Recently, I discussed the power of untimed LSAT practice and how to use it most effectively as part of your LSAT preparation. But untimed practice is just one component — timed practice is equally important.
While untimed work gives you the opportunity to practice methods in a controlled, thoughtful manner, timed practice best replicates test conditions and helps you practice the speed and efficiency you will need to employ to maximize your LSAT score.
[Discover how to make the most of untimed LSAT practice.]
Why Timed Practice?
Taking timed practice tests is your opportunity to cultivate the speed you will need on test day and practice time-management strategies.
Cultivating speed is straightforward: No matter how much untimed practice you complete, you will eventually need to get comfortable at your test-day pace. To build up speed, first identify which sections are giving you the most trouble by looking at how many questions you are unable to get to in each section.
To more precisely identify which question and game types take the most time, review timed work immediately after completing it, when your memory of each question is freshest. Practicing timed individual sections is the best way to accomplish this.
After you have worked to improve your speed, turn your focus to time-management strategies. It’s one thing to be able to answer a question or set up a game quickly, but it’s another to know how to allocate your time most efficiently within a section. The only way to do this is through timed practice.
Using timed work to practice time-management strategies, though, is a little less obvious. It’s one thing to be able to answer a question or set up a game quickly, but it’s another to know how to allocate your time most efficiently within a section. The only way to do this is through timed practice.
[Know how to manage your time for each section of the LSAT.]
How to Complete Timed Practice
The two best ways to complete timed practice are to take full, timed practice tests and to take individual timed sections.
When taking full practice tests, make sure to replicate the test-day experience by doing the first three sections back to back in 35 minutes each and giving yourself a 10-minute break before taking the 35-minute fourth section. Published tests only contain the four scored sections, but on test day you will have four scored sections, an experimental section and the writing sample.
The 10-minute break follows the third section. Inserting the break before the fourth section most closely replicates the test-day experience.
When taking timed sections, simply give yourself 35 minutes to complete the section. Some students attempt to do timed practice in smaller chunks — for example, answering five or 10 questions in eight or 15 minutes, respectively. This strategy ignores an important reality of the LSAT: Not all questions are created equal — although they are given equal weight from a scoring perspective.
Some questions, passages and logic games are intended to require lots of time, while others are written to be finished quickly. The LSAT writers build sections with a balance between time-consuming questions and those that can be answered quickly.
It is unwise to break sections into smaller chunks and know how quickly you should move through each chunk, since this will be misleading on test day.
[Discover how to make the most of LSAT practice tests.]
When to Practice Timed Tests
In the early stages of LSAT prep, only intermittently practice full, timed tests — untimed practice should be your focus at the beginning. However, timed practice should become the bulk of your preparation in the final 4-6 weeks before the exam. During this period, you should be ready to put your untimed practice skills to work under timed conditions as well as to build your stamina.
Stamina is an underappreciated skill in an LSAT test-taker, and you must cultivate it like any other skill. The best way to do this is by through lots of timed practice. Increasing your timed practice during the weeks before the test helps you build the sustained focus necessary to earn your best LSAT score.
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How to Use Timed LSAT Practice originally appeared on usnews.com
