General :: Texting In Non-predictive Mode - Using One Key Twice In A Row

I'm finding one particular feature of texting on my S3 mini difficult...It occurs mostly when using non-predictive, which would be fine since I primarily use predictive. But also is an issue when using the ",.?" key (numeric 1) in predictive too.

If I need to use two letters in a row which are on the same numeric key, there's a really long pause before the phone accepts the letter and allows you to re-use the same key for the next letter. Is there any way to speed this up or skip the pause in some way? On old-school phones you could just press > (or whatever key is used to move forward a space - not space bar tho) to skip the process. But nothing works on the S3 mini.

Any way round this or is it just a thing I have to put up with? For e.g. it's particularly annoying when I want to use two question marks in a row "??"....