Managing your time

Hello, and welcome to Myriora Maths! In an exam, you can know all the maths, and still lose marks by running out of time. Today: how to manage the clock.

First, work out your budget. Say a paper has fifty questions, and fifty minutes. That's about one minute for each question. Some will take ten seconds, and some will take three minutes. But on average, it's one minute each.

Set yourself a checkpoint. Halfway through the time, at twenty-five minutes, you should be about halfway through the paper: question twenty-five. If you're well behind, speed up, and skip the slow ones.

Here's the big danger: getting stuck. Say you spend five minutes on one hard question. That uses up the time for five questions, so four questions at the end never get done! And each question is usually worth the same mark, so an easy one at the end counts just as much as the hard one.

So if you're stuck for more than a minute or two, move on. Put a small circle by the question number, so you can find it again. Answer all the ones you can. Then, at the end, come back to the circled ones, with fresh eyes.

If it's multiple choice, never leave a blank, unless you're told that wrong answers lose marks. First, knock out the answers you know are wrong. Guessing from five answers gives you a one in five chance. Knock out three, and it's one in two!

And try to keep the last few minutes for checking, especially the circled ones. In the next video, we'll see how to check quickly.

A common mistake is refusing to give up on a hard question. One child spends ten minutes on question seven. Then the last nine questions never get done, even the easy ones! Circling question seven and moving on would have won far more marks.

Your turn! A paper has forty questions, and thirty minutes. After eighteen minutes, you're on question twenty. Are you ahead of the clock, or behind? You've got twenty seconds, or pause the video. Go!

Time's up! Thirty minutes for forty questions is three quarters of a minute for each. So after eighteen minutes, you should be on question twenty-four. You're on question twenty, so you're a little behind. Speed up, and skip anything slow!

Quick review. Work out your budget: the minutes for each question. Check where you are at halfway. If you're stuck, circle it, move on, and come back. And never leave a multiple choice blank, unless wrong answers lose marks. See you next time!