KA-0130Managing the 5-point block
5 points, difficulty 3 of 3Level 5–6about 60sYou reach the ten 5-point questions with 18 minutes left. What is the best plan?
Hints
Take them one at a time. The first gives nothing away.
1A nudge
Every question in this block scores the same.
2The strategy
Ten questions at the same value means the aim is to maximise how many you finish, not to conquer the hardest. Spend the first ninety seconds finding out which ones are yours.
3The full solution
Read all ten first, pick the two or three you can genuinely do, work those properly, and fill in a guess on the rest before the end.
Solution— no shortcut on this one
Every question in this block is worth 5 points, so a hard one is worth no more than an easy one. The plan that maximises marks is therefore: spend the first ninety seconds reading all ten and marking the ones that look tractable; work those properly, because a half-finished 5-point question scores the same as an untouched one; and before the end, fill in an answer for every remaining question, since blanks score nothing and wrong answers cost nothing. The transferable idea: with equal-value questions, the aim is how many you finish, not how hard the ones you attempt are.
Why this is on the test: The 5-point block is where the paper is won or lost, and working strictly in order is the plan that leaves the most marks on the table.