Time management during the test: pacing a two-hour sitting

Running out of time in PTE rarely means you are slow at everything. Usually one item took three minutes that belonged to the next five, and the rest of the section paid for it. Over a sitting of about two hours, pacing is a skill, and like any other skill you can practise it.

Know which clock you are working to

The test uses two kinds of timing. In some parts each task has its own timer, and the test moves on by itself when the time runs out. In other parts a group of tasks shares one clock, and you decide how to divide it. Which parts work which way, and how long they last, can change, so confirm the current rules on the instructions screen and in Pearson's test guide. A figure from a forum post is not a rule.

The two kinds ask for different habits.

• Own timer: you cannot borrow time from an easy task for a hard one, so the skill is using your allowance well from the first second. Divide it inside the task. With made-up numbers, a writing task that gave you 30 minutes might be split into 5 for planning, 20 for writing and 5 for checking spelling and verb agreement.
• Shared clock: the skill is budgeting. Nobody tells you that you have spent too long on an item. The clock does, and it does so late.

Splitting a shared clock

Before you start a block, divide the minutes by the number of items, then adjust for how heavy each item is. Here is an illustrative example, with figures made up for this post and not taken from Pearson. A block gives you 24 minutes for 12 items. Seven are quick, such as a single multiple-choice question. Five are heavy, such as re-ordering paragraphs.

Add one checkpoint. When half the time has gone, you should be about halfway through the items. If you are behind, the fix is to stop re-reading, not to rush every item equally. The usual trap is spending your whole budget on the item you almost understand. Give it its minutes, choose the best answer you have and move on.

In the final minute, fill any empty item. A blank scores nothing, so an answer beats a gap, except in tasks that penalise wrong answers (multiple choice, multiple answers: living with negative marking covers those).

Recovering from a bad item

Every sitting has one. You freeze halfway through a Describe Image, or you mishear most of a dictation sentence. That item is finished, and the only thing you control is the next one. Use a ten-second reset: breathe out slowly, drop your shoulders, think "next" and read the new screen as if it were the first. Replaying the last answer in your head costs you the opening seconds of the new one.

Decide the rule in advance, because you will not decide well in the moment: a bad item gets no more thought until the block ends. The error log is for later. The clock is for now.

Pace your energy too

Minutes are only half of pacing. The last part of the sitting is Listening, and it arrives when you have already been concentrating for a long time. Start the first part at a steady pace rather than a sprint. If the test offers a break, the instructions will say so, so find out beforehand and decide what you will do with it. A short reset is enough: stand up, loosen your shoulders, take a few slow breaths.

If your mocks show the same dip late in the sitting, train for it. Lengthen your timed blocks by ten minutes a week, and practise moving from one task to the next without a pause.

Practise under time

1. Learn each task without a timer until you can describe its method from memory.
2. Add the real timer and practise until you can finish with a few seconds to spare, without rushing.
3. Do a block of mixed items on one clock, using the budget method above.
4. Once a fortnight, take a full mock under test conditions (using mock tests well explains how).
5. After any block where you overran, find the item that took longest and write down why.

Tonight, take ten mixed practice items, give yourself 20 minutes and set an alarm for the halfway point. Check where you are when it rings. The practice tests on this site have countdown timers built in, and for the practical side of the day itself, see Before exam day: a practical checklist.