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Working time (after buffer)
100 questions, 60 minutes, four sections — the exam hall is a time game. Set your sections and pace; get per-section budgets, attempt targets and leave-by checkpoints you can write on your rough sheet.
Almost nobody loses an exam because a question was impossible. Marks are lost to the clock: ten extra minutes sunk into a stubborn Quant set, a fast GK section left half-done at the buzzer, thirty seconds of panic-math per question in the final stretch. The fix is boring and powerful — decide before the exam how long each section gets, and the exact minute you leave it, no matter what.
This planner is deliberately opinionated about one thing: when your pace cannot cover every question, it keeps your natural speed and plans skips instead of asking you to rush. With negative marking, a hurried wrong answer costs you twice — the mark you lost and the penalty — so 80 accurate attempts routinely beat 100 rushed ones.
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1. Price each section | Questions × your pace in that section = the time it really needs. A 25-question Quant section at 60 sec/Q needs 25 minutes; GK at 20 sec/Q needs just over 8. |
| 2. Reserve the buffer | Your review minutes come off the top first, so the section budgets are honest — no imaginary time. |
| 3. Squeeze fairly | If the sections need more time than the clock allows, every section is squeezed proportionally — and the questions that no longer fit become your planned skips, shown per section. |
| 4. Set checkpoints | Budgets convert into cumulative leave-by marks ("leave Quant by minute 55") — and into real wall-clock times if you enter your exam's start time. |
SSC CGL and CHSL Tier-1 and the RRB CBTs have no sectional time locks — the order is yours. A widely used sequence is fastest-first:
| Order | Section | Why here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | General Awareness | Know-it-or-don't questions — banks quick marks in minutes and warms you up. |
| 2 | English | Mostly fast grammar/vocab; only RC passages slow you down. |
| 3 | Reasoning | Medium pace; momentum from the first two sections helps. |
| 4 | Quantitative Aptitude | The slowest section gets the largest unbroken block at the end — no other section left to worry about. |
It is a starting point, not a rule — list the sections in whatever order works for you and the checkpoints will follow. Exams with fixed sectional timing (Bank prelims, CAT) lock the clock per section, so there is nothing to allocate there.
On paper, 100 questions in 60 minutes is 36 seconds each — including reading, deciding and marking. But averages mislead: a GK fact takes 15–20 seconds while a Quant calculation can take 60–90. That is why a section-wise budget beats a flat average.
A popular, sensible order is fastest first — usually General Awareness. It banks quick marks, warms you up, and leaves the largest unbroken block for your slowest section. There is no sectional lock in SSC CGL/CHSL Tier-1 or the RRB CBTs, so the order is entirely your choice.
Most candidates can't — and pretending otherwise is how accuracy collapses. This planner keeps your natural pace and plans skips instead: with negative marking, a rushed wrong answer costs the lost mark plus the penalty, so 80 accurate attempts routinely beat 100 hurried ones.
Those exams lock the clock per section, so there's nothing to allocate across sections. This planner is for exams without sectional locks — SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS, RRB NTPC, Group D, most state exams. You can still use it inside one long section, or for mocks.
A common rule: about 5 minutes per hour of exam for rechecking marked questions. Offline OMR exams need bubbling time on top — or safer, bubble page-by-page as you go rather than in one risky batch at the end.
More per attempted question, yes — but the total block should be capped, not open-ended. Sinking unlimited time into your weakest area is the classic exam-hall mistake: attempt selectively there and let your strong sections earn at full speed. Exception: if your exam has sectional cut-offs, the weak section needs enough attempts to clear the cut-off first.