Taking middle ground in Independent question in TOEFL Speaking

Hi,

Greg talks about trying not to take a middle ground in Independent questions but concludes by saying that it can be taken , does it impact the score? Should we stick to the template of giving 2 reasons and staying on one side of the topic to get a perfect score?

@gregmat can you answer this one please?

One more question in addition to this,
I understand that we get 15sec to think and jot down ideas for independent speaking, does that time include the time needed for reading the prompt? or does the 15sec timer start after some initial delay of reading question?

You can still likely get a perfect score by taking a middle position. To me, it complicates things a bit. The 15 second timer also starts sometime after reading the question.