Pacing, guessing, and on-screen tool strategies

Time-per-question pacing for each subject

Pacing is about deciding in advance how long you’ll spend on a question before you move on, so you don’t run out of time at the end.

1. Turn total time into time-per-question

Use this simple idea:

$\text{Time per question} = \frac{\text{Total minutes}}{\text{Number of questions}}$

Then adjust down a bit to leave a buffer (2–5 minutes) for review.

Let’s do two example subjects.

Example: Reading

Say you have:

• 27 questions
• 30 minutes total

Pure average:

• $30 \div 27 \approx 1.1$ minutes ≈ 65 seconds per question

To keep a small review buffer, you can set:

• Target pace for Reading: 8 questions every 10 minutes

Why 8 per 10 minutes?

• In 20 minutes → 16 questions
• In 30 minutes → 24 questions
• That leaves about 3 questions’ worth of slack (and a couple of minutes) for harder ones.

You don’t watch the clock on every question; you check at 10-minute marks:

• At 10 minutes, you want to be around Q8.
• At 20 minutes, around Q16.
  If you’re only at Q12 at 20 minutes, you know you need to speed up.

Example: Math (non‑calculator)

Say you have:

• 20 questions
• 25 minutes total

Average:

• $25 \div 20 = 1.25$ minutes ≈ 75 seconds per question

Set a slightly ambitious pace:

• Target pace for Math (no calculator): 7 questions every 10 minutes

Checkpoints:

• At 10 minutes → ~Q7
• At 20 minutes → ~Q14
  You then have ~5 minutes left for 6 remaining questions plus review — so some can take longer.

You can write these on your scratch paper before starting:

• Reading: 10 min → Q8, 20 min → Q16
• Math (no calc): 10 min → Q7, 20 min → Q14

That’s your target pace in “questions per 10 minutes” for each subject.