How to get faster with LR?

[glasann]

I feel like one of the biggest things getting between where I am today and consistently PT-ing at my goal score is LR timing. I usually am -4 or -5 in LR but that's oftentimes including 1-2 guesses due to time running out.

I used to have a big timing issue with LG but then just did so many times sections that I vastly improved timing (and accuracy, yay!) and can now finish LG comfortably with time to spare, but I just haven't seen the same strategy yield results in LR.

I've been studying since January and feel pretty good about concepts. My PTs have been high 160s with the occasionally low 170 -- the latter only occurring when I can actually finish all questions, which is why I'm so desperate to correct this problem!!

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

Accuracy is more important than speed, glasann, so as long as you are being accurate at the questions you do have time to attempt, being forced to guess at the end of the section is not a bad thing.

To get faster, though, you have to do more than just keep on doing sections over and over. You have to change the way you are doing them! You need to identify where you are getting stuck and slowing down. Are you prephrasing every LR answer, every single time, no exceptions? Are you sorting answers into losers and contenders rapidly, without stopping to re-read the stimulus or stem or do any deep analysis, saving such analysis only for those times when you have more than one contender? Are you using the appropriate strategies for certain question types, like the Negation Technique for Assumptions, or thinking about the common causal factors like Alternate Cause, etc.? Are you diagramming conditional arguments, or wasting time trying to manage them in your head?

Only when you have developed better habits, and have committed to applying them consistently, will you speed improve while maintaining your accuracy. Just doing the same thing over and over and hoping to get different results...well, we know what that shows!