You have the tough part down, which is understanding how to get the answers right!

As for other sections, I did not struggle with timing so I do not have any strategies for you.

Good Luck!

Also, aren't Kaplan prep materials not supposed to be very good? You probably want to check out some of the others like Manhattan or test masters.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:Also, aren't Kaplan prep materials not supposed to be very good? You probably want to check out some of the others like Manhattan or test masters.

You are correct. While they can be helpful at certain levels, they are definitely not the cream of the test prep crop.

Source: have used Kaplan and Manhattan.

crob93 wrote:So I have gone through the full Kaplan Lsat 3 book set, spent some time online looking up strategies, and I believe I am aware of most of the strategies necessary in order to do well on the LSAT, however I am still running out of time on about every section, whenever I try to do them in 35 minutes. Here's how my times sections generally go:

For Logic Games: After setting up the diagrams to the best of my ability, I usually finish 3 games in time, rarely missing a question, if I continue past time and finish, again, i rarely miss any.

For Logical Reasoning: After reading the question, then analyzing the stimulus, I finish with anywhere from one to five questions left. Usually getting several wrong.

For Reading Comprehension: After circling/underlinging keywords and important information, and creating a roadmap, I rarely get to the final passage.

My main question is this: Should I practice stopping when the timer goes off, no matter where i am, and move on to the next section? If so, should i go back and do the questions i didn't do after I'm done with all four sections? If not, should I continue to try and finish the problems as quickly as possible, then move on to the next section whenever I finish.

LG: It sounds like your accuracy is great, but your speed isn't quite up to par. Trust in your abilities and try to force yourself to up the pace. At this point, you probably know how to diagram any rules you see automatically. Don't hesitate as much and just do it. Just don't rush yourself while making deductions, as that's the most important step.

I think it'll also help to start timing how long it takes you to do each individual game. It's very possible that certain game types take you more time than others. If a game takes you longer than 10 minutes to solve, note this and come back in a couple of weeks to redo. Given the similarities between logic games, working on individual problematic games will probably help you in the future. If you notice that there's a particular type or types that give you trouble, spend more time working on those.

LR: LR questions get more difficult the further you get in the section. Thus, you'll want to spend less time on the earlier questions than the later ones, without sacrificing accuracy. Set benchmarks for yourself, e.g. completing the first 10 questions in 10 minutes. Try to work towards these, and monitor your progress with each section you take. Eventually, working at that pace will become natural. It's important not to get obsessed with repeatedly checking the clock, so keep it to just a few benchmarks.

Also, if you run into a single question that takes you forever, make sure to review carefully, whether you got it right or wrong!

RC: I find that circling/underlining information in RC is largely a waste of time, unless you keep it minimal. Your goal when doing an RC passage should be to extract certain key pieces of information during your first read-through, so that you won't have to waste time rereading large chunks of the passage. Those key pieces include the main point, author's attitude, and the major perspectives on the issue at hand. You're basically guaranteed to get questions on each of these, so you'll save time by looking out for them beforehand.

Ideally, you'll want to spend as little time as necessary returning to the passage.

Hope that helps! If you'd like me to flesh anything out more, let me know!

You cheat. You never know what order your neighbor's test is in, but if you pick a middle seat you have 2 answer sheets to choose from. You also want to profile the person to ascertain how trustworthy their answers are. The uglier they are the likelier it is their answers are correct.

Isn't a Kaplan strategy to only complete 3/4 of the section?