The per-question budget

Reading and Writing gives you 32 minutes for 27 questions: 71 seconds each. Math gives you 35 minutes for 22: 95 seconds each.

Those are averages, and treating them as targets is the most common timing mistake on the test. Questions are not equally hard, and spending 71 seconds on a question you could do in 25 is how you end up with 30 seconds for one that needs two minutes.

#Budget in tiers, not averages

Reading and Writing. The conventions questions — commas, verbs, pronouns — should take 20 to 40 seconds once you know the rules. That is where your bank comes from. Cross-text connections and the harder inference questions will take 100 to 120 seconds and are worth it. If your conventions questions are taking a minute each, the problem isn't speed, it's that you don't yet have the rule automatic.

Math. The first several questions in each module are the easiest; take 40 to 60 seconds each and bank the difference. The last few are where the time goes.

#The 2-minute rule

If you've been on a single question for two minutes and you're not visibly close, flag it, put down your best guess, and move on. Not "leave it blank and come back" — answer it, then come back. A flagged question with an answer already in it is a free option; a blank one is a liability if you run out of time.

This is hard because two minutes in feels like you're nearly there. You usually aren't. The sunk cost is the trap.

#Checkpoints

Rather than watching the clock, check it twice per module:

• Reading and Writing — after Q9 you should have ~21 minutes left; after Q18, ~11.
• Math — after Q7 you should have ~24 minutes left; after Q15, ~11.

Two glances, not twenty. If you're behind at a checkpoint, don't sprint — pick up the pace on the easy ones and be quicker to flag.

#Hiding the clock

Bluebook lets you hide the countdown. If watching it makes you rush, hide it and rely on the checkpoints; it reappears with five minutes to go regardless. Decide which you are during practice, not on the day.