Issues with accuracy due to worrying about speed Forum

[hinton2014]

Did anyone else have these issues? I tend to miss way more in LR and RC than I should, but I also always end with over 8-10 minutes left for each section. When I slow down, I realized why I miss the questions and when I go over the questions, I'm able to see the correct answer clearly. Obviously, the answer for me is to just slow down. Did/does anyone else have this issue of hurrying themselves when they don't need to?

[Platopus]

I have this same problem with LR. I usually end with at least 6 minutes on the clock. Although, I wouldn't say it's because I consciously worry about time. I speed through the first questions naturally and I usually drop a point there. I'm guessing that with enough drilling this problem will start to dissappear, and you can naturally start to tell if you're going too quickly or slowly, and change pace appropriately.

[Mikey]

I hurry myself mostly in RC because of the feel the section gives me. I stopped rushing myself in LR and my accuracy and timing got better because my first run through of a question would be clear and I wouldn't have to keep re-reading.

For RC, I can't say much since it's my worst section and I struggle with both accuracy and timing. But for LR, just slow down a bit and try to fully understand the stimulus the first time and anticipate! If you're finishing 8-10 mins early, but still not having good accuracy, maybe you need to go back over some fundamental information. Do you go through the questions and for the most part seem confident in what you choose or iffy?

[Scurvy Cur]

I had a very similar problem when first prepping for the test: lots of dumb mistakes because I felt pretty pressured to answer easier questions fast to save time for the harder ones.

Everyone will deal with it a little differently, but what worked for me was to run a few practice tests with a timer running, but a focus on thoroughness and careful consideration of each question. Naturally, the first few times through I ran over the time limit on most of the sections, but felt pretty confident about my answers. From that point, it was just drill and familiarity to ensure speed, as I got a feel for doing questions thoroughly and accurately, and stopped worrying an inappropriate amount about the timing on the test.

I still made some really dumb mistakes on test day, but that was almost certainly nerves.

[hinton2014]

I hurry myself mostly in RC because of the feel the section gives me. I stopped rushing myself in LR and my accuracy and timing got better because my first run through of a question would be clear and I wouldn't have to keep re-reading.

For RC, I can't say much since it's my worst section and I struggle with both accuracy and timing. But for LR, just slow down a bit and try to fully understand the stimulus the first time and anticipate! If you're finishing 8-10 mins early, but still not having good accuracy, maybe you need to go back over some fundamental information. Do you go through the questions and for the most part seem confident in what you choose or iffy?

It definitely depends. There are a lot of times on the ones I miss where I'm just iffy. But then when I go back through, I see that I made an assumption that I had no business making because it definitely did not give me that information.

[MediocreAtBest]

I think LR is the easiest section to handle in terms of timing. Work at your own pace and see how long a section takes you. For me, even when I don't rush, I can finish between 33-37 minutes. Don't sacrifice accuracy for speed, especially with 3 months left to work on it.

[dm1683]

I have the opposite problem for LG. I can go -0 to -3 pretty consistently but it takes me like 50 minutes lol. I once took 25 minutes to do one b*tch of a game.

[Blueprint Brett]

Yeah that's a pretty common problem. People start stressing about the timed component of the test and then go crazy and try to rush through everything when a lot of them don't have to worry about it. One thing that helps is (if you aren't already), make sure you have a watch and refer to it frequently. When you're doing that, you can set benchmarks for where you should be at question number "x". Since the sections tend to be easier in the beginning and harder towards the end, you should be averaging about 1 minute/question for the first questions. Which gives you time to spend about 2 minutes/question towards the end. So, for example, you should know that you should be around question 10 when you're ten minutes into the section.

Obviously, that's just a general guideline, so you should work out for yourself where in the section you tend to miss questions and decide where you should be spending more time, but once you've done that you can plan out how long you should average per question and try to set some general benchmarks for yourself. When I was studying, I set a benchmark for every page turn. Since there's usually about the same number of question per page, I set benchmarks for question 6ish, question 12ish, and question 18ish. There's some variation there, but it still allowed me to have a general idea of where I should be when I was a quarter through the section, half through the section, etc.