Why Some Students Finish Calmly and Others Run Out of Time

Why exam time feels shorter than it really is

You sit down for a 90‑minute exam thinking, “Plenty of time.” Twenty minutes later, you look up, and somehow a third of the exam period has vanished. What happened?

A lot of students underestimate how long it takes to read carefully, think, and then write or calculate. On top of that, nerves slow you down. Your brain is busy worrying about the grade instead of focusing on the question in front of you.

Take Maya, a college freshman. She kept running out of time on multiple‑choice exams. When she actually timed herself with a practice test, she realized she was spending almost a full minute re‑reading each question “to be safe.” That doesn’t sound like much, but across 60 questions, it ate up nearly an entire extra hour she didn’t have. Once she saw the numbers, she understood the problem wasn’t that she “wasn’t smart enough.” It was that she didn’t have a plan for the clock.

That’s where some simple techniques come in: they help you decide how to spend your limited minutes instead of just hoping it works out.

Start by breaking the exam into time chunks

The moment you get the exam, your first job is not to answer questions. Your first job is to scan and budget.

Look at how many questions there are, how many sections, and how many points each part is worth. Then do a quick, rough calculation in your head. You’re not doing fancy math here—just giving yourself a simple roadmap.

Imagine you have a 60‑minute exam with 40 multiple‑choice questions and 2 short‑answer questions. A lot of students dive straight into question 1. A better move is to pause for one minute and think something like:

• “I’ll spend about 35 minutes on the 40 multiple‑choice questions.”
• “That leaves about 25 minutes for the 2 short answers—around 12 minutes each.”

Now you have a basic plan. You know that if you’re still on multiple choice at minute 50, something’s off. That tiny bit of planning at the start keeps you from drifting.

Sam, a high school junior, started doing this for his history tests. Before, he’d spend ages on the first essay and then rush the second. Once he started assigning himself a fixed number of minutes per section, he didn’t suddenly become a faster writer—but his scores went up because he actually finished both essays.

Why starting with the easy wins matters more than you think

There’s a quiet confidence boost that comes from getting a bunch of questions right early on. It settles your nerves and frees up mental space.

When the exam starts, do a quick pass to spot the questions that look familiar or straightforward. Answer those first. You’re not “cheating the system”; you’re using it. Exams usually don’t reward you extra for doing the hardest question first.

Take a multiple‑choice exam. On your first pass, you might answer all the questions you can solve in under a minute. If you hit something that makes you think, “Hmm, this might take a while,” skip it and mark it clearly. You’re not giving up on it; you’re just parking it for later.

Lena, a nursing student, used to feel she had to go in order, question by question. If she got stuck on question 3, she’d sit there, feeling her stress rise, while the clock ticked. When she finally gave herself permission to skip and come back, she finished all the questions she knew and had time left to wrestle with the tough ones. Her overall score climbed, not because she suddenly knew more content, but because she stopped letting one question hijack ten minutes.

The “maximum minutes per question” rule

One of the most practical techniques during exams is to give yourself a maximum time limit per question—and actually respect it.

Say you have 60 minutes and 30 questions. On average, that’s about two minutes per question. You might decide:

• Simple recall questions: aim for about one minute.
• More complex or multi‑step questions: allow yourself up to three minutes.

Here’s the key: if you hit your limit and you’re still lost, you move on, even if it feels uncomfortable.

Is that scary? Absolutely. But consider the trade‑off. Spending six minutes stuck on one question might cost you three questions you could have answered correctly. That’s a bad deal.

Omar, who was preparing for a standardized test, actually wrote the target times at the top of his scratch paper: “By minute 20, I should be around question 10.” During the test, he glanced at the clock every so often and compared. If he was behind, he sped up on the easier ones and stopped overthinking. That simple rule kept him from drifting and losing track of time.

How to handle questions that make you freeze

Almost every exam has at least one question that makes you think, “I’ve never seen this before. Did I even study the right thing?” That’s the moment when time can really get away from you.

Instead of panicking, try this small routine:

1. Give it a quick attempt. Spend 30–60 seconds trying to understand what the question is really asking. Underline key words if you’re allowed to write on the exam.
2. If you’re still lost, mark and move. Put a clear star or circle next to it, skip it, and continue with the rest.
3. Return later with fresh eyes. Once you’ve answered the easier questions, come back. You’ll often find it looks slightly less scary the second time.

Diego, an adult learner taking evening classes, used to freeze on unfamiliar math problems. He’d stare at them for ages, feeling more and more anxious. When he started using a “one‑minute then move on” rule, something interesting happened: he didn’t suddenly become a math genius, but he stopped sacrificing the rest of the exam to one confusing problem.

Why reading the whole question saves time (yes, really)

It sounds obvious: read the question carefully. But under time pressure, a lot of students read the first half of the question, assume they know what it’s asking, and rush into an answer. Then they realize later the question said “except,” or “which of the following is NOT,” or “choose two.”

That tiny misread can cost you easy points, and now you’ve also wasted time.

A better habit is this: when you read a question, pause at the end and quietly ask yourself, “What exactly are they asking me to do?” If you can’t say it in your own words, you probably need to re‑read.

For essay or short‑answer questions, this is even more important. If the question says, “Explain two reasons…” and you only explain one, you’ve left points on the table, no matter how good that one reason is.

Melanie, a psychology major, started underlining verbs in essay prompts: “compare,” “analyze,” “describe,” “evaluate.” That tiny trick helped her focus her answer and stopped her from wandering off topic. It also kept her from wasting time writing things that didn’t actually answer the question.

Building a realistic pacing strategy before exam day

Time management during the exam starts long before you sit down in the test room. Practice is where you figure out how fast you actually work.

Here’s a simple way to do it without making your life miserable:

• When you do practice questions or past exams, use a timer. Don’t obsess over it, but notice how long you naturally take.
• After you finish, reflect for a minute: where did you spend too long? Which questions went quickly?
• Adjust your plan. Maybe you realize essays take you more time than you thought, so you decide to leave extra minutes for them on test day.

Many universities and learning centers share exam strategies and practice materials. For example, the Harvard College Writing Center offers guidance on planning and structuring essays, which indirectly helps with time management because you learn to organize your thoughts more quickly: https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu

Once you’ve done this a few times, you stop guessing and start knowing how long things take you. That makes your timing plan much more realistic.

Using mini‑checkpoints during the exam

Instead of constantly staring at the clock, use a few simple checkpoints.

Let’s say you have a 90‑minute exam. You might quietly tell yourself:

• “At 30 minutes, I want to be about one‑third through the questions.”
• “At 60 minutes, I should be close to finishing the main sections and shifting into review or tough questions.”

This way, you’re not checking the time every two minutes and freaking out. You’re just glancing up at specific moments and asking, “Am I roughly where I planned to be?”

If you’re behind, you don’t need to panic. You simply adjust: move a bit faster on simpler questions, stop rewriting the same sentence three times, and save perfectionism for the questions that are worth more points.

When to guess and move on (and when not to)

Different exams handle guessing differently, so it helps to know the rules.

On many modern standardized tests, there’s no penalty for wrong answers; you just don’t get the point. In that case, leaving a question blank is usually worse than taking a thoughtful guess. If you’re running low on time, it can be smarter to eliminate obviously wrong options and choose from what’s left instead of leaving it empty.

On some tests, though, there may be a small penalty for wrong answers. In those cases, random guessing might not be a good idea, but educated guessing still can be. If you can confidently rule out one or two options, your chances improve enough that it may be worth it.

Before the exam, check the official guidelines for your test. Many testing organizations and schools publish this information on their websites or in their handbooks. For example, the U.S. Department of Education offers general guidance about standardized testing and what to expect: https://www.ed.gov

How to use the last 5–10 minutes wisely

Let’s say you’ve managed your time fairly well and you have a few minutes left at the end. What should you do with them?

Instead of re‑doing everything, focus on high‑impact checks:

• Scan for unanswered questions you might have skipped.
• Check any questions where you weren’t sure and marked them.
• Look for silly mistakes: miscopied numbers, missing units, answers written in the wrong place.

Jared, who was preparing for a professional certification exam, turned this into a habit. In the last five minutes, he didn’t try to rethink every answer. He just hunted for blanks and obvious errors. That alone saved him from losing points on questions he actually knew how to do.

Managing nerves so they don’t steal your minutes

Anxiety doesn’t just feel uncomfortable; it eats time. You read slower, you second‑guess yourself, and you lose track of where you are.

You can’t always make nerves disappear, but you can keep them from running the show.

Some students use a quick breathing routine at the start of the exam or when they feel panic building:

• Breathe in slowly through your nose for four counts.
• Hold for four counts.
• Breathe out slowly through your mouth for six counts.

Do that two or three times. It takes less than a minute, and it can clear your head enough to think more clearly. If you’d like more structured strategies for test anxiety and performance, organizations like the American Psychological Association share accessible resources on stress and learning: https://www.apa.org/topics/stress

Once your brain is a bit calmer, you make better timing decisions. You’re less likely to cling to one question out of panic and more likely to follow the plan you made.

Turning these techniques into your own style

Not every technique will feel natural to you immediately. And that’s okay. The goal isn’t to copy someone else’s routine; it’s to build a set of habits that actually fit how you think and work.

A practical way to do this is to treat each practice test like a small experiment. Afterward, ask yourself:

• Did I run out of time, or did I finish too early and then over‑change answers?
• Which questions did I spend the longest on, and was it worth it?
• Did my time plan match reality, or do I need to adjust it?

Over a few weeks, you’ll notice patterns. Maybe you realize you’re actually pretty quick on multiple choice but slower on essays, so you decide to start with the essay section next time while your brain is fresh. Or maybe the opposite is true for you.

The point is, time management during exams isn’t some fixed talent you either have or don’t. It’s a skill set you can practice, tweak, and improve.

And the next time you hit those last five minutes, instead of panicking and guessing wildly, you’ll be the person calmly checking for blanks, fixing a silly mistake, and walking out thinking, “That went… actually pretty well.”

FAQ: Time management during exams

How early should I start practicing exam timing?
Ideally, you should start building timing into your practice a few weeks before the exam, not the night before. That gives you enough chances to adjust your pacing and figure out where you naturally need more time. Even adding a timer to one or two weekly practice sessions can make a noticeable difference.

Is it better to start with essays or multiple‑choice questions?
It depends on your strengths. Some students like to start with essays while their mind is fresh, then move to multiple choice. Others prefer to warm up with quick questions and tackle essays later. Try both approaches on practice tests and see which one leaves you feeling more in control of the clock.

How often should I check the time during an exam?
Checking every few minutes usually increases stress. Instead, set mental checkpoints—maybe every 20–30 minutes on a longer exam. At each checkpoint, quickly ask yourself if you’re roughly on pace. If not, adjust your speed or move on from questions that are taking too long.

What if I’m just naturally slow at reading or writing?
If you consistently struggle to finish on time, talk to a teacher, counselor, or disability services office at your school. Some students qualify for accommodations like extended time, which can level the playing field. Many colleges and universities explain this process on their disability services or student support pages, often found on their main .edu sites.

Should I change my answers if I have time left?
Be careful here. If you find a clear mistake—like misreading the question or miscopying a number—fix it. But changing answers just because you’re second‑guessing yourself can backfire. Research often suggests that your first well‑thought‑out answer is more likely to be correct unless you notice a specific error.

If you’d like to dig deeper into study and test‑taking strategies, many universities publish free guides on their learning center websites. For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Learning Center offers practical tips on exam prep and time management: https://learningcenter.unc.edu. Exploring a few of these resources can help you refine your own timing playbook even more.