When taking any kind of test, it is important to stay within the time constraints imposed by the test proctors. If a particular test section grants thirty minutes before the test taker is instructed to put pencils away and prepare to take the next section, then it behooves you to use the thirty minutes wisely. The way to do this is to develop a strategy beforehand. Your test timing technique should be constant and strategic. In defining your strategy, you need to address the necessary components of test-taking. For instance, an important first step would be to thoroughly read the instructions. Some people may hurry through the instructions, spot reading or speed reading, believing they are saving time. The trouble with this method is that oftentimes, the instructions are not completely understood, requiring the test taker to go back and read them again. This doesn’t save time; on the contrary, it wastes time. A more deliberate and reliable approach would require that the test taker or student calmly read through the instructions to obtain a full and complete understanding of how the test questions are to be addressed and answered. Once the instructions are completely understood, there will usually be little need to go back and read the instructions again. But the key to a full understanding of the instructions is to thoroughly digest the information before answering the questions. While a thorough reading of the instructions may seem a slow process, it will help you understand and analyze the problems you encounter on the test. If the instructions say that you are to analyze the logical arguments in a series of paragraphs, and you understand that from the beginning, then you will be better equipped to separate the “wheat from the chaff.” In other words, the instructions will help you see through to the logical arguments made in the paragraph and separate those arguments from the extraneous elements.

Another important strategic technique is to peruse the entire section to get a feeling for the length of time required to answer questions. During this quick eyeball “review”, you may identify areas of particular difficulty and areas that are easy for you to answer. It is very important that you have an idea, at the beginning, of the length of time you will need to a given number of questions.

A third and final stratagem is to move through the questions confidently and at a predetermined pace. This doesn’t mean you should shirk the difficult questions. Give them a try; perhaps they’re not as difficult as you imagined. However, should a single question obstruct you, then you should mark it and move ahead to the next question. Most tests measure your skills on the basis of the number of answers you can answer correctly, so do not hamper yourself by getting stuck on a single difficult question and thereby failing to answer some easy ones.

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