Time Management Tips for Examinees If you’re taking the bar exam, you need to make sure that you’re managing your time effectively during the exam to give yourself the best chance of success. You’ll have a little more than six hours to answer 270 multiple-choice questions, which can feel like an eternity if you don’t pace yourself properly. In this guide, we will go over how to manage your time effectively so that you can stay on track with all of the topics and get through as many questions as possible.
Get ready
It’s exam time, and you want to do your best. To ensure you have enough time on test day, take some time during your study sessions to get yourself mentally prepared. Read over your test instructions, check out how your timer works (make sure it beeps at least five times per hour), and practice taking timed exams so that you won’t be as thrown off when you see how long each section is on test day. Reviewing tips like these are a great way to start getting ready now—and they’ll ensure that no matter what happens during exam day, you’ll feel confident in knowing that you did everything in your power to prepare yourself for success.
Write your answers down during the exam
Time Management Tips for Examinees If you wait until after an exam to write down your answers, you’re going to miss opportunities to save time. If you wait until after your test is over, it will be too late. You need a way to keep track of your time and how much time you have left. By writing things down during your exam, you don’t have worry about taking notes or keeping track—you just answer questions as they come up and spend more time thinking about each one.
Don’t panic
It may sound like something you don’t want to hear, but it is true. The more time you spend worrying about taking your exam and being prepared, the less time you’ll have left over to actually prepare. So don’t fret over things beyond your control, be okay with some uncertainty during your testing day and try not think too much about what may go wrong. Instead, focus on how well you can handle them if they do. This will ease any anxiety that comes up and free up even more time for test preparation!
Breathe
Before you get started on your exam, you need to remember to breathe. It sounds obvious, but it’s surprising how many people don’t take a few moments before an exam just focus on breathing. Studies have shown that breathing exercises help relax our nervous system and are instrumental in reducing anxiety before an important event. Remembering to take a deep breath can even improve your performance during an exam, so make sure you give yourself at least 5 minutes beforehand just focusing on your breathing.
Organize your time
Time Management Tips for Examinees If you don’t have a good plan before you walk into your exam, you may find yourself dazed and confused as soon as it starts. Think about how long your exam will last (2 hours? 5 hours?), what time it starts, and when you need to be finished by (let’s say 2 p.m.). Set an alarm on your phone that reminds you when your time is almost up so that you can finish up any loose ends or rush through parts where time has gotten away from you. Take a moment before walking into an exam to do a quick review of all points relevant to whatever outcome will ultimately decide whether or not all those countless hours studying were worth it.
Answer what you know first
You only have a limited amount of time to answer each question during an exam, so make sure you answer what you know first. In other words, spend your time answering questions that are easy and give you lots of details before you start answering harder questions. Making a note about what questions you answered first is an easy way to keep track of your progress, especially if it’s hard for you to gauge how much time has passed. If it’s been a while since you’ve taken an exam, try using timing strategies when practicing with old exams until these strategies become second nature—you might be surprised at how different that day-of-the-exam mindset is from all those hours spent in practice mode!
Go slow if you need to finish on time
If you start at a fast pace, it can be hard to slow down and speed up again. That’s why many test-takers like to take their time on easy questions and save their mental energy for more difficult ones. If you have time management issues, try pausing before you start each section and getting in the mindset that some questions will be quick, others will take longer, but overall it’s okay if you’re behind schedule because you’ll stay on track if that happens. If that doesn’t work (it didn’t work for me), try timing yourself while taking practice tests under similar conditions and make sure you leave enough time so that regardless of how fast or slow you go, there’s no way you’ll run out of time.
Review your mistakes after the exam
Reviewing your mistakes is one of the most important things you can do as an examinee. In addition to reviewing how questions were formatted and choosing which questions were more difficult, examinees should look at where they have time issues. If you have time issues on a certain section, review some of your answers in that section to see what you need to work on. Doing so may allow you to better organize your time in a way that allows you complete all questions in that section.