TL;DR:
Divide the time by the number of questions, keep a few minutes spare, and set checkpoints on the clock.
Decide in advance when you will skip: for example when a question has used double its share.
Practise with the timer on so your sense of time is trained, not guessed.
You know the material, but the paper ends with six questions untouched. Or you finish with ten minutes spare and a pile of careless mistakes. Both are pacing problems, and pacing is a skill you can train.
Why you need to train it
Most people are poor at judging how long a question takes. Hard questions feel faster when you are absorbed and easy ones feel slower. Timed practice gives you real data: your average time per question, your slow spots, and how much of the paper you can finish.
What you need
A practice paper like the real one.
A clock or timer you can see.
A pen in a second colour to mark where you were at each checkpoint.
The steps
Do the arithmetic: Subtract the time you want to keep for review, then divide by the number of questions.
Set checkpoints: Pick three or four times in the exam and write the question number you should have reached.
Choose a skip rule: Decide how long is too long for one question.
Run the paper under real conditions: No pauses, no notes, no phone.
Review the pacing: Mark where you were at each checkpoint and where you lost time.
Worked example: a 60-minute paper with 30 questions
A naive split is 60 ÷ 30 = 2 minutes each. But you want about 5 minutes at the end to review and check, so you have 60 − 5 = 55 minutes for the questions. That gives 55 ÷ 30 ≈ 1.83 minutes, or about 110 seconds each.
Clock time | You should be on question | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
15 min | 8 | 15 ÷ 1.83 ≈ 8.2 |
30 min | 16 | 30 ÷ 1.83 ≈ 16.4 |
45 min | 24 | 45 ÷ 1.83 ≈ 24.6 |
55 min | 30 | all questions answered, 5 minutes left |
The checkpoints are guides, not alarms. If you are at question 7 at 15 minutes, you are a little slow. If you are at question 5, you need to speed up or skip. The table gives you a reading on the clock without having to check every question.
The skip rule. Say you will leave any question that has used about double its share. Here that is about 2 × 1.83 ≈ 3.7 minutes, so after about four minutes, write your best guess if there is no penalty for it, flag the question and move on. Some questions are worth more than others, so adjust if your paper tells you the marks.
Suppose you run the practice paper and find you reached question 6 at 15 minutes, 13 at 30 minutes and 20 at 45. You are slow in the first quarter. Looking back, questions 3 and 5 took six minutes each. These are your slow spots. Next time, apply the skip rule on them.
Building speed over time
Start with untimed accuracy, then add a generous limit and tighten it.
Practise small timed sets of 10 questions, which are quick to do and review.
After each paper, redo the skipped questions untimed to learn them.
Keep your target the real one so the practice matches the exam.
Reading your timing data
After each timed paper, write down three numbers: where you were at each checkpoint, how many questions you skipped, and how much time was left at the end. Over several papers you will see a pattern. Perhaps you always start slow and rush at the end, or you always skip the same type. That pattern is more useful than any single score.
Also note the questions that used the most time and compare them with the marks they carried. A question worth little that took a lot of time is the first candidate for a skip next time. A heavy question that you rushed deserves more time than your average.
What speed cannot fix
If you are slow because you do not know the material, speeding up will only produce more wrong answers. Use the data to see which: if untimed accuracy is low, study the topics. If untimed accuracy is high but timed is low, it is a pacing and fluency problem, and the drills above will help.
Pacing for papers with unequal questions
Many papers have questions worth different marks. In that case, work out minutes per mark instead. If a 60-minute paper has 100 marks and you keep 5 minutes for review, you have 55 ÷ 100 = 0.55 minutes per mark, so a 4-mark question deserves about 2.2 minutes and a 20-mark question about 11. Write the time next to each question in the margin at the start, then glance at it as you go.
Mistakes to avoid
Never practising with a clock.
Setting a pace and then ignoring it mid-exam.
Spending equal time on questions of different value.
Using the review time for another question and then not reviewing.
Rushing through everything. Speed must not cost accuracy.
Your plan for this week
Work out your minutes per question for your next test.
Write the checkpoint table on your practice paper.
Do a timed set and mark where you were at each checkpoint.
Note your two slowest questions and plan how to approach them.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use the review time at all?
Yes. Even a few minutes to scan for unanswered questions and slips is valuable. See using the last ten minutes of an exam.
What if all questions are not the same length?
Weight your time by marks or by difficulty, if you know them. The checkpoints then become approximate, which is fine.
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