Effective Time Control and Pace Training for High Exam Scores
Mock Tests Cannot Practice Pace; Pace is Determined by Single-Question Time Management
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As Dustin mentioned in this article:
When a student who usually doesn’t care about time, taking about 80 to 90 minutes for 41 questions, suddenly faces a pre-exam mock test with a 75-minute limit for 41 questions, what do you think will happen?
Will they miraculously adapt and perform at their original level in less time? Or will they rush through it, skimming passages, answering haphazardly, and abandoning some questions just to finish? A mock test merely imposes a 75-minute time limit on the surface, but actual problem-solving efficiency and proficiency won’t significantly improve as a result.
The purpose of a mock test is merely to adapt to the exam environment once “single-question time” and “problem-solving process” have stabilized. Mock tests inherently cannot help you improve your problem-solving efficiency. Therefore, it’s crucial for everyone to practice managing single-question time during daily practice (not just during pre-exam crunch time). Everyone’s standards differ; here’s Dustin’s training plan before his 760 score as an example:
CR: 1.5-2 min. RC: 6-8 min (per passage).
It’s Not About Rigid Time Compression, But a Gradual Process of Adjustment and Adaptation
Once you have a “single-question time standard,” many test-takers make the biggest mistake of wanting to achieve it all at once, immediately starting with timed practice and drilling. However, when (1) your foundational skills and concepts are not yet solid, and (2) your normal problem-solving time is too far from your target, rigidly timing yourself and drilling will only make you rush through every question under immense pressure, even hastily choosing options before fully understanding the question. This can easily lead you to “delete at first sight” and misuse logical concepts as rigid tricks. Test-takers often fall into the false belief that “drilling will improve proficiency, which will then increase accuracy and speed,” ignoring the fact that “they haven’t thought properly and are just hastily choosing options with poor methods.” Therefore, Dustin suggests: initially, don’t time yourself during review. Once concepts are familiar, start timing yourself and then gradually introduce time limits. The initial review phase is for building foundational concepts and establishing a consistent problem-solving process. If you start timing yourself at this stage, you won’t even be able to develop your initial abilities. Once concepts are familiar and the problem-solving process is initially set, you should then practice for two to three days using a stopwatch to determine your average time when performing at your best, without pressure. For example, if your average CR time is 3 minutes (with a final ideal target of 1.5-2 minutes), then subsequent time limits should first be set at 2:45 per question, creating a slight sense of pressure, and gradually adapting. If you can adapt, then reduce it to 2:30……, eventually approaching the single-question target. Problem-solving speed is not achieved overnight, so it’s crucial to start “boiling the frog slowly” early on, rather than hoping for rigid compression during pre-exam mock tests. This will only throw your problem-solving approach into disarray before the exam and negatively impact your performance.
“Unable to Reduce Single-Question Time” is Not an Isolated Issue; It Requires Deeper Exploration of Specific Details.
Dustin just mentioned, “adapt, then gradually reduce the time.” But what if you reach a point where you can’t adapt, and the time remains stubbornly high, with performance plummeting if you force it? At this point, remember that “unable to reduce single-question time” is not an isolated issue. Instead, you need to break down the problem-solving process into stages and think in detail: “At which stage am I spending too much time? Why am I spending too much time?”
We can intuitively divide the single-question time into the following four stages:
Reading: Speed of initial reading and understanding of the question.
Locating: Speed of returning to the passage to find necessary details.
Initial Screening: Speed of reading the five options for the first time and eliminating common incorrect choices.
Decision: Speed of making the final choice between two options (including hesitation).
RC: Reading -> Locating -> Initial Screening -> Decision.
CR: Reading -> Initial Screening -> Decision.
Reflect on your past practice: which part most often consumed your time and left you feeling lost? If you don’t have a clear impression, use a stopwatch to time each stage of a question separately (using the LAP function). By comparing the time segments for normal vs. time-consuming questions, you can identify the most unstable stage and then target it for improvement.
Prepare Two Strategies for the Actual Test, Ready to Switch Within the First 30 Seconds of Each Question / During the First and Second Halves of the Entire Exam.
Those who have taken the actual test will surely know what I’m talking about:
When doing Quant, if you can’t think of a solution within ten seconds of reading the question, then it’s going to turn into a struggle!
Right? Dustin encountered the same problem during the actual test. I also found that when facing such challenging questions, if you don’t set a stop-loss and stubbornly persist, you often end up unwilling to let go, spending 3-4 minutes, and still might not solve it. This leads to rushing through questions in the later part of the exam due to lack of time, and then regretting it deeply.
My strategy then was: prepare two strategies for each question. If, after reading a question, I realized it was tricky, I would immediately glance at the top right corner to set a stop-loss. For example, if my time for reading the Quant question content + initial thinking was about 30 seconds, and my average target time per question was 1:40, with a hard cut-off at 2:00. Then, if I read the question and sensed trouble, I would look at the top right corner; if the time displayed was 55:20, I would tell myself that if I still had no clue by 54:20, I should prepare to cut my losses, and by 52:50, I would definitely abandon it.
The same principle applies to Verbal. You can think about when you realize a question is “difficult to deal with.”
RC: When the screen displays a passage that is incredibly long (more than one page), or when you read the first two sentences and find the topic hard to understand.
CR: After reading the argument once, you struggle to piece together the information, or even find it hard to connect the conclusion with the premises.
For me, all of the above would take about 30 seconds. At this point, I would start monitoring the clock in the top right corner, based on the ideal times I just mentioned (CR: 1.5-2 min. RC: 6-8 min), preparing to cut my losses after another 1.5 minutes for CR, and another 7.5 minutes for RC. Simultaneously, my problem-solving strategy would adjust accordingly, for example, as shown here.
Additionally, for the first and second halves of the exam, I would also set different problem-solving modes.
Pace Choice Depends on Personal Preference; There’s No Single Right Way
There is no perfect Pace in the world, only the Pace that suits you best. I originally adopted a 20/20/17/18 split, but later found my actual problem-solving pattern was more like 18/22/20/15. However, I’ve also heard of people who spent 60 minutes on the first 20 questions and 15 minutes on the last 20, ultimately scoring 730. Therefore, there’s truly no fixed rule for Pace; just configure it according to what feels most comfortable for you. If you’re unsure, start with an even Pace; at least that can ensure stability in your problem-solving mindset. Here’s an article you can refer to.
Conclusion
In short, Dustin’s approach to Pace and time management leans towards scientific management and regulation—setting goals in advance during regular practice, gradually adapting early on, and analyzing stages and making targeted adjustments when encountering obstacles. During the actual test, use the Pace that feels most comfortable, and prepare different strategies for different situations to switch flexibly. I hope this article can inspire test-takers struggling with time management.
