Testing style for those who took the test or those who know what their doing

[24858]

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I have never taken the tutored program of what to expect on the usmle
So I was curious as far as taking breaks are concerned.
At the end of a block if you want a break can you just get up?
How do you know when to come back from a break.
Is it possible to screw it up and lose time, of course its possible, but how possible for someone that doesnt know too much about the process, or is it totally idiot proof?

 

[Claymore]

The way it works is from the time you sit down and press "enter" to begin the exam, there is a master clock that begins counting down from 8 hours. Once the eight hours are up, your exam is over and the results are submitted. Theoretically, you have 1 hour for each of the 7 blocks, and then 1 hour for lunch/breaks/the tutorial. If you finish a block early, then you have that much more free time. If you go overtime on a block (if you are still working on a question, they let you finish that question) that amount of time gets subtracted from your breaktime. So, it is possible to have slightly more or less than the 1 hour of breaktime depending on how you manage things.

After you complete a 50-question block, the program will ask, "Do you want to take a break?" If you click yes, the program stops (with the 8 hour clock still counting down) and you can get up and walk around or whatever. If you click no, the next block of questions begins. You need to keep track of the amount of time you've used for breaks...if you use more than what you're allotted, the extra time will be subtracted from the last block. Yes, you can just get up and walk out to take a break, but at least at my testing center you had to sign out when leaving and sign back in when returning.

 

[gisnap]

so regarding what you said about time allowed on that "last" unfinished question. let's say you have a question that you know will take some time to figure out. can you leave that one to answer last and pretty much have as much time to complete it as you want?

 

[Claymore]

Yes, you can save it till the end and have more time to work on it, but remember that "extra" time will be subtracted from your break time.