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Just wanted to share my thoughts on timing strategy (https://mcatmatt.com/2016/06/07/some-thoughts-on-mcat-timing/) and question order strategy, aka triaging (https://mcatmatt.com/2016/10/08/som...ioritizing-passages-in-short-not-a-good-idea/).
Both posts are also copied below:
Timing
Students often ask me about my approach to timing on the MCAT, so I wanted to share some brief thoughts on the subject. First, I’ll discuss the actual timing strategy that I used on test day and that I practiced on my full length practice tests, and then I’ll discuss timing in the context of day-to-day practice (i.e. not full length tests or section-length equivalents).
Timing on Full Length Practice Tests and the Real MCAT
First, just the facts: For the three science sections (Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems; Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems; and Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior) there are 95 minutes for 59 questions, presented as 10 passages and 15 discrete questions. For Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS), there are 90 minutes for 53 questions, presented as 9 passages.
The amount of time required to complete a given passage and its accompanying questions can vary quite a bit, depending on the length and difficulty of the passage, the number of questions, and the difficulty of the questions. For this reason, I do not recommend trying to track the amount of time spent on individual questions and/or passages. Thinking about timing on a per-question or per-passage basis is not an effective use of your limited time and energy, and it also doesn’t take into account the natural ebb and flow of the test. Instead, I recommend taking a more global approach to timing on the MCAT.
For the science sections, I tried not to focus too much on the clock until the 30-minute mark, at which point my goal was to be finished with 20 questions, or at least close. If I was dramatically behind (say, only done with 10 questions after 30 minutes), I knew I needed to pick up the pace, and I tried to work faster through the subsequent passages and questions. Then, at 60 minutes, my goal was to be finished with 40 questions, putting me roughly on pace to complete all 59 questions in 90 minutes, with an additional 5 minutes as a buffer (I usually finished with only 2-3 minutes left on the clock).
I had a sense of the clock throughout the entire test, but I tried not to worry about making adjustments to my pace until those 30- and 60-minute benchmarks. Depending on how well your internal sense of timing is progressing, you could take this approach even further, only checking in at the 45 minute mark to see if the section is approximately half complete.
For CARS, my approach was similar. I aimed to be done with three passages (and their accompanying questions) after 30 minutes, six passages after 60, and to finish the section in 90 minutes.
This approach allowed me to focus most of my resources on the passages and questions at hand, which I knew would vary in length and difficulty, rather than focus on the cruel, incessant, unforgiving clock.
Timing on Day-to-Day Passages
In general, I did not worry about timing when practicing passages on a day-to-day basis. I knew that I would have many opportunities to practice my timing while taking full length tests and section-length equivalents (like the AAMC CARS Question Packs), so I didn’t worry too much about it while going through my everyday passages (like The Berkeley Review’s end of chapter passages). Even on the Examkracker’s 30-Minute Exams, I set a timer, but I didn’t worry if I didn’t finish in 30 minutes. (I almost never finished those on time; it usually took me 35-40 minutes). Instead, I focused on understanding the passages and the questions without pushing myself to rush, while also trying not to spend unnecessary time or obsess over details.
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Triaging aka Question Order aka Prioritizing passages
In the past, major test prep companies have recommended a strategy known as “triaging” or “prioritizing passages.” This strategy boils down to scanning through all the passages at the beginning of the exam in order to determine the relative degree of difficulty of each passage, and then proceeding to do the “easiest” passages first. A variation on this is to do all of the discrete questions first before proceeding through the passages. The argument is that you can maximize your points by doing easier questions first.
I never thought that this strategy was a good idea for the pre-2015 MCAT, and for the new version of the exam I think that it could be disastrous.
First of all, I disagree with the notion that you can determine the difficulty of a passage in any reasonable amount of time without actually reading it. Moreover, it’s highly possible that a topic that appears easy will have difficult questions, and a passage that appears difficult will have easy questions.
Second, and perhaps more importantly: any edge you could possibly gain by employing this strategy would be more than negated by the time you’d lose. I thought that this was true for the old exam, when multiple questions were displayed on one page. Now that questions are displayed individually, the time that you’d waste clicking through the test and evaluating the difficulty of each passage is even greater. The same goes for doing the discreet questions first: you’d waste a bunch of time just navigating back and forth through the test. Also, encountering the discreet questions throughout the course of the exam is a nice mini-break for your eyes and your brain.
I don’t know if test prep companies are still pushing this strategy, but if they are it’s a shame, because it’s probably costing students lots of time and lots of points.
Instead, I recommend moving through the exam in a linear order and trying to answer every question. The MCAT is stressful enough as is.
Both posts are also copied below:
Timing
Students often ask me about my approach to timing on the MCAT, so I wanted to share some brief thoughts on the subject. First, I’ll discuss the actual timing strategy that I used on test day and that I practiced on my full length practice tests, and then I’ll discuss timing in the context of day-to-day practice (i.e. not full length tests or section-length equivalents).
Timing on Full Length Practice Tests and the Real MCAT
First, just the facts: For the three science sections (Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems; Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems; and Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior) there are 95 minutes for 59 questions, presented as 10 passages and 15 discrete questions. For Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS), there are 90 minutes for 53 questions, presented as 9 passages.
The amount of time required to complete a given passage and its accompanying questions can vary quite a bit, depending on the length and difficulty of the passage, the number of questions, and the difficulty of the questions. For this reason, I do not recommend trying to track the amount of time spent on individual questions and/or passages. Thinking about timing on a per-question or per-passage basis is not an effective use of your limited time and energy, and it also doesn’t take into account the natural ebb and flow of the test. Instead, I recommend taking a more global approach to timing on the MCAT.
For the science sections, I tried not to focus too much on the clock until the 30-minute mark, at which point my goal was to be finished with 20 questions, or at least close. If I was dramatically behind (say, only done with 10 questions after 30 minutes), I knew I needed to pick up the pace, and I tried to work faster through the subsequent passages and questions. Then, at 60 minutes, my goal was to be finished with 40 questions, putting me roughly on pace to complete all 59 questions in 90 minutes, with an additional 5 minutes as a buffer (I usually finished with only 2-3 minutes left on the clock).
I had a sense of the clock throughout the entire test, but I tried not to worry about making adjustments to my pace until those 30- and 60-minute benchmarks. Depending on how well your internal sense of timing is progressing, you could take this approach even further, only checking in at the 45 minute mark to see if the section is approximately half complete.
For CARS, my approach was similar. I aimed to be done with three passages (and their accompanying questions) after 30 minutes, six passages after 60, and to finish the section in 90 minutes.
This approach allowed me to focus most of my resources on the passages and questions at hand, which I knew would vary in length and difficulty, rather than focus on the cruel, incessant, unforgiving clock.
Timing on Day-to-Day Passages
In general, I did not worry about timing when practicing passages on a day-to-day basis. I knew that I would have many opportunities to practice my timing while taking full length tests and section-length equivalents (like the AAMC CARS Question Packs), so I didn’t worry too much about it while going through my everyday passages (like The Berkeley Review’s end of chapter passages). Even on the Examkracker’s 30-Minute Exams, I set a timer, but I didn’t worry if I didn’t finish in 30 minutes. (I almost never finished those on time; it usually took me 35-40 minutes). Instead, I focused on understanding the passages and the questions without pushing myself to rush, while also trying not to spend unnecessary time or obsess over details.
-----
Triaging aka Question Order aka Prioritizing passages
In the past, major test prep companies have recommended a strategy known as “triaging” or “prioritizing passages.” This strategy boils down to scanning through all the passages at the beginning of the exam in order to determine the relative degree of difficulty of each passage, and then proceeding to do the “easiest” passages first. A variation on this is to do all of the discrete questions first before proceeding through the passages. The argument is that you can maximize your points by doing easier questions first.
I never thought that this strategy was a good idea for the pre-2015 MCAT, and for the new version of the exam I think that it could be disastrous.
First of all, I disagree with the notion that you can determine the difficulty of a passage in any reasonable amount of time without actually reading it. Moreover, it’s highly possible that a topic that appears easy will have difficult questions, and a passage that appears difficult will have easy questions.
Second, and perhaps more importantly: any edge you could possibly gain by employing this strategy would be more than negated by the time you’d lose. I thought that this was true for the old exam, when multiple questions were displayed on one page. Now that questions are displayed individually, the time that you’d waste clicking through the test and evaluating the difficulty of each passage is even greater. The same goes for doing the discreet questions first: you’d waste a bunch of time just navigating back and forth through the test. Also, encountering the discreet questions throughout the course of the exam is a nice mini-break for your eyes and your brain.
I don’t know if test prep companies are still pushing this strategy, but if they are it’s a shame, because it’s probably costing students lots of time and lots of points.
Instead, I recommend moving through the exam in a linear order and trying to answer every question. The MCAT is stressful enough as is.
