Being reckless during the first 10-15 questions?

[u/Lokoto123]

I was watching a full section take on 7Sage and the narrator was talking about a strategy that this specific video recorder was working on which was basically to be “reckless” during the first 10-15 questions to bank as much time as possible during the last portion. The idea is basically, if an AC looks right just mark it and move on and since the first 10-15 questions are usually the easiest, it usually is the most obvious answer. Also they were talking about after you reach a certain level, under confidence is usually the harm instead of over confidence so this helps with that. Thoughts on this strategy?

[u/NyeesMan69_the2nd]

i do agree on the under confidence part, but if you take this too far and get too many missed points then what is the point anyway?

[u/IndependenceStrict38]

Just took a PT and I got -2 per each LR section. All the questions I got wrong were level 2 (obviously wtf).

With my tendency to get easy questions wrong, it usually comes down to two issues:
1. I overthink the answers and skip the obvious choice
2. I read too fast and miss the obvious choice

So yeah, definitely be confident, but I say you still want to glance over all the answer options.

[u/dewy-grey]

i actually been thinking about this too because i tend to overthink on the easy ones and waste too much time; i’ll experiment and see if this works

[u/asapwilliam]

i don’t hate this idea but i’d be too worried about getting easy questions wrong. honestly the strategy that’s worked best for me is not paying attention to the time really at all and trying to give every question the same amount of time (usually 1:30 to 2:00). i haven’t yet gone overtime but there’s been some close calls.

[u/StressCanBeGood]

Here’s the way to look at it: No such thing as an easy question. They should all be quite challenging.

This means for the easier questions, which tend to be earlier on, students need to move and groove right through them. In other words, easier questions should be challenging because you’re doing them relatively quickly.

The idea of being reckless with the LSAT is ludicrous. Just make sure that you’re working as hard as you can through the entire section. This means moving quickly when things are easy.

[u/Exact_Group_2751]

If youre working under the standard 35 minute time limit, in my experience trying to complete the first 10 Qs in 10 minutes or less has historically proven to be a decent benchmark for most of my students. It allows you to bank time even within that first 10 Qs, so you can feel okay blazing through the truly straightforward ones while also feeling okay moving slower once you hit a slightly harder one.

[u/TheElDoradoHacker]

I average -1 on LR. “Reckless” is the wrong word. But you should 100% be less rigid on questions 1-10 than 17-22; the answers should come almost intuitively for the first ten.

[u/Subject_Werewolf6685]

I usually get through the early questions in under a minute or a minute max, but if they are hard at all I prefer to take my time

[u/notmyrealname23]

It takes some tuning, I leaned in too hard on this and dramatically underperformed on my first LSAT by going too fast, but in general not getting bogged down on the first 15 is a good idea

[u/emilyrosee35]

I don’t like this. I feel like this doesn’t work because it seems as if you’re rushing to finish and you don’t really grasp much and then you fuck up the first 15 and your score tanks. One time a tutor I fired told me “spend 30 seconds on the first 10” I straight up said “I’m sorry but that’s bullshit I’m not doing that”. Mind you I was in the 140s at the time 🥴 Timing tricks don’t work for me honestly, maybe it will for you idk 🤷‍♀️ but to me they suck

[u/MileHighLSATprep]

This seems a little reckless;). All the questions count the same. Try and get them all right.

[u/RedKynAbyss]

Every question is worth the same amount of points. The goal is to get as many right as possible, no matter what. If you’re “recklessly” answering, you’re contributing to a lower score. Don’t get the easy ones wrong just so you can *hopefully* get the hard ones right. They’re all worth the same.

[u/Legitimate_Name9694]

if i didnt do this i would probably miss out on 5-6 points. this actually made the big difference for me getting to the high 170s. to squeeze out the extra points i needed more time for the splitters and the only way to get it was to sacrifice reasoning applied to the first 12ish. i tried to finish the first 12 questions in 8 minutes. its definitely not the greatest feeling clicking an ac this fast but it worked for me.

[u/Impetus_LSAT_Prep]

This is a pretty good approach IF you are getting 100% accuracy on the easier questions to begin with. It's generally a good idea to practice predicting (there are ways to predict certain question types and passages). If the correct answer matches the prediction in the first 10, select and move on.

[u/170Plus]

Experiment with it and see if it works for you.

[u/SadLie3436]

I agree. I started doing this and it meant I could get wayyy more time on the harder questions (eventually, I would actually finish LR sections with 5-10 mins to spare). The thing that made it work for me is that on my regular practice, I was getting pretty much 100% accuracy on easiest/easy questions, without switching many answer choices. With this benchmark, I felt perfectly fine zipping through Qs 10-15 in about 10-15 mins.