Question about LR Strategy: Skipping and Returning

[bstampfl]

Hi all,

I have gotten to the point where I get, on average, -3 on the typical LR section. I want to get to the point where I can push for -0 or -1. I recently found a strategic mistake I was making: in doing LR, I would take too long on individual questions, wasting time. For example, I might speed through Qs 1-5, then I'd hit, say, Q6 and I'd have a brief lapse in my thinking and the stimulus wouldn't make sense to me and I'd struggle through this Q for 2 minutes. Two minutes isn't disastrous, but Q6 would usually be an easy question that, had I skipped it and returned to it later, I would have answered in 30 seconds. This could also happen for question 21, for example (it's not limited to early Qs that tend to be easier).

Thus, I am leaning towards a strategy where I give myself one pass at the stimulus, then one pass through the answer choices. If I can't get the answer after this pass, I circle the question and move on. This (1) forces me to pay close attention to the stimulus (I've found that I otherwise sometimes glance over the stimulus once, then read it again with more attention, which wastes time), and (2) allows me to spend less time on those questions with stimuli that, for whatever reason, I just don't understand at all on the first pass.

Does this strategy make sense? Does anyone have any ideas about ways I should adjust it? Are there any different strategies that I should consider given my progress so far and where I want to be in the future?

Thank you in advance!

[Adam Tyson]

That's a great strategy, bstampfl, and one I teach to all my students. Never let one question, or game, or passage bog you down. If you feel a little stuck, guess, flag the question on the screen, and move on. If time allows, go back later, and if time doesn't allow, then it's a darn good thing you didn't waste time on it.

[bstampfl]

Great, thank you Adam!

On related note, given where I am in my test prep (-3 or -2 on average in LR with no time left over to review), I think I need to spend less time on individual questions after I'm pretty sure I've found the right AC. For example, on a given Q I might read the stimulus, find AC B to be very appealing, then find that other ACs are not very appealing. At this point on this specific Q, I'm roughly 75% sure that AC B is correct. Up until now, I'd dedicate another 20-30 seconds (or even a minute, worst case) to this question to get up to 95% or 100% confident in B. Correct me if I'm wrong, but bumping my confidence level up 20% is not worth that extra time, right?

This is a hard question to answer, but would you say there is a certain confidence level after which I should pick the answer and move on? For example, if I am 60% sure I'm right about a question, should I just pick it and move on?

[Adam Tyson]

I agree that spending the extra time to get to 100% confidence is not an efficient use of your time, but I'd like it if you were more than 60% confident in your choice. That level of doubt suggests to me that you might not be prephrasing as consistently and aggressively as you should be. The right answer should be very clearly right, and the wrong ones very clearly wrong, if you have a solid prephrase that you are using to attack the answers.

That said, if you have eliminated four answers and feel pretty good about the one that's left standing, pick it and move on without hesitation. If you have lingering doubts, just flag it, so if time allows at the end you can go back and take another look. Anything else is wasting precious time.