It seems to be too common for participants of Math Kangaroo to say that they “needed more time”. Due to a lack of time, many participants are certainly not able to answer all the questions on the test. In fact, what can be done to best manage your time during the Math Kangaroo to maximize your score? Let’s take a look at some of these tried and tested strategies.
Note that we assume you know most of the math itself that is required for the Math Kangaroo exam. If you have some shortcomings there, be sure to check out our YouTube Channel, ThePuzzlr(youtube.com/c/ThePuzzlr), which covers most of the topics on the test.
If you want more in-depth preparation material for Math Kangaroo, I would suggest that you check out our FREE course section!
Anyways, back to managing your time well. As a quick summary of the test, you have 30 multiple choice questions to be solved in exactly 75 minutes. One more thing: the test generally gets harder as you progress farther into the test. This lets us allot an approximate time to each set of 10 questions!
Recommended Time Split
During the Math Kangaroo test, it is very important that you have enough time left to attempt the later 5-point questions. That being said, it’s also important to not make silly mistakes on the earlier 3-point questions!
We recommend this flexible system:
- Spend 10-15 minutes of the first 10 questions on the Math Kangaroo test!
- Spend 15-25 minutes on the second set of 10 questions
- Spend 25-50 minutes on the last 10 questions.
- Use the remaining time to do the questions that you skipped earlier, and if you can’t do any of them, check those that you are not sure about!
Now, this is just a rough estimate… feel free to customize it as you need to, to fit your needs! Some people just know the math very well, and spend less time on the last 10, and spend more time checking at the end. Others may as well do the opposite. Just make sure that you practice your system before the start of the contest on old exams.
Thoughts on “Checking”
The most important thing about checking is to check each question AS YOU ARE SOLVING IT. This is very important. No matter how fast you do the test, you will never have enough time to check ALL the questions. Instead, usually, in the end, you will allot your checking time to either questions that you were not sure about, or the harder questions, even though the other questions that you solved may have also been solved incorrectly. That is why you should take those extra seconds to double-check any non-trivial arithmetic, or re-reason any “conclusion” that you have made on the logic problems(which appear a lot on Math Kangaroo)!
Skipping Questions
Whenever you believe that a particular question may consume more time, SKIP IT for the time being. You can always attempt it later on. Answer or solve the easier questions early on and then get back to the tougher ones. There is no rule that you have to finish your answers according to the questions in order. The answers to questions are to be in any order as long as you put down the correct question number along with the answers you write. Don’t be nervous when you skip a question, and don’t be hesitant to do so. That being said, don’t abuse this suggestion by skipping 5 of the first 10 questions. That’s not a good idea at all. Subconciously, adopting this very high-skip ratio will stop you from focusing on the harder problems, since you know that you have to come back to the easier ones. A good “skip ratio” would be one that non-zero, and less than 20%.
Tips about Guessing in a Time Crunch
Try to solve the question, and if unsuccessful, never forget to take a guess. There is no negative marking, so there is no reason for you to not guess. That being said, you don’t want to blindly just guess for a question that you can’t solve. Use process of elimination and cross out the choices that don’t make sense. A lot of the questions on the Math Kangaroo test have answers that you can bound(for example a casework problem that has a minimum of 7 cases, and up to 32). Cross out the answer choices that are not in this bound. Always save some time near the end of the contest to read questions that you did not solve. Using this bounding strategy on those questions can get you extra points, usually making the difference as to whether you reach your goal or not!
Well, that’s it. These are some of the time management strategies I have applied on the Math Kangaroo test itself, each time meriting both national and state finalist spots.
Feel free to comment below with any other tips that you have to help your peers excel at the contest! I might even add it to this article.
It’s important to remember that Time Management is only a minor part of excelling at Math Kangaroo. It’s also important that you know all the necessary topics, most of which can be found on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/ThePuzzlr(and while you are there, don’t forget to subscribe)!
You can email me with any errata you find in this article(or comment it down below) and I will promptly fix it!