Desperate for timing advice!

[mariposas905]

I would love to hear about your strategies for timing on the MCAT. How many minutes do you spend per passage, especially on the C/P and B/B sections? I feel okay with the CARS and P/S Sections where I give myself 9-10min per passage in CARS and 8-10min per passage in P/S to finish. But for C/P and B/B, I find that I'm always running out of time!

I don't know what to do This is especially difficult when I encounter a hard passage on the real test and don't know how to answer any of the questions or understand the experiment properly.

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[mk04447]

Get answers right.

 

[Zenabi90]

So I take the timing a step further. I give myself 5 minutes bonus at the end, then take 1 minute for each question, and divide the rest of the time evenly among the passages.

So say with 95 minutes and 59 questions, I do the following
-5 minute safety buffer
-59 minutes for 59 questions
-31 remaining minutes for 9 passages: 3 minutes per passage.

If at the end of the 3 minutes you don't get the passage, and if at the end of the minute you don't have an answer for the question, best guess it, mark it, move on, and come back if you can with your time buffer at the end.

 

[mariposas905]

So I take the timing a step further. I give myself 5 minutes bonus at the end, then take 1 minute for each question, and divide the rest of the time evenly among the passages.

So say with 95 minutes and 59 questions, I do the following
-5 minute safety buffer
-59 minutes for 59 questions
-31 remaining minutes for 9 passages: 3 minutes per passage.

If at the end of the 3 minutes you don't get the passage, and if at the end of the minute you don't have an answer for the question, best guess it, mark it, move on, and come back if you can with your time buffer at the end.

Can you explain this a bit more in terms of Q's answered at specific time frames? I'm thinking of doing 20Q's by the 1:00:00 min. mark, and 40-45Q's by the 30:00 min. mark. Then, 20 min left to finish the rest of the 15-20 Q's in science sections.

Is this timing a good strategy to follow? How do you do it in terms of Q's answered?

 

[PrincetonReviewPreMed]

Hello!

I think the best way to improve your test timing is to take full length practice tests under timed conditions. I like to tell students that doing well on the MCAT is a combination of...

1. Knowing content (1/3)
2. Knowing good strategy for approaching questions (1/3) and finally
3. Knowing the right pace for you (1/3)

You can now purchase around three AAMC tests with real exam questions. That's a good place to start. Try to set an initial goal of allotting the same amount of time per passage or free standing question bundle and see how that works. That's where I started when I was studying for the MCAT and it helped. A lot of pushing your timing on a standardized test is getting comfortable with uncertainty and moving forward even though you'd like to spend more time on a question.

I hope that helps!

David
======================
David Savage, MD, PhD

 

[Zenabi90]

Can you explain this a bit more in terms of Q's answered at specific time frames? I'm thinking of doing 20Q's by the 1:00:00 min. mark, and 40-45Q's by the 30:00 min. mark. Then, 20 min left to finish the rest of the 15-20 Q's in science sections.

Is this timing a good strategy to follow? How do you do it in terms of Q's answered?

That's pretty close. That's what practice tests are for, to help you refine your strategy. Do some NS or Altius practice FLs with a goal of just testing strategies and fine tuning it until you find a strat that works best for you.