Unused time and MCAT breaks

[phltz]

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If you finish a section a few minutes early, can you just leave the testing room and effectively get a longer break? Or are we somehow required to be sitting at our computer the whole time that the clock is running?

Thanks.

 

[samuraiR]

I have the same question... plus an additional question.

Can you leave in the middle of a section, and come back and finish that section? Of course your timer will keep going but say if you really have to go to the bathroom or something, can you walk out and come back? Or does that only happen during a designated break?

 

[SN2ed]

You do not get a longer break if you finish early, but you can take your break sooner. In other words, you don't have to sit at your computer the whole time after you're done.


I'm not sure if you can get up during the test. I'd bet that you can to use the bathroom.

 

[phantomx87]

You are permitted to use the restroom during the test, but have to check out of the room and back in with the proctor (or whatever you want to call the people that sit at the registration desk). After each section (I usually finished 5 minutes early), I would walk around the testing center's reception area, speak with my buddy (about the party after the exam!), stretched, warmed up (the room was FREEZING), and just tried to clear my brain of the section I just finished. I didn't use all of the allotted break time, either. Just enough to get my blood pumping again.

The breaks are on a timer, so (as previously stated), you don't get extra time if you finish early. The only thing that will happen is you (may) finish the exam ahead of other people and get to leave earlier.

 

[samuraiR]

I normally finish each section 15 or so minutes early, so I was hoping I'd be able to just get up and stretch/go to the bathroom for 5 minutes before coming back and double checking my answers.

Seems like thats ok. Good 🙂

 

[phltz]

So suppose I finish a section 5 minutes early, check out with the proctor, and go to the bathroom, and then hang out in the reception area. Won't my exam automatically finish the section after 5 minutes, entering the official break period which then starts at 10 minutes? Doesn't this essentially constitute a 15 minute break, insofar as I can walk out of the room, do my own thing for 15 minutes, and then come back, ready to start the next section?

 

[NickNaylor]

So suppose I finish a section 5 minutes early, check out with the proctor, and go to the bathroom, and then hang out in the reception area. Won't my exam automatically finish the section after 5 minutes, entering the official break period which then starts at 10 minutes? Doesn't this essentially constitute a 15 minute break, insofar as I can walk out of the room, do my own thing for 15 minutes, and then come back, ready to start the next section?

I'm pretty sure that's how it works in theory. Can't say I've ever actually tried it though.

 

[SN2ed]

I wouldn't test the proctors like that. They'll probably write you up for it.

 

[phltz]

The answer seems to be that at the Philly Prometrics test site, that works fine.