Scan before you solve

When the DILR section opens, resist the urge to start the first set immediately. Spend two to three minutes scanning every set, reading the setup and the questions just enough to sense the structure. You are not solving yet, you are surveying the terrain. This brief investment routinely saves ten minutes later, because it stops you sinking into a clever looking trap while a far simpler set sits untouched at the bottom of the list.

Rank by solvability, not by topic

Aspirants often pick sets by familiar labels like seating arrangement or Venn diagrams. That is the wrong filter. The right question is how fast the logic becomes visible. A set where the first deduction appears within a minute is worth far more than a familiar topic that hides its key constraint. Train yourself to grade each set quickly so that you always spend your best minutes on the most cooperative puzzles.

Green: logic visible fast, attempt first
Amber: promising but slow, hold for the second pass
Red: dense or ambiguous, attempt only if time remains

Cap your time and train triage

Set a hard cap of roughly twelve to fourteen minutes per chosen set, and a smaller checkpoint at the halfway mark. If you have made no real progress by the checkpoint, leave and return only later. Practise this triage in untimed sessions first, then under the clock. The goal is a calm reflex that abandons a sinking set without guilt, because in DILR the cost of stubbornness is two solvable sets you never reached.