Marks are lost in an exam mostly to question selection and to spending disproportionate time on a small number of questions. Deciding within twenty seconds whether to attempt something, and abandoning a question that has consumed more than its share, are trainable skills worth several percent.
Section-wise strategies differ by exam, particularly where sectional time limits apply. Adapt this to your specific paper.
Ask candidates what went wrong and most say they ran out of time. Almost none can say where the time went, because they were not measuring it — which makes it the largest unexamined loss in most preparation.
Reading a question and deciding whether to attempt it now, mark it for later, or skip it entirely should take about twenty seconds. Candidates who begin solving before making that decision are committed before they know the cost.
This is practisable directly: work through a paper making only the decision, without solving, and check afterwards against how long each question would actually have taken.
Four minutes into a question, having made progress, walking away feels like waste — the sunk cost is vivid and the alternative is abstract. Almost every candidate holds on too long.
Set a hard ceiling per question before the exam and honour it. The four minutes already spent are gone whether you continue or not; the only question is whether the next four are better spent here or on two questions you can definitely do.
After a mock, before looking at what you got wrong, look at where the minutes went. The two or three questions that consumed disproportionate time are usually worth more attention than the ones you answered incorrectly.
Most candidates skip straight to the wrong answers, which is why the time problem persists across a whole year of mocks.
Phrased the way they arrive, answered so each one stands on its own.
Measure where the time goes rather than trying to be faster overall. Almost always a small number of questions consumed a disproportionate share, and the fix is selection and abandoning rather than general speed.
Rarely optimal. Papers are not ordered by difficulty, and working sequentially means meeting a hard question early with your full time budget still ahead of you, which is when people over-commit.
Set a ceiling before the exam based on total time divided by questions, with some allowance. The specific number matters less than having one and honouring it.
Checked by the Product desk on 1 September 2026. Corrections go in the page, dated, rather than quietly.
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