I had made the discovery a while back that tapping on the 3DS’s bottom screen to get throught text is faster than pressing the A button,and a lot easier(atleast for me). There is one major drawback to using this method,which is that you risk tapping on one of the buttons on the bottom screen,but there are times where it’s safe to tap,such as before cutscenes.

I believe the timer should start when the screen turns black after starting the game file,as opposed to when you say yes to the difficulty setting,because that’s how it would play out in a full any% run. The timer should end when it asks you if you would like to save the game.