Lesson 1 — Time Management on the TExES Math 7–12 (235)

Reading time: about 6 minutes.

The arithmetic of the clock

The exam gives you 300 minutes for 100 multiple-choice items — an average of three minutes per question. The average is a number, not a target. Some items are recall-level and take 30 seconds; others involve substantial computation and can credibly take 5 to 8 minutes. The goal is not to spend three minutes on each question. The goal is to make sure you finish the test having attempted every question you could realistically have answered correctly.

The three-pass approach

The strategy with the most empirical support, going back to Britton and Tesser's (1991) study of time-management interventions and replicated since, is to make multiple passes through the test rather than answering each question to completion in a strict sequence.

• Pass 1 — quick wins. Move through every question. If you see the answer in 30 to 90 seconds, mark it. If a question requires sustained work, flag it and skip. Aim to complete pass 1 in 90 minutes (roughly half your time on roughly half of the questions, the easier half).
• Pass 2 — sustained problems. Return to the flagged questions. These are the items you skipped because they need work, not because you don't know the topic. Spend up to 5 minutes on each before flagging a second time. Aim to complete pass 2 in 150 minutes.
• Pass 3 — review and final-flag items. Use the remaining 60 minutes to revisit anything still flagged, sanity-check your pass-1 answers (especially any that involved arithmetic), and confirm your bubbling.

The five-minute rule

If a single question has eaten more than five minutes, flag it and move on. The opportunity cost of a sixth or seventh minute on one item is one or two questions you never see at the end of the test. The math here is unkind: a single item is worth one point; six minutes of unspent time near the end is two or three points you walked away from.

Bring a watch

The screen displays the timer, but glancing at the screen breaks your visual focus on the question. A watch on the desk lets you check the time peripherally without a context switch. Set it to count up from 0 if your watch supports a stopwatch — the elapsed time maps onto the checkpoints above more naturally than minutes-remaining.

What to do when you are stuck

If a question is hard but tractable, work it. If it is hard and you have no entry point, eliminate the choices you can rule out, take your best remaining guess, flag the question, and move on. There is no penalty for guessing on the TExES. A flagged question with a best-guess answer is better than a flagged question with no answer at all if time runs out — and no item with a sensible elimination is a 1-in-4 guess; it is a 1-in-2 or 1-in-3.

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