I do discretes first because wondering when they are coming, how many are left, etc. makes it harder to focus and harder to keep a correct pace. Discretes are a timing curveball they can use to toss you off your rhythm. But if you take all the curveballs at the beginning of the game, you eliminate that pitch from coming later. Once the discretes are out of the way, timing 7 passages in a row is more straight forward for me. What I did was I went through and completed the discretes in 10 minutes. On the real thing it took me about 13 minutes so I noted that and knew where I stood. After that I shot for 7 minutes for each passage (on average) but no more than 8.
If you look on the 5/12 thread (page 2 maybe?) there is a table I made that explains what I did for my AAMCs and the real thing. This method ended up being very helpful for me on the real deal because timing can really slip your mind when the test is abnormally hard and a lot more problems are taking more time than usual. Thinking about timing with no set game plan can actually take time on your exam too, which is counterproductive. Not only do I not really need to think much about timing whilst using this table, but I was also able to keep my pace when the test was rough. I simply would not have been able to keep pace without this table if the test was that hard and I was relying on AAMC timing intuition.
For verbal... go straight through, without skipping, to the 5th passage. The "harder to read" passages might have the easiest questions (3 completely stupid answers and one decent answer) so skipping passages just isn't a strategy I advise. With that said, after I finish the fifth passage I press next and quickly glance to see how many questions passage 6 has. No, I don't count, I just scroll and get a feel. Then I quickly do the same for passage 7. Whichever has the most questions I do first. Reason being is that if you are going to be rushed on one, it might as well be the one with the least questions. If I'm going to read a passage for 2:30-3:00 I might as well squeeze as many points out of that investment as possible.
ALWAYS leave 45 seconds to check if you have incomplete problems. I don't care if you are in the middle of a problem, if 45 seconds comes up... click an answer and go to the review page because that 1 problem isn't worth leaving 3 blank on accident.
Hope that helps and good luck! It's a tough exam but it's tough for everyone. Trust your preparation, stay calm and keep pace... if you do that I am confident you will do great!
This is how I took the test.
