it really depends on your soil type if you have fine grained soil like CL or ML type the rate of test should not be more than 0.5 mm/min, for grater normal stresses (like 300 kpa normal stress) use smaller shear rate, the value of 0.3 to 0.2 mm/min is good. before starting the consolidation phase be sure of complete saturation of your samples this can be obtained by placing the sample and the container ring in water for 2 or 3 days, don't forget to prevent the sample from swelling and expantion by suitable surcharge.