MCAT Timing Strategies

[davidianstyle]

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What timing strategies do people recommend? 9 minutes per passage? How much time should I give myself for each set of discrete questions?

 

[mterp45]

What timing strategies do people recommend? 9 minutes per passage? How much time should I give myself for each set of discrete questions?

The best strategy for timing is to learn the material, know it cold, and to do a lot of practice. You won't be thinking about time. Instead, you will find yourself finishing with 10 to 15 minutes left on average.

 

[davidianstyle]

The best strategy for timing is to learn the material, know it cold, and to do a lot of practice. You won't be thinking about time. Instead, you will find yourself finishing with 10 to 15 minutes left on average.

I've taken the MCAT once already and failed miserably mostly due to the fact that I was triple checking easy questions that I could not believe were so simple. When I got to hard questions, I was totally thrown and spent longer than usual on them. Basically, I've heard that it's much better to get to all the questions and have at least an educated guess rather than work through without a timing strategy and guess the remaining questions when time starts to get thin...

 

[mterp45]

I've taken the MCAT once already and failed miserably mostly due to the fact that I was triple checking easy questions that I could not believe were so simple. When I got to hard questions, I was totally thrown and spent longer than usual on them. Basically, I've heard that it's much better to get to all the questions and have at least an educated guess rather than work through without a timing strategy and guess the remaining questions when time starts to get thin...

I usually just give myself one shot on every question, I never double check calculations. I often even do most of the calculations in my head, since most of the calcuation on the MCAT can be done mentally, or reasoned through logically with a strong conceptual grasp of the material. It just takes practice. When I come across a question that I know will take way more than a minute to calculate, I simply mark it and come back to it.

edit: I never double check until I have answered every question that is, but I usually have about 15 to 20 minutes left after answering all questions, thus I use that time to check my answers, but if time is an issue for you, make sure you compose yourself, do the calculation slowly, answer it once and don't think about it until you have gotten through the test.

 

[Brick Walls]

a good way to make sure you don't run out of time is to practice under stricter time limits. So, give yourself less time than you are given on the real test to answer questions. For example, instead of taking 6.5 minutes, which is the recommended time for each verbal passage, do each passage in 5 minutes.
this method will force you to learn to think and derive answers much more quickly.

 

[tncekm]

a good way to make sure you don't run out of time is to practice under stricter time limits. So, give yourself less time than you are given on the real test to answer questions. For example, instead of taking 6.5 minutes, which is the recommended time for each verbal passage, do each passage in 5 minutes.
this method will force you to learn to think and derive answers much more quickly.

I personally don't think this strategy is "good" for all people, but definitely works if you're already getting most of the questions right and speed is your only downfall.

Having said that, 5 minutes on a verbal passage is in-freaking-possible! That would mean that you'd be finishing the verbal test in half the allotted time!

 

[JA Prufrock]

yeah... if there are 7 passages in a verbal section, and a 60 minute time limit, you can spend 8 minutes on each passage. Using the strict time limit practice method, you might cut it down to 7 minutes... but 5 minutes/passage? I don't think I could ever do that.

 

[tncekm]

You get exactly 8:34 per passage. I practice with 8:00 per passage, which gives me an extra 3:30 to spare, which, IMHO, is plenty. I'll try to cut it down to maybe 7:30 per passage, but I don't think I'll be able to get much below that.

5:00 would never happen for me. It takes me almost that long to get through some of the more convoluted passages!

 

[tf2medic]

haha, yea wtf the amount of time you alot per passage isn't supposed to be 6.5 minutes! what are you smokin buddy?? that leaves you with 15 min remaining...no way that's gonna happen. the recommended is 8 min/passage and if 7.5/passage if you can. i do 8 min/passage and i'm fine. i sometimes finish with a few min left over but sometimes finish right on time depending if i take longer at the end.

also, as far as it being possible to finish a passage in 5 minutes. well, the other day..yesterday...i took AAMC6 and i kid you not i finished the 1st passage in less than 4 minutes hahaha. the topic was just so freakin easy...at least for me it was. and no i didn't miss any questions either. i don't know...sometimes youre lucky and you just hit a topic you're really familiar with. i personally hate the ones that include convoluted humanties/philosophy ****....grrr pisses me off so much. there's always one of those too it seems towards the end. i usually use my extra time on that one haha.

i'm really curious to see how the REAL test matches up to the AAMC ones. i'll know in a day and half from now and let you all ya know 🙂

 

[tncekm]

Best of luck tf2medic! Just go in there with a smile on your face and the confidence you'll do well, and you'll be fine!

 

[Vihsadas]

The best strategy for timing is to learn the material, know it cold, and to do a lot of practice. You won't be thinking about time. Instead, you will find yourself finishing with 10 to 15 minutes left on average.

This is definitely the ideal way to do it, and also how my practice went. I didn't really have to worry about timing so much except for the first few weeks in verbal. With enough practice of the material and questions I was able to start finishing (consistently) the science sections of the AAMC practice exams with 10-15mins to spare to review my answers.

Of course, ideal doesn't always happen for people! I would suggest allotting about 8mins 'review' time, and then dividing the remainder of the time evenly between the passages. Good Luck.