Advice for slowing down? Forum

[lemonlacroix]

Hi everyone,

I'm following the LSAT Trainer 16 week guide and I just took my first PT (156), but on each section (including LG???) I had at least 10 minutes left after my first go through. I am 100% sure my score is because of how much I was rushing. I had time to go back and did change a few of my answers (about 60% ended up being correct so that's nice). I had never done a timed full section before either so I don't have typical section scores to compare.

How do I get out of the habit of rushing before it really becomes a habit? I've always been good at handling the stress and focusing during standardized tests (and I've always been the type to finish before time) but it's never been this crazy before.

Thanks!!

[Alexandros]

Get a stopwatch and set guidelines about where you need to be for each question, and practice getting into that rhythm. It's easier to avoid rushing when you know you have a large amount of time left.
I think your first concern should be accuracy at this point, though.

[lemonlacroix]

Get a stopwatch and set guidelines about where you need to be for each question, and practice getting into that rhythm. It's easier to avoid rushing when you know you have a large amount of time left.
I think your first concern should be accuracy at this point, though.

I'll definitely use the stopwatch.

Yeah accuracy is definitely my #1 concern, but I think in my case, the more I slow down, the more accurate I'll be? My final section of this PT, I made a conscious effort to slow down and my # wrong was much less than the earlier 3 sections. But I will focus on accuracy regardless!

[appind]

Hi everyone,

I'm following the LSAT Trainer 16 week guide and I just took my first PT (156), but on each section (including LG???) I had at least 10 minutes left after my first go through. I am 100% sure my score is because of how much I was rushing. I had time to go back and did change a few of my answers (about 60% ended up being correct so that's nice). I had never done a timed full section before either so I don't have typical section scores to compare.

How do I get out of the habit of rushing before it really becomes a habit? I've always been good at handling the stress and focusing during standardized tests (and I've always been the type to finish before time) but it's never been this crazy before.

Thanks!!

i don't get this. why would you ever find it hard to stop rushing when you are rushing so much that you know you're missing a bunch of questions and still have 10 minutes per section which is an eternity in lsat time? i don't see any rationalization or benefit for rushing if you're missing that many.
i find it hard to believe people finishing every section in 25 minutes and getting all correct, it's very rare. the sections are hard enough to do in 35 minutes.

[lemonlacroix]

Hi everyone,

I'm following the LSAT Trainer 16 week guide and I just took my first PT (156), but on each section (including LG???) I had at least 10 minutes left after my first go through. I am 100% sure my score is because of how much I was rushing. I had time to go back and did change a few of my answers (about 60% ended up being correct so that's nice). I had never done a timed full section before either so I don't have typical section scores to compare.

How do I get out of the habit of rushing before it really becomes a habit? I've always been good at handling the stress and focusing during standardized tests (and I've always been the type to finish before time) but it's never been this crazy before.

Thanks!!

i don't get this. why would you ever find it hard to stop rushing when you are rushing so much that you know you're missing a bunch of questions and still have 10 minutes per section which is an eternity in lsat time? i don't see any rationalization or benefit for rushing if you're missing that many.
i find it hard to believe people finishing every section in 25 minutes and getting all correct, it's very rare. the sections are hard enough to do in 35 minutes.

This was my first PT and I'd never done a timed section before so I didn't really have a feel for how long I actually had per question. I looked at my watch but I was always thinking that I might as well get ahead in case there were trickier questions later. Now I know not to do that lol.

[Platopus]

Hi everyone,

I'm following the LSAT Trainer 16 week guide and I just took my first PT (156), but on each section (including LG???) I had at least 10 minutes left after my first go through. I am 100% sure my score is because of how much I was rushing. I had time to go back and did change a few of my answers (about 60% ended up being correct so that's nice). I had never done a timed full section before either so I don't have typical section scores to compare.

How do I get out of the habit of rushing before it really becomes a habit? I've always been good at handling the stress and focusing during standardized tests (and I've always been the type to finish before time) but it's never been this crazy before.

Thanks!!

i don't get this. why would you ever find it hard to stop rushing when you are rushing so much that you know you're missing a bunch of questions and still have 10 minutes per section which is an eternity in lsat time? i don't see any rationalization or benefit for rushing if you're missing that many.
i find it hard to believe people finishing every section in 25 minutes and getting all correct, it's very rare. the sections are hard enough to do in 35 minutes.

This was my first PT and I'd never done a timed section before so I didn't really have a feel for how long I actually had per question. I looked at my watch but I was always thinking that I might as well get ahead in case there were trickier questions later. Now I know not to do that lol.

The trickiest questions tend to be toward the end of the section, so you are correct in that regard. But still, 10 minutes left is way too much time left over. Usually 3-4 is enough to check back on 1-2 questions you're unsure about. I would suggest setting a timer for your phone and getting an analog wristwatch w/ some sort of stopwatch feature. Honestly though, at this point you still should be taking sections untimed until you can consistently get less than 2 questions wrong. Focus on timing after you have accuracy down.

[lemonlacroix]

Hi everyone,

I'm following the LSAT Trainer 16 week guide and I just took my first PT (156), but on each section (including LG???) I had at least 10 minutes left after my first go through. I am 100% sure my score is because of how much I was rushing. I had time to go back and did change a few of my answers (about 60% ended up being correct so that's nice). I had never done a timed full section before either so I don't have typical section scores to compare.

How do I get out of the habit of rushing before it really becomes a habit? I've always been good at handling the stress and focusing during standardized tests (and I've always been the type to finish before time) but it's never been this crazy before.

Thanks!!

i don't get this. why would you ever find it hard to stop rushing when you are rushing so much that you know you're missing a bunch of questions and still have 10 minutes per section which is an eternity in lsat time? i don't see any rationalization or benefit for rushing if you're missing that many.
i find it hard to believe people finishing every section in 25 minutes and getting all correct, it's very rare. the sections are hard enough to do in 35 minutes.

This was my first PT and I'd never done a timed section before so I didn't really have a feel for how long I actually had per question. I looked at my watch but I was always thinking that I might as well get ahead in case there were trickier questions later. Now I know not to do that lol.

The trickiest questions tend to be toward the end of the section, so you are correct in that regard. But still, 10 minutes left is way too much time left over. Usually 3-4 is enough to check back on 1-2 questions you're unsure about. I would suggest setting a timer for your phone and getting an analog wristwatch w/ some sort of stopwatch feature. Honestly though, at this point you still should be taking sections untimed until you can consistently get less than 2 questions wrong. Focus on timing after you have accuracy down.

Yep! The stopwatch thing I'm definitely going to do. I'm following the LSAT Trainer 16 Week guide, that's the only reason I took a PT now.

[Platopus]

Yep! The stopwatch thing I'm definitely going to do. I'm following the LSAT Trainer 16 Week guide, that's the only reason I took a PT now.

Makes sense, if you aware of the problem now, you'll be able to correct it without issue pretty quickly. Just be conscious about time moving forward