Time Management strategies in competitive exams

Hello test-takers, 

This blog discusses important techniques on how to manage your time in various competitive exams like CAT, GRE, GMAT, MPSC etc. Generally in such exams you will have 2-3 hours of time to solve 100-200 questions so it becomes really important to manage your time effectively to score good marks. Without any delay, here are the techniques :

Find out how much time you have per question

Before you start solving questions, it is important to calculate how much time you have per question. For example, if there are 60 questions in the exam and you have 2 hours (120 minutes), that means you have 2 minutes per question. For most of the MCQ exams like CAT, this number varies as there will be different number of questions in the exam every year so you can not plan this in advance. It is better to roughly calculate this number before you start solving the questions during actual exam. This number will help you decide how much time you can afford to spend on each question. If some question is taking more time, it is better to leave the question and move on.

Develop an ability to identify time-consuming questions at first glance and leave them as quickly as possible
It is also important to be able to identify time-consuming questions at first glance. The faster you leave them, the better it is for you score. These questions are generally put in the exams to consume a lot of time. Questions which are more than 4-5 lines in length can be one example of this. These questions need a lot of time for reading and you can solve two other questions in the same time.

Practice real full-length tests before you appear for actual exams Try to practice at solve 4-5 full-length tests before the actual exam. If you practice full-length tests well before the exams, it will boost your confidence and will also help improve your concentration. Concentration is really important when the exam is hours long. You must develop stamina to sit for hours. This will certainly increase your score by 4-5% and in a tough competition, this 4-5% can play a crucial role in the results. 

Learn how to read fast and leave out unnecessary details Many competitive exams have long passages and stories in questions like the reading comprehension in CAT, GRE, and GMAT.  Considering the length of the passages, if you know how to read the passage faster with some understanding of the main idea, it could be a big advantage over others. When you start solving the actual questions and looking at the options, others might be just reading the question. This will provide you a competitive edge over them thereby adding to your final score.

For improving your reading speed, you can refer to this book:

How to Read Better and Faster by Norman Lewis

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