What's up with the timing when Practicing

[sunglee]

Ok so I have been taking the preptest but they have all been un-timed. Actually, I took i timed once but usually by the time I got to question 16, I ran out of time.

I don't know if I should keep practicing un-timed for another 3wks and try to work on comprehension first then work on timing.

I have been studying now for like 3wks, I understand the test better but I don't think my timing has improved. I'm taking the test in Oct.,so I still have time (i think) and I'm taking the testmasters course, so I have that. But nonetheless, I'm getting a bit worried.

Does anyone(or two) have any suggestions??? Thanks peeps!

[stl1622dc]

You still have plenty of time so don't stress too much.  Speed will increase with practice so just worry about understanding the questions and why each choice is wrong/right.  At first for the LR questions I kept a log of tough questions (wrong/guess) and what mistakes I made approaching the problem. 

The first time I took the LSAT I took a Testmasters course, but the lecture format of the class didn't really help me.  When I studied for a retake I read both the Powerscore Bibles and I found the concepts much easier to understand.  A lot of the methods that powerscore and testmasters teach are similar, but having an actual textbook in front of me helped tremendously.  So if the lectures are a problem for you, I would either get the Bibles or take REALLY good notes so that you can look at them later.

Take your time and aim for accuracy first.  Make sure you do all the problems testmasters gives you and take as many preptests as you can.  Goodluck.

[Mori]

I am in the same boat. I can spend an hour on the LG's easily...I get them all correct, but I find that as soon as I do the sections timed, I slow down, freak-out, panic, and end up missing an entire game and not performing well on the sections I actually do complete.

What I am going to be doing is to do around 10 exams untimed. Spend as much time as I can on each section until I am sure that the answer is correct. I am also going to be ripping apart 5 exams, and do just the sections timed, and even just do individual games and passages...once I get my speed down, I am going to time myself to complete games and passages in 8 minutes, that leaves me time to go back and check my answers, fill in the bubbles, and tackle any question I might have had trouble on. With the analytical reasoning sections, I am doing the same thing, doing entire sections timed/untimed, and identifying which ones are giving me the most trouble (ex. Assumption questions) and spend time with my materials from Powerscore to iron out that trouble.

Hopefully, fingers crossed I can be prepared by October. I will be finished with the LG and AR bibles in about a week. So that gives me about 2.5 months to go through all my powerscore lessons again, the homeworks, and to do practice tests. I am saving practice tests from 2003-2008 to complete in September before my exam.

[meggo]

I think it's definately about finding that balance of doing things timed and untimed but as others said, it's important to get comprehension done first. The more your understanding of a question increasing, the less time you take on a question. If you know assumption questions inside and out, you can generally pre-phrase an answer, get to the answer choices, and then you already know what to expect. It's a natural process and it takes longer for some people than others. I think it's best to develop your own system like Mori did that suits your learning style and really commit to it. If it's not working, try and make little changes. But dont' worry about the timing thing right now. Understanding the questions is 100% key.

[Mori]

I will have to respectfully disagree.

If you take the tests untimed, and are scoring 170+, and then taking the test timed and scoring 150, that doesnt tell you that you need to work on understanding the questions, it just tells you that you need to work on the speed of comprehension. If on the other hand, you are getting 150's untimed...you need to work on your comprehension and worry about speed later.

Its better to get 20 questions correct and know you have them correct, and not finish the section, than to plough through the section, do all the questions, and are not sure if you got any right at all...

Timing can be trained easily. Doing half untimed and half timed will build up your confidence because you now comprehend and understand the question and correct answer, but it will also in turn build up your speed.

Speed you don't have to learn, you train for that...the LSAT language is what you have to learn.

50 Tests is plenty of practice for doing it both untimed and timed.

[Mori]

The biggest problem I see with sacrificing timed tests for untimed work is that people think they know what to expect on test day, but really have no clue.  I really think there's no such thing as a "15 point drop from my range"...if you dropped 15 points, you didn't have a range to begin with.

Absolutely! If you have the time and motivation you MUST do both. But if you have just 2 weeks before the test and you have only done untimed exams, and you are scoring a 175, and then drop to a 150 timed, and then boo-hoo about getting that on the actual test when you *did* score a 175 before...umm well...your range was never in the 170's to begin with. Unless you consistently score within a range of 4-6 points on your final 8-10 practice tests, I don't think anyone can really claim to have a scoring range.

[sunglee]

I have to say, this was the most help I have gotten thus far on this forum...thank you all so much!! I will definitely mix everyones suggestions and hopefully it works out great!!!

[Laura Roslin]

It seems like this question has been pretty much settled, but I'll throw my method into the mix:

I did both.  I would take the test timed, but not score myself.  I would go do something else for a few hours (or, more often, not have time to come back to it until the next day.)  Then I would go back and review the test again - at least the questions I was unsure of, which I always circled.  I would examine them more closely, noting those questions I would have answered differently than I had on the timed test.  Only then would I score myself.  That way I had a sense of where I was timed, but was also able to work on my understanding untimed. 

That said, I think there is no One True Way to beat the LSAT.   People have gotten high scores after practicing the test timed and untimed.  There are lots of ways to skin this particular cat.