Q&A Tuesday - How To Finish A Block With Time To Spare

"How do I finish a block of questions without running out of time?"

I recently wrote a tweet thread about the importance of using both “speed” and “pacing” throughout a block of questions (and the exam as a whole)… So, I’ll use this to expand a bit on the subject.

To understand the use of each, we have to define and understand each.

Speed: The pace at which you move through an individual question. Your speed can and will change depending on the question type, whether or not a tactic can be implemented, and your knowledge of the material in the question.

Pacing: The units of time spent on each question dictate the overall pace. Unlike speed, which changes with each question, pacing should be looked at through the lens of an “average.” The further into a block, the more impactful your pace becomes.

An analogy… Let’s consider a marathon runner whose goal is to finish in four hours…

To achieve the goal, the runner must be efficient throughout the race. They cannot ignore efficiency and pacing until the 20th mile and expect to stay on track. Speed, however, might go up and down depending on the terrain. If we’re running our marathon in a hilly area like San Francisco, they might slow down during the uphill climbs and speed up while going downhill and on flat terrain. In this example, the speeds change, but the overall pacing of the activity is relatively constant.

We’ll use this same idea in our blocks of USMLE practice questions… Speeding up where appropriate and slowing down when necessary.

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Let’s dive in…

To make sure you’re not wasting a single minute during a block of questions, we’re going to implement three specific strategies throughout our block(s):

👉🏼 Learn the art of “TIME SHAVING.”

👉🏼 Learn how & why LABS & IMAGES are time-savers.

👉🏼 Learn how to allocate saved time by “TIME INVESTING”

If you implement these three steps, it’ll be nearly impossible to run short of—let alone out of—time.