The IMAT gives candidates 100 minutes to answer 60 questions, and that single ratio — 1 minute 40 seconds per item — is the structural fact that shapes every preparation decision. A student who walks into the exam hall without an internal time budget will treat every question as equally important, which is the fastest way to leave five or six easy marks on the table. This article builds a working pacing model for the four sections, names the question families that most reliably break a candidate's rhythm, and turns a vague feeling of "running out of time" into a concrete per-section minute allocation.
Why 100 minutes for 60 questions is the wrong mental image
Most candidates first read the format as "100 minutes, 60 questions" and divide. They end up with the figure of 100 seconds per item and assume a steady, metronomic pace. In practice, the IMAT does not reward a uniform pace. Section 1 (Logic and Problem Solving, 10 questions) and Section 2 (Scientific Reading, 4 reading passages) behave very differently from Sections 3 and 4 (Biology 23 questions, Chemistry 15, Physics 8, Mathematics 4), and the official split of 10 + 20 + 30 across the three larger blocks is only a starting hint, not a rule. A 700+ candidate I have tutored rebuilt their plan after their first mock: they were spending 2 minutes 15 seconds on hard chemistry calculations and 50 seconds on easy logic puzzles, which is the exact inversion of what the marks reward. The point is not speed for its own sake; the point is matching the seconds you spend to the seconds the question is worth.
The four-section shape of the paper
- Section 1 — Logic and Problem Solving: 10 questions, problem sets, spatial reasoning, numerical puzzles.
- Section 2 — Scientific Reading and Critical Reasoning: 4 passages with 5 questions each, 20 items total.
- Section 3 — Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics: 46 subject-specific items in mixed order (Biology 23, Chemistry 15, Physics 8, Mathematics 4, per the test blueprint).
Note that "Section 2" in some preparatory materials is called General Knowledge or Culture Generale, but the current IMAT blueprint organises the reading and critical-reasoning load into its own block. Treat any resource that contradicts the official MIUR/Cambridge syllabus line as out of date, regardless of the publication year on the cover.
A section-by-section time budget that survives contact with the real paper
Below is the budget I would hand a candidate aiming for the upper score band. Treat the numbers as a starting point, not a verdict — they will shift by 1–2 minutes once you know your personal slow sections.
| Section | Items | Suggested budget | Per-item target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logic and Problem Solving | 10 | 13 min | ~78 s |
| Scientific Reading and Critical Reasoning | 20 | 22 min | ~66 s |
| Subject-specific (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths) | 30 (per the live test) | 55 min | ~110 s |
| Buffer / review | — | 10 min | — |
The buffer matters more than candidates think. On a 60-item paper, a 10-minute reserve is the difference between guessing on question 58 and reading it twice. The buffer is created by the early sections, not borrowed from the later ones — if you have not banked it by the time Section 3 begins, you will not have it.
The two-stage model: triage in the first 30 seconds, commit in the next 90
Every item on the IMAT deserves the same two-stage treatment. In the first 30 seconds, you decide whether the question is a "solve now", a "solve later", or a "best guess and move". In the next 60 to 90 seconds, you either solve it or you mark your guess and leave. Candidates who skip the triage stage try to solve every question as if it were a five-marks-of-credit item, and they pay for it in two ways: easy items that should have taken 40 seconds take 95, and hard items that should have been parked take 180. For most candidates I work with, the triage decision is the single skill that produces the largest score jump, larger than any content review.