Is it worth it to think hard for another minute on Qs??

[purplelife]

Is it worth it to spend 1 more minute thinking on a question if it doesn't come to you right away when you know you know it or should we just move on as it won't come to our mind in that 1-2- or max 3 minutes and that time can be used to get done with other questions. I'm talking about questions where you know you know the info, but it takes time to recall it.

I'm basically asking how long should we spend time thinking or waiting for your mind to pop the info up if it doesn't come to our mind right away? 1 minute, 2 minute... ? I think 3 is too much, max should be 2. I'm planning to just move on to other questions if nothing comes to my mind within that minute instead of wasting time on that question and come back to it if I have time left at the end.

And now that stems are longer, I don't think I should plan on rechecking my answers so I think I should practice doing questions without going back to review them and changing my answers. Also, as most students say it's better to not change your answer once you pick it. What do you guys say?

I think I got my answer, if such scenario happens, I will try to come back to it later if I can otherwise make an educated guess and move on. And then later blame myself for getting a question wrong even though I knew it. lol..

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[J ROD]

So far, with using UW, I have not found many where I have no clue at all. I at least have a good guess. I typically answer them all and maybe mark a couple if I am really unsure. I try not to spend more than a 1.5 min on a question. But, I am a fast taker and usually my first educated guess is right. So, I find it better not to sit on one and just go with my gut. So far, I am using only about 2/3 of the time allowed. So, I hope that will be enough to handle the real deal. Try different strategies but I do not see sitting on a question for over 2 min productive at all. Unless you just have extra time. The answer rarely just pops out.

 

[Whatyousay]

If the question touches upon material that is completely foreign to you, don't waste your time. I probably ended up spending even less time on WTF questions than I did on normal questions because no amount of time in the world would have allowed me to reason through the material being presented.

If the question is a more conceptual problem (such as some of the problems you may see in renal, pulm, cardio) or just a longer biostats question and you feel like you're able to reason through most of the question stem, then I think it might be worth it to spend a little bit more time on it. You're going to have at least 15+ questions on each block that are easy enough to answer in <30 seconds (provided you've gone through FA+whatever), so there is room to make up time.

 

[Wolverines83]

Spend like thirty seconds then mark it and move on. Come back to it later. No point in wasting time or getting frustrated over one question.

 

[Wolverines83]

BTW that's thirty seconds if you're stumped. If you're working through the question methodically maybe spend note than thirty seconds but if you're just like WTF... Mark it and move on

 

[Transposony]

If you can't answer it after having one go at it them mark it and move on so that you have time left for the questions which you can answer.

 

[SBR249]

For me there were questions that I answered but wasn't very sure of and those I marked. And then there were questions that I could work through but I knew would take a bit of time. Those questions I actually wrote down the numbers on the laminated board they give you so that I know to go back to those first.

 

[purplelife]

Thanks guys for your opinions... I was just wondering how long I should wait for my brain to regurgitate the info I want within that minute and if second try on thinking about that question would help bring up info from my LTM, but I guess if it doesn't come the first time, second time is only worth it if I have time left at the end.

 

[Psai]

If I don't know right away I mark and skip