Ok would you rather finish a section with 10-15 minutes to spare or would you rather take your time to finish a section right on time without rushing? I have seen a lot of people saying that they finished sections with time left. If aamc really penalizes for stupid mistakes, shouldn't we take longer time to really think things through trusting that there is enough time?
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You should aim to have time leftover without rushing significantly. My strategy was to finish the section at a comfortable pace but I wouldn't waste a lot of time on questions I wasn't sure of. Instead, I would mark them and then come back once I was done and not have to worry if I was spending too much time on them since everything else is finished. You definitely want a 5 minute cushion and if you can get 10-15 minutes leftover you're doing very well.
- Jun 27, 2007
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You should practice enough so you comfortably finish with plenty of time to spare. It's not a question of whether you rush through problems or not. You may very well need that buffer on your actual MCAT.
- Mar 16, 2008
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Agree with them. You'll get use to the style of the MCAT after awhile. I never felt like I was rushing but I finished with plenty of time left in all the sections.
The reason you need the extra time is to go back and double check your answers and stuff. Also, I marked questions I wasn't sure of the first time through and when I went back through, I knew that I had finished the rest of the test and could take my time to comfortably work through the difficult ones. If I spent a lot of time of those questions at first, I'd always be freaking out about running out of time, and might actually run out of time. By skipping the hard ones, you maximize your score by making sure you answer all the ones you know and by putting yourself in a more comfortable position time-wise with the difficult ones.
The reason you need the extra time is to go back and double check your answers and stuff. Also, I marked questions I wasn't sure of the first time through and when I went back through, I knew that I had finished the rest of the test and could take my time to comfortably work through the difficult ones. If I spent a lot of time of those questions at first, I'd always be freaking out about running out of time, and might actually run out of time. By skipping the hard ones, you maximize your score by making sure you answer all the ones you know and by putting yourself in a more comfortable position time-wise with the difficult ones.