Reading time management: a minute-by-minute plan for the 105-minute session

Write the target clock time for each block on your question paper as soon as the test starts. Then you only have to compare the clock with a number, not do mental arithmetic while nervous. A workable budget for the 105 minutes is below; adjust it after practising with mock exams, but keep the total.

• Vocabulary (問題1–6): 15 minutes.
• Grammar (問題7–9): 20 minutes.
• Short passages, 5 × about 200 characters (問題10): 12 minutes, roughly 2.5 minutes each.
• Medium passages, 3 × about 500 characters (問題11): 20 minutes, roughly 6–7 minutes each.
• Integrated comprehension, two texts (問題12): 8 minutes.
• Long passage, about 900 characters (問題13): 12 minutes.
• Information retrieval (問題14): 6 minutes.
• Marking and checking: whatever remains, ideally 5 minutes and never zero.

Nothing requires you to answer in the printed order. Many candidates do the information-retrieval task (問題14) immediately after grammar, because it is short, mechanical and worth the same points as any other question; doing it while fresh guarantees those points. Others save the long passage for last because it is the one most likely to be cut off by the clock, and skipping half a long passage costs less than skipping several short ones. Test both orders in mock exams and keep the one that produced fewer blanks.

Within any passage, read the questions before the text. Questions tell you what to look for: a reference word (「これ」とは何か), the author's reason, or the author's overall claim. Underline the key noun in each question, then read the passage with those nouns in mind. This turns a passive read into a search.

Decide your rule before the test and obey it: if a question is still unresolved after ninety seconds of genuine effort, choose the most likely option, put a small mark next to the number, and move on. There is no penalty for wrong answers, so a guess is always better than a blank, and a marked guess can be revisited if time remains. What you must not do is re-read the same paragraph a fourth time hoping it will suddenly make sense; that time is worth more elsewhere.

Guard the last five minutes fiercely. Use them to fill in any blanks on the mark sheet, check that your answer numbers are aligned with the question numbers (a single skipped row can shift twenty answers), and return to marked questions only if everything else is complete.

• Write target clock times on the paper before you begin.
• Read the questions before the passage; underline key nouns.
• Ninety seconds stuck means guess, mark, move on.
• Never leave a blank: there is no penalty for guessing.
• Reserve the final minutes for the mark sheet.

Speed comes from familiarity, not from reading faster than you can understand. Practise with the timer on every passage on this site, always read the questions first, and after each passage note whether you finished within the target. If you consistently run over on one passage type, that type needs more practice, not a bigger budget. Aim to reach a point where the budget above feels slightly generous; that margin is what protects you when a difficult passage appears on the day.