- Tue Feb 25, 2020 11:33 am
#74057
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!
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!