**Timing Timing Timing**

[RedSoxSuck]

Hey gang, My test is on the 25th. My biggest issue is timing. It is only an issue with PS. For example todays TPR 5 CBT first passage had 5 questions and i took me 10 minutes to get through the passage which is unexceptable because i was not able to finish. I had to randomly guess on last 3 questions. So how can i fix that? I was planning on actively monitoring time every passage and not spending too much time on any particular question. For example if a passage has 5 questions then i should be done with the passage within 7-8 min max. That way i can come back to "marked" question. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions??

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[SuperSaiyan3]

i took 15 minutes on my first passage of my PS on the real MCAT because I was panicking my face off. I pretty much went reallllllllllllllllly slow (obviously you can't just STOP so you can calm down) on purpose. I calm down after a passage usually, and after I finished, I was back to blazing through passages in 6-8 minutes and finished right on time with 1 minute to spare at the end.

booyaaa

 

[ezsanche]

Hey gang, My test is on the 25th. My biggest issue is timing. It is only an issue with PS. For example todays TPR 5 CBT first passage had 5 questions and i took me 10 minutes to get through the passage which is unexceptable because i was not able to finish. I had to randomly guess on last 3 questions. So how can i fix that? I was planning on actively monitoring time every passage and not spending too much time on any particular question. For example if a passage has 5 questions then i should be done with the passage within 7-8 min max. That way i can come back to "marked" question. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions??

Try an aamc test and see if you still have trouble with timing. I dont know but some of these test companies make their PS sections more difficult than they should be by including a whole bunch of problems that require calculations. But the mcat is more concept based and does not have a lot of problems that are calculation based.
Also 10 minutes for 5 questions is not that bad. You have to understand that each passage varies with difficulty. Some passages can be done relatively quickly and other passages may take a while.

 

[Captain Jack]

I followed this timing strategy for the science sections:
Discreets first (70 minutes to 57 minutes)
First 2 passages (57 minutes to 41 minutes)
Next 2 (41 to 25 minutes)
Next 2 (25 to 9 minutes)
Last passage (9 to 1 minute)
Last minute to review

This gives one minute per discreet and 8 minutes per passage. I followed this closely and made sure to keep myself on this schedule and catch up between passage pairs if needed. If I was ahead of timing (usually on BS, rarely on PS) then I just had that much more time to take on a tougher passage

 

[planktonelement]

Depends on how you're doing on the other passages. My pacing is usually pretty good, so I only "check" the time when I'm halfway through the section. Some passages will take a significant amount more time than others, so I try not to get too worried if I'm taking longer on any passage. I guess I'd recommend to try to stay calm. If you can keep your head on your shoulders, you'll easily be able to make up for the lost time when you blaze through the other passages.