Entrance exams: strategy and time · Kode bersama Martin

A test can be played smart

You can calculate. The last lesson of the entrance-exam series is not about maths, but about how to play the test — because between two equally prepared candidates the one who manages time and nerves better wins.

First the numbers, so you know what you are going into. The unified entrance exam in maths: 70 minutes, at most 50 marks, questions from easy for 1 mark to harder for 5–6. You write into an answer sheet, the method is marked for most questions. Allowed kit: drawing tools and writing tools. No calculator — but you are trained for that.

The main strategic truth: you do not have to solve everything. Nobody has to. Your job is not 50 marks, but the maximum of YOUR marks. And that means: first collect all the sure marks and only then fight with the hard questions.

The second truth: panic is more expensive than not knowing. A stuck question you hang on for ten minutes costs you three others you would have selesai. Today you will learn to recognise a stuck and run from it.

You will try it all as a dry run — in peace, at home, with a timer.

Sofie did the first practice test all in order: at the fifth question she stuck for 15 minutes, she did not finish the end of the test — and at the back there were two questions she would have selesai in her sleep. The second try she goes differently: first she goes through the whole test and makes three piles — “I can do it now”, “I can do it with work”, “I leave it till the end”. She collects the sure questions in the first twenty minutes, then she goes after the more worky ones. Result: 12 marks more. “The same maths, a different order,” she laughs. “A test is also about tactics.”

💡

You recognise a stuck like this: two minutes you look at a question and you have not written a single mark. That is a signal — mark it, skip and come back at the end. A return with a fresh head often cracks the question in a minute.

A strategy for 70 minutes

Phase 1 (the first 3 minutes): scout. Flip through the whole test. Do not solve, just sort: what I can do now, what with work, what looks nasty. You already know how many sure marks wait for you.

Phase 2 (about 25 minutes): collect sure marks. Solve everything from the pile “I can do it now”. Do not rush at the cost of the method — those are exactly the questions lost to haste. After each question a ten-second check ritual (estimate, copy, the question).

Phase 3 (about 30 minutes): worky questions. Constructions, word problems, geometry for more marks. Write the method — it is marked. If you do not know the whole, write what you know: a sketch, an equation, the first step. Partial marks are marks too.

Phase 4 (the last 10–12 minutes): returns and a check. Come back to the skipped ones. Then check the answer sheet: is everything copied? Readable? For questions where the answer goes in a box, is the right number in the box?

Rules of calm: A stuck = skip (see the tip). Never leave a blank sheet where you have at least part of the method. And the day before the test do not catch up on topics — go through formulae, prepare things, go to sleep. A rested head calculates better than an overstretched one.

Example 1: a minute budget

Question: The test has 70 minutes and about 14–16 questions. Set up your time budget.

Method: I split by phases: 3 minutes scout, 25 minutes sure questions, 30 minutes worky, 12 minutes returns and a check. Sum: 70.

For one sure question that gives 2–4 minutes, for a worky one 5–7 minutes.

What it is for: when you sit on a question for 2 marks in the eighth minute, the budget shouts that you are paying too much. Let it go, come back later.

Answer: Carry the budget in your head roughly, not to the second — it is a compass, not a whip.

Example 2: what to do with a question you cannot do whole

Question: A word problem for 5 marks. You can set up a key and an equation, but the solution got tangled. Little time left. What do you do?

Method: Definitely do not hand in a blank. I write what I have for sure: the key (“x = price of a T-shirt…”), the equation, the first rearrangements. Clearly, readably.

The method is marked — a correctly set-up equation usually carries part of the marks even without finishing.

Answer: A partial solution on paper always. A zero for a blank sheet is the only result that cannot be saved.

Example 3: a dry-run general

Question: How do you play the exam as a dry run at home so it is worth it?

Method: 1) Download a real test from past years (they are freely on the CERMAT website). 2) Set the desk like at the exam: papers, drawing tools, no phone, no calculator. 3) Set a timer to 70 minutes and go by the four phases. 4) After the end mark the test from the key and sort mistakes: not knowing (learn), haste (the ritual!), time (strategy).

Answer: Two or three such generals before the real date teach more than a week of jumping between textbooks — you train exactly what will happen.

⚠️

Do not drown in one question. The biggest time trap of a test: an ambitious question you hang on for ten minutes, while three easier ones wait behind it. No question is worth three others. Two minutes without a written mark = mark it, skip, go on. You will come back with a fresh head in the return phase.

Practice: now you do it 🎲

Now try it for real. You will see all the questions at once, like on paper. Mulai with ten. When it goes well, add more.

A mix like in entrance exams. Each question different. Write fractions as a/b, decimals with a comma — and feel free to time yourself.

Practise the questions

On paper (and with a timer)

Today’s practice is a strategy general, not extra calculating.

Write on a card your time budget of four phases (scout / sure / worky / check) and the two-minute rule. Put the card by your studying — it is your game plan.
Take a practice test (or a set of 10 questions from this level) and do ONLY phase 1: three minutes of sorting into piles. Calculate nothing.
Now play the whole test by the phases, with a timer. Write down when you left each phase.
After marking, sort mistakes into three drawers: not knowing / haste / time. By each drawer write one sentence of what you will do with it until next time.

Now you 💪

You know the parameters of the test: 70 minutes, 50 marks, the method is marked, no calculator.
You have written your own phase budget and the two-minute rule.
You have played at least one test as a dry run by the strategy and sorted the mistakes.

✅

Done when: You have a game plan on a card, one test played by the phases and mistakes sorted into not knowing, haste and time.

What to take from this lesson

You do not have to solve everything. Collect sure marks first.
Four phases: scout, sure questions, worky questions, returns and a check.
The two-minute rule: without a written mark skip and come back later.
The method is marked — always write a partial solution.
Generals with a timer at home = calm on the day. And sleep.