LR skipping and pacing. Forum

[SunDevil14]

I believe my pacing could improve on LR, and that I can benefit from skipping a few questions. Currently, I tend to complete sections with a minute or so to spare, and that is without skipping. Ironically, I tend to perform better on sections that I finish closer to the 30 minute mark than I do on sections that I complete closer to the 35 min mark. Similarly, I tend to do better on sections that I finish the 15th question with closer to 20 minutes to spare rather than closer to 15 minutes.

I have a hard time giving up on questions that I have already spent time on, what is a good criteria for quickly skipping a question? I do not want to be throwing good time spent after bad. From what I gather the following three approaches are recommended:

-When you read the stimulus, and have absolutely no idea whats going on in the argument.

-When you move to the answer choices and you cannot quickly narrow it down to two contenders, and or none of the answer choices seem correct after you read each one.

-If you struggle with particular question type, and or find that you take a lot of time on a particular question type.

Thoughts? I want to make sure I am not overlooking something or over simplifying.

[Mikey]

You're probably overthinking some of the first 15 questions, which could be a reason why that whole 15 v 20 min thing is happening and you getting questions wrong. At least I think that could be a reason.

I think if you read a stimulus and have no idea at all what the hell is going on, glance at the questions and try to see if anything rings a bell. If no, skip it. I do this and sometimes go onto the next question but then go right back to that question I skipped. Or you could skip it and leave it for last.

[blackmamba8]

I skip parallel reasoning and flawed parallel reasoning questions since they're time consuming for me and then come back to them at the end.

[SunDevil14]

The last couple of sections I drilled, I skipped questions after reading all the answers choices, and not having a clear cut idea of which direction the stimulus was pointing. In addition, I skipped questions that I narrowed down to 2 answer choices but could not make a decision.

Generally, I am finishing question 10 after 10 minutes, 15 after 15 minutes, and the entire section in roughly 28 minutes. Typically I go back to answer 2 to 3 questions, and spend the remainder of the time double checking questions that I was not 100% certain. I am not entirely sure what this is indicative of, but rather I know it to be the norm.

[Pozzo]

How many are you missing on average? If you're finishing with the times you mention here, then it's not a pacing issue, but a content issue. Have you looked to see what question types you're missing? It could be that the sections that take you longer and that you do correspondingly worse on contain more of that question type and that's making you slip.

[SunDevil14]

How many are you missing on average? If you're finishing with the times you mention here, then it's not a pacing issue, but a content issue. Have you looked to see what question types you're missing? It could be that the sections that take you longer and that you do correspondingly worse on contain more of that question type and that's making you slip.

The times listed above are when I decide to skip. To clarify, I will have completed question 25 by around 28minutes but will have a few remaining questions that I have narrowed down to 2-3 answer choices but have not made a final decision. I have done a handful of single sections employing the skipping method, but only have taken one PT since then. -0 and -1 on the LR sections, though 1 PT is hardly an adequate sample size.

Before using the skipping method I'd say around -2 to -3, usually I'd finish just in time or slightly before time expired. I found that I seemed to be missing questions in the final 5 because I was rushed. The times I finished the section with minutes to spare I found that I did much better on the final 5 and the section in general, hence I decided it may be beneficial to start skipping a few questions if after reading the answer choices I could not make a quick decision as to the correct answer.

[34iplaw]

For me, I basically read the question twice. If I don't get it, I sort of lightly circle the question number and my best guess. I may do a third focused reading if I'm between two and leaning towards one. Blind guessing is absolute nonsense unless you just cannot finish a section.