How Many Practice Questions is Enough?
Doing practice questions daily is the best way to prepare for your board exams and the number of questions answered should increase as you get closer to your exam. Early on in your studying a single question block (40 questions) with review is sufficient. A significant portion of your study will be used to get acquainted with different question formats, different answer formats, deciphering what the questions are actually asking and other non-content related technicalities.
HOW MANY QUESTIONS SHOULD YOU BE DOING DAILY
In the beginning of your dedicated study period you should also be spending more time on content review to ensure you have reviewed most, if not all, relevant material before answering the majority of your practice questions. As your test day gets closer, the number of questions answered should also increase. One caveat we would suggest, is that you should only answer questions in timed blocks of 40 questions, as this will simulate the setting of your actual test day. Answering question sets of 10, 20, or 30 questions at a time is not indicative of the real exam and may leave you feeling fatigued during your real exam when question sets are only presented in sets of 40. About two weeks before your exam, it is suggested for students to answer three question blocks (or three sets of 40 questions) per day.
Answering this many questions in a day, for multiple days, will significantly help you build up a tolerance to the exhausting nature of staring at a computer screen for hours, which you will be expected to do for the actual exam. Answering more than three blocks per day is not necessary as you will not be expected to do this on the day of your exam without a break, and 4+ blocks of questions daily for two weeks is almost definitely going to leave you burnt out right before your exam. It should also be noted that reviewing your answers, both correct and incorrect, is just as important as doing the questions themselves, so time should be allotted for reviewing three blocks as well. Best of luck and happy studying!
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