The aspect of timing is one of the key elements that distinguishes the LSAT from other standardized tests. Unlike the SAT, GMAT and GRE, the LSAT is designed to make students run out of time. Developing an effective time management strategy, therefore, is essential to maximizing your LSAT score.
Before getting into section-by-section strategies, let’s go through a couple of general principles that are applicable to all sections of the test. First, since every question is worth the same amount regardless of difficulty, answering the easiest questions first is the most time-efficient way to approach the test. Not only will easy questions take less time to answer, but you will also get them right more frequently. This means that easy questions will generate raw score points, which lead to scaled score points, much more quickly than hard questions.
Second, unlike the SAT and many other standardized tests, there is no penalty for incorrect answers on the LSAT. You should therefore make sure to answer every single question, even if you can’t spend much time on it. Spending even as little as 20 seconds often enables one to eliminate at least one answer choice and make a much higher-percentage guess on the remaining answer choices. This is 20 seconds well spent.
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Now, here are strategies for the individual sections:
Logical Reasoning
There is one significant time management difference between the logical reasoning sections and the other two sections. Since each question in this section is independent and requires no knowledge of a previous question, you can dramatically rearrange the order of the test so that you answer the easiest questions first and the hardest questions last. In general, questions get more difficult the farther into the section you go.
More specifically, ask yourself three questions to determine the level of difficulty of a question and therefore how much time to spend on it:
— Do I still have difficulty understanding the argument after reading it twice?
— Is this a question type I tend to have difficulty on?
— Can I eliminate fewer than two answer choices?
If you answers to at least three of these questions is “yes,” then you should cut your losses by spending 15 or so more seconds to come up with an educated guess and then move on to the next question.
You should also save for last questions that are inherently time-consuming. The two question types I recommend skipping until the end are similar reasoning and similar flaw questions. These questions require analyzing six arguments — the argument in the question prompt and each of the five answer choices — and therefore generally take much more time than others.
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Logic Games
The logic games section contains four games, each of which has five to seven questions associated with it. Since jumping around from game to game is extremely difficult, it is impossible to use the logical reasoning strategy outlined above. Instead, you should rearrange the section by game as opposed to by question.
I instruct students who don’t consistently finish the logic games section in the 35 minutes allotted to spend approximately one minute at the beginning of the section determining the order in which to attack the games. To determine the most efficient order, look for game types that you are comfortable with and that do not contain any uncommon rules or characteristics. Avoid games that are unfamiliar to you or that you tend to find difficult.
Just like in the logical reasoning section, you should avoid questions that are inherently time-consuming. There are two very uncommon question types that fall into this category: questions that ask you which answer choice makes the game “fully/completely determined,” and questions that substitute a rule for another rule. These questions tend to come at the end of the third game in a section.
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Reading Comprehension
Like the logic games, it is impossible to jump from passage to passage. Unlike the logic games, however, it is difficult to quickly determine which passages you will likely find easier than others. The reading comprehension section therefore requires yet another strategy, this one focused on reading the passage as efficiently as possible.
To read most efficiently, focus on the big-picture information and the passage’s structure and avoid internalizing the details. Although many questions ask you about what appear to be minutia hidden within the passage, you can often get the right answer for even these questions by having a solid knowledge of the main point of the passage.
By knowing the structure of the passage, you can quickly locate the information you need to answer the question instead of trying to internalize every detail in the passage, most of which won’t be tested.
How are you handling time management for each section? Let me know in an email or tweet me @stratusprep.
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Map Out LSAT Time Management Section by Section originally appeared on usnews.com
