GatewayWhat the 5-point questions actually ask for.
Appears in
5–6 · 7–8 · 9–10 · 11–124 levels
What it is
The last third of the paper is worth 5 points a question and is where the paper is won or lost. Reaching it with time left, reading all of it before committing to any of it, and picking the two most tractable is a plan you make before the exam, not during it.
●●●5 points, difficulty 3 of 35 ptLevel 5–6about 60s
You 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.
Where it goes wrong
Each of these is written the way a student would say it to themselves.
“I worked strictly in order and never reached the five-point questions I could have done.”
“I attacked the first five-point question I saw rather than the most tractable one.”
“I spent my remaining time on one hard question instead of two easier ones.”
Every problem in this skill
●○○3 points, difficulty 1 of 33 ptOne step from a skill you know.
Nothing at this tier yet for CFT-12.
●●○4 points, difficulty 2 of 34 ptTwo steps, or one step plus a trap.
Nothing at this tier yet for CFT-12.
●●●5 points, difficulty 3 of 35 ptNeeds an idea, not just a procedure.