mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Think Twice: Enhancing LLM Reasoning by Scaling Multi-round Test-time Thinking

arXiv 2503.19855 ↗First posted 25 Mar 2025cs.CLcited by 46

On the map: LLM reasoning → Test-time compute and efficient thinking

Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs), such as OpenAI-o1 and DeepSeek-R1, have demonstrated the effectiveness of test-time scaling, where extended reasoning processes substantially enhance model performance. Despite this, current models are constrained by limitations in handling long texts and reinforcement learning (RL) training efficiency. To address these issues, we propose a simple yet effective test-time scaling approach Multi-round Thinking. This method iteratively refines model reasoning by leveraging previous answers as prompts for subsequent rounds. Extensive experiments across multiple models, including QwQ-32B and DeepSeek-R1, consistently show performance improvements on various benchmarks such as AIME 2024, MATH-500, GPQA-diamond, and LiveCodeBench. For instance, the accuracy of QwQ-32B improved from 80.3% (Round 1) to 82.1% (Round 2) on the AIME 2024 dataset, while DeepSeek-R1 showed a similar increase from 79.7% to 82.0%. These results confirm that Multi-round Thinking is a broadly applicable, straightforward approach to achieving stable enhancements in model performance, underscoring its potential for future developments in test-time scaling techniques. The key prompt: {Original question prompt} The assistant's previous answer is: <answer> {last round answer} </answer>, and please re-answer.

Key facts. Cited by 46 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Test-time compute and efficient thinking, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 16 of its 22 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 25 Mar 2025.

Builds on

16 of 22 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Towards Thinking-Optimal Scaling of Test-Time Compute for LLM Reasoning25 Feb
  2. 2025s1: Simple test-time scaling31 Jan
  3. 2024O1 Replication Journey: A Strategic Progress Report -- Part 18 Oct
  4. 2024Inference Scaling Laws: An Empirical Analysis of Compute-Optimal Inference for Problem-Solving with Language Models1 Aug

Other references · 12

  1. 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,459
  2. 2020Scaling Laws for Neural Language Modelscited by 6,586
  3. 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,330
  4. 2023GPQA: A Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmarkcited by 2,879
  5. 2024LiveCodeBench: Holistic and Contamination Free Evaluation of Large Language Models for Codecited by 2,004
  6. 2016Concrete Problems in AI Safetycited by 1,642
  7. 2023Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Modelscited by 574
  8. 2025Search-o1: Agentic Search-Enhanced Large Reasoning Modelscited by 433
  9. 2025Towards Reasoning Era: A Survey of Long Chain-of-Thought for Reasoning Large Language Modelscited by 384
  10. 2023Active Prompting with Chain-of-Thought for Large Language Modelscited by 154
  11. 2023KCTS: Knowledge-Constrained Tree Search Decoding with Token-Level Hallucination Detectioncited by 45
  12. 2024A Simple Model of Inference Scaling Lawscited by 36

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 28; 2026: 18.

46 papers.

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  1. 2025Speculative Thinking: Enhancing Small-Model Reasoning with Large Model Guidance at Inference Timecited by 48
  2. 2025EDGE-GRPO: Entropy-Driven GRPO with Guided Error Correction for Advantage Diversitycited by 41
  3. 2025Long-Short Chain-of-Thought Mixture Supervised Fine-Tuning Eliciting Efficient Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 39
  4. 2025SpecDiff-2: Scaling Diffusion Drafter Alignment For Faster Speculative Decodingcited by 26
  5. 2025Not All Tokens Are What You Need In Thinkingcited by 20
  6. 2025DeepDistill: Enhancing LLM Reasoning Capabilities via Large-Scale Difficulty-Graded Data Trainingcited by 18
  7. 2025Incentivizing LLMs to Self-Verify Their Answerscited by 17
  8. 2025How Difficulty-Aware Staged Reinforcement Learning Enhances LLMs' Reasoning Capabilities: A Preliminary Experimental Studycited by 14
  9. 2025Scaling over Scaling: Exploring Test-Time Scaling Plateau in Large Reasoning Modelscited by 11
  10. 2025Adaptive Termination for Multi-round Parallel Reasoning: An Universal Semantic Entropy-Guided Frameworkcited by 10
  11. 2026MindDriver: Introducing Progressive Multimodal Reasoning for Autonomous Drivingcited by 10
  12. 2025Revisiting Test-Time Scaling: A Survey and a Diversity-Aware Method for Efficient Reasoningcited by 9
34 more
  1. 2025Demystifying Hybrid Thinking: Can LLMs Truly Switch Between Think and No-Think?cited by 9
  2. 2025Test-time Scaling Techniques in Theoretical Physics -- A Comparison of Methods on the TPBench Datasetcited by 8
  3. 2025Helpful Agent Meets Deceptive Judge: Understanding Vulnerabilities in Agentic Workflowscited by 7
  4. 2025Think Twice: Branch-and-Rethink Reasoning Reward Modelcited by 7
  5. 2026From Conflict to Consensus: Boosting Medical Reasoning via Multi-Round Agentic RAGcited by 7
  6. 2025Scaling Up, Speeding Up: A Benchmark of Speculative Decoding for Efficient LLM Test-Time Scalingcited by 6
  7. 2025BrowseConf: Confidence-Guided Test-Time Scaling for Web Agentscited by 5
  8. 2026ThinkTwice: Jointly Optimizing Large Language Models for Reasoning and Self-Refinementcited by 5
  9. 2025Right Prediction, Wrong Reasoning: Uncovering LLM Misalignment in RA Disease Diagnosiscited by 4
  10. 2025SSR: Speculative Parallel Scaling Reasoning in Test-timecited by 4
  11. 2025MOTIF: Modular Thinking via Reinforcement Fine-tuning in LLMscited by 4
  12. 2026ReThinker: Scientific Reasoning by Rethinking with Guided Reflection and Confidence Controlcited by 4
  13. 2026Understanding Performance Gap Between Parallel and Sequential Sampling in Large Reasoning Modelscited by 4
  14. 2025OptScale: Probabilistic Optimality for Inference-time Scalingcited by 3
  15. 2025Closed-Loop Transformers: Autoregressive Modeling as Iterative Latent Equilibriumcited by 3
  16. 2025Mind the Gap: Bridging Thought Leap for Improved Chain-of-Thought Tuningcited by 2
  17. 2025Double-Checker: Enhancing Reasoning of Slow-Thinking LLMs via Self-Critical Fine-Tuningcited by 2
  18. 2025Sticker-TTS: Learn to Utilize Historical Experience with a Sticker-driven Test-Time Scaling Frameworkcited by 2
  19. 2025From Long to Lean: Performance-aware and Adaptive Chain-of-Thought Compression via Multi-round Refinementcited by 2
  20. 2026GAIA: A Data Flywheel System for Training GUI Test-Time Scaling Critic Modelscited by 2
  21. 2025Focused Chain-of-Thought: Efficient LLM Reasoning via Structured Input Informationcited by 1
  22. 2026Dual-Phase LLM Reasoning: Self-Evolved Mathematical Frameworkscited by 1
  23. 2026DeepSight: Long-Horizon World Modeling via Latent States Prediction for End-to-End Autonomous Drivingcited by 1
  24. 2026Uncovering the Representation Geometry of Minimal Cores in Overcomplete Reasoning Tracescited by 1
  25. 2026Diverse Thinking Schemata Elicit Better Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 1
  26. 2025Cascaded Information Disclosure for Generalized Evaluation of Problem Solving Capabilitiescited by 0
  27. 2026Aletheia: Quantifying Cognitive Conviction in Reasoning Models via Regularized Inverse Confusion Matrixcited by 0
  28. 2026mind_call: A Dataset for Mental Health Function Calling with Large Language Modelscited by 0
  29. 2026MarkovScale: Towards Optimal Sequential Scaling at Inference Timecited by 0
  30. 2026SPATIOROUTE: Dynamic Prompt Routing for Zero-Shot Spatial Reasoningcited by 0
  31. 2026The Periodic Table of LLM Reasoning: A Structured Survey of Reasoning Paradigms, Methods, and Failure Modescited by 0
  32. 2026Deep Interaction: An Efficient Human-AI Interaction Method for Large Reasoning Modelscited by 0
  33. 2026In-Place Instruction Following in Diffusion Language Modelscited by 0
  34. 2026ReHoPER: Receding-Horizon Planning for Enhanced Reasoningcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Think Deep, Not Just Long: Measuring LLM Reasoning Effort via Deep-Thinking Tokens
  2. 2025Prompting Test-Time Scaling Is A Strong LLM Reasoning Data Augmentation
  3. 2026ThinkBooster: A Unified Framework for Seamless Test-Time Scaling of LLM Reasoning
  4. 2025A Survey of Scaling in Large Language Model Reasoning
  5. 2025T1: Advancing Language Model Reasoning through Reinforcement Learning and Inference Scaling
  6. 2025Rethinking Inference-Time Scaling: Efficiency Limits and Linguistic Signals
  7. 2025Scaling Up RL: Unlocking Diverse Reasoning in LLMs via Prolonged Training
  8. 2024Scaling LLM Test-Time Compute Optimally can be More Effective than Scaling Model Parameters