Timed Reading Practice Strategies

Section A of the LNAT gives you 95 minutes to answer 42 questions across 12 passages. That is approximately 8 minutes per passage (reading + answering) or roughly 2 minutes 15 seconds per question. Effective time management is not a bonus — it is a necessity. This lesson provides strategies for pacing yourself, handling difficult passages, and maximising your score under time pressure.

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Understanding the Time Budget

Element	Time Available
Total Section A time	95 minutes
Number of passages	12
Average time per passage (including questions)	~7 minutes 55 seconds
Recommended review time	5–10 minutes
Target time per passage	~7 minutes (to leave review time)

If you spend exactly 7 minutes on each passage, you will use 84 minutes, leaving 11 minutes for review. This is a sensible target.

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Pacing Checkpoints

Use these checkpoints to monitor your progress during the test:

Time Elapsed	Passages Completed	Status
0 minutes	Starting Passage 1	On time
21 minutes	Completed 3 passages	On time
42 minutes	Completed 6 passages	On time (halfway)
63 minutes	Completed 9 passages	On time
84 minutes	Completed 12 passages	On time — start reviewing
95 minutes	Test ends	—

Discipline: Check the timer after every 2–3 passages. If you are significantly behind, adjust your strategy (see "When to Move On" below).

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The 7-Minute Passage Strategy

Here is how to structure your time on each passage:

Phase	Time	Activity
Skim	1–1.5 minutes	Read the passage quickly: first paragraph carefully, topic sentences of middle paragraphs, last paragraph carefully
Questions	0.5 minute	Read all 3–4 questions (not answer options) to know what to look for
Targeted re-read	3–4 minutes	Return to relevant sections for each question; read carefully and answer
Answer and check	1–1.5 minutes	Select answers, briefly verify by checking the passage

Total: ~7 minutes

This leaves a buffer for difficult passages and review time at the end.

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When to Move On

Not all passages are equally difficult. Some you will breeze through in 5–6 minutes; others will feel impenetrable. The key skill is knowing when to cut your losses.

Move On If:

Situation	Action
You have spent 10+ minutes on a passage	Answer remaining questions with your best guess, flag them, and move on
You cannot understand the passage after two reads	Answer what you can, guess the rest, move on
You are stuck on a single question for 3+ minutes	Select your best guess, flag it, move on
You are more than one passage behind your pacing checkpoint	Speed up — spend 5–6 minutes on the next passage

The Opportunity Cost Principle

Every extra minute spent on a difficult passage is a minute taken from an easier one. If you spend 15 minutes on a hard passage and get 2 out of 4 questions right, but then rush through an easy passage and get 2 out of 4 right, you have lost marks. You would have been better off spending 7 minutes on each and getting 3 out of 4 on the easy one.

Golden Rule: No single passage is worth more than 10 minutes. The marks are distributed evenly across all 12 passages — do not let one difficult passage sabotage the others.

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Guessing Strategy

Because there is no negative marking, guessing is always better than leaving a question blank.

Smart Guessing

If you must guess, use these strategies to improve your odds:

1. Eliminate obviously wrong options — Even under time pressure, you can usually eliminate 1–2 options. Eliminating one option improves your odds from 25% to 33%. Eliminating two options gives you 50%.

2. Avoid extreme language — Answer options containing words like "always", "never", "completely", "impossible" are more likely to be wrong than options with qualified language ("often", "usually", "in most cases").

3. Prefer moderate answers — If you have no idea, options that take a moderate or nuanced position are more likely to be correct than extreme ones.

4. Be wary of answers using exact passage wording — These are often traps. The correct answer is usually a paraphrase.

Situation	Strategy	Expected Accuracy
No elimination possible (pure guess)	Choose any option	25%
1 option eliminated	Choose from remaining 3	33%
2 options eliminated	Choose from remaining 2	50%
3 options eliminated	Choose the remaining option	~100%

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Passage Difficulty and Order

LNAT passages are not necessarily ordered from easiest to hardest. A difficult passage might appear as Passage 2, while an easy one might be Passage 11.

Should You Answer Passages Out of Order?