R14: Stuck on one question for 5 minutes

You read question 9. You search the passage. You can't find it. You search again. Five minutes later, you're still on question 9, and your heart is racing. Meanwhile, questions 10 to 13 are waiting, and some of them were easy. This lesson is about knowing when to walk away.

Why this matters

Every question is worth one mark. The hard one and the easy one are worth exactly the same. Spending five minutes on one hard question means losing time for three or four easier ones. Strong students aren't the ones who answer every question. They're the ones who don't let one question steal their time.

Why we get stuck

• Pride. "I should be able to find this."
• Fear. "If I skip it, I'll lose the mark."
• The sunk cost trap. "I've already spent 3 minutes. If I leave now, those minutes were wasted."

All three feelings are normal. All three lose marks.

The 90-second rule

Give each question about 90 seconds. If you haven't found the answer by then:

1. Make your best guess. Never leave it empty.
2. Mark it. On screen, note the question number on your rough paper.
3. Move on. Right away.
4. Come back at the end of that passage, only if you have time.

Why coming back works

When you return to a hard question, it often feels easier. Why? Because while answering the other questions, you read more of the passage. You might even find the answer by accident. Also, your brain keeps working on the problem in the background.

How to make a smart guess

• True/False/Not Given: If you can't find any related sentence at all, NOT GIVEN is a reasonable guess.
• Multiple choice: Remove options you know are wrong, then pick from the rest.
• Completion: Use grammar. What word type fits? Find a word of that type near the area you think is right.
• Matching: Choose an option you haven't used yet.

Use the order rule

For question types that follow passage order (R17), use the answers around the hard one. If question 8 was in paragraph C and question 10 was in paragraph D, then question 9 must be between them. That makes your search much smaller.

Try it yourself

You've spent 2 minutes on question 22, a True/False/Not Given. You can't find any sentence that matches. Question 21 was in paragraph B, and question 23 is in paragraph C. What do you do?

Honest note

Walking away feels wrong at first. You'll worry about that one mark. But after a few practice tests with the 90-second rule, you'll see your total score go up, because you finish more questions.

Your task today

In your next practice test, use a stopwatch for each question block. Notice any question where you spent more than 2 minutes. Was it worth it?