AMC pacing and stamina on a 75-minute competition paper
AMC pacing tips for a long secondary paper: checkpoints, a move-on rule and energy for later questions.
Strong AMC pacing treats seventy-five minutes across a long secondary paper as a set of checkpoints, not a sprint through the first ten items.
AMC timing checkpoints
- At about 25 minutes: you should be past the easier opening stretch with accuracy intact.
- At about 50 minutes: most middle modelling should be decided or flagged.
- Final stretch: attempt hard items with a hard stop; sweep flags if time remains.
Move-on and recovery under AMC timing
Decide in practice how long a stuck item deserves. Then flag, make a justified guess if appropriate, and reset: exhale, restate the next stem, start a fresh representation.
No-calculator stamina
Practise mental estimation and neat working under the same constraint you will face on the day. Fatigue errors often look like “silly arithmetic” after a correct setup.