What to do when you are running out of time in a paper

There is a particular kind of disappointment in coming out of an exam knowing you could have answered the questions you did not reach.

Those marks were available. You knew the material. You simply were not in front of the question when the time ran out. And unlike a gap in your knowledge, this one can be fixed in a week, because it is a mechanical problem with mechanical solutions.

Before you write anything: spend two minutes

Read the whole paper first. Every question, quickly.

Two minutes spent this way is not lost. It tells you where the easy marks are, stops you discovering a question you love with four minutes remaining, and lets your mind work quietly on the harder ones while you answer the easier ones.

Give every question a time, and respect it

Work out roughly how long each question can have, and write the finishing time next to it.

Then obey the clock, even mid-sentence. When a question's time is up, leave a gap and move on.

This is the single hardest habit to build, because abandoning a question you are halfway through feels like giving up. It is not. The tenth mark on the question you are stuck on is much more expensive than the first mark on a question you have not started.

Answer in the order that suits you

Unless the paper tells you otherwise, nothing requires you to start at question one.

Do the questions you are confident about first. You bank those marks while you are freshest, and you arrive at the hard ones knowing exactly how much time you have left, rather than guessing.

When there are ten minutes left and three questions to go

Stop trying to answer them properly. Switch to harvesting marks:

• Write the formula even if you cannot finish the calculation. Method marks are real marks.
• For a long question, write the structure — the headings, the steps, the key terms — rather than a beautiful first paragraph and nothing else.
• Answer every multiple-choice question, including ones you have not read. An unanswered question is certainly zero.
• Attempt every part. A question you have not started scores nothing, no matter how well you could have done it.

Partial answers to three questions almost always beat a complete answer to one.

Two habits that quietly cost marks

Rewriting the question. Copying the question out before answering it feels like starting properly. It earns nothing and costs a minute each time.

Perfecting the early answers. The first question is not worth more than the last one. Students routinely write a careful, elegant answer to question one and a rushed fragment of question six, which is exactly backwards.

Practise the timing, not just the content

The reason timing goes wrong in the exam is that nearly all practice happens without a clock. You do questions at your own pace, look things up when stuck, and stop for a break when tired — none of which is available on the day.

So practise the way you will perform: whole sections, timed, no book, no pauses. It will be uncomfortable the first few times, and that discomfort is the entire point. Every paper on Parho runs against the clock for this reason.

Knowing the material and being able to produce it in the time allowed are two different skills. The exam tests the second one.