How to pace the P1: 160 questions in four and a half hours

The Law Society describes the paralegal examination as 160 multiple choice questions written in four hours and thirty minutes. Divide one by the other and you get about one minute and 41 seconds a question. That number is accurate and almost useless, because nobody can time 160 separate questions.

Think in checkpoints

What you can do is know where you should be at a few points in the paper:

• After 1 hour: about question 36
• After 2 hours 15 minutes, the halfway mark: question 80
• After 3 hours: about question 107
• After 4 hours: about question 142

If you reach the halfway mark on question 80, you are on pace. If you are on question 70, you are about 17 minutes behind, and you know it while there is still time to do something about it.

Our free P1 pacer prints these checkpoints for every five questions on one sheet. It also rebuilds the chart if the Law Society has granted you additional time, because a chart made for the standard clock will have you rushing minutes that are yours to use.

Why some questions take longer

The examination mixes stand-alone questions with case-based ones, where a scenario is followed by several questions. The first question in a case costs more, because you are reading the scenario. The ones after it cost less. So a slow stretch does not always mean you are behind. Check your position at the end of a section or a case, not in the middle of one.

It is open book, and that is where the time goes

You may bring your printed materials. Every lookup has a price, though. Forty lookups at two minutes each is 80 minutes, which is nearly a third of the paper. Answer from what you know when you can, and open the materials when you have to. A good index and tabs make the difference between a 30 second lookup and a three minute one.

If you fall behind

Do not sprint. Rushing the next ten questions is how easy marks get lost. Win the time back slowly: fifteen seconds saved on each of the next forty questions recovers ten minutes.

Never leave a blank

The Law Society states that there is no penalty for a wrong answer. A blank and a wrong answer score the same, so choose an answer before you move on, every time, even if you flag the question to come back to. The clock may not let you return.

Practise the clock, not only the law

Pace is a habit, and habits come from repetition. Sit at least one full-length paper under the real clock before exam day, with your pacer beside you. Our mock exams run 160 questions on a 4.5 hour timer and show you afterwards where in the sitting your pace changed. To try the platform first, the free practice quiz is untimed and costs nothing.