Yes: if you don't have a clear path to an answer within about a minute, mark your best guess when you can eliminate at least one option, flag the question, and move on rather than losing the easier questions later in the exam. General advice to "manage your time" isn't very useful on its own. Here's a more concrete version, built around how the IMAT is actually structured and scored.
Why getting stuck is more costly than it seems
A single hard question doesn't just cost you the time you spend on it, it costs you the easier questions later in the exam that you don't get to because you ran out of time. That opportunity cost is the real reason a skip strategy matters, not just the immediate time itself.
A concrete rule of thumb
If you don't have a clear path to an answer within roughly a minute or so of genuinely trying, mark your best guess if you can eliminate at least one option, flag the question, and move on. Come back only if you have time left after a full first pass, not mid-exam. This pairs with the broader question of which order to tackle sections in to begin with.
Where the scoring formula actually matters here
Because of the IMAT's scoring formula, wrong answers cost points and blank ones don't, so a skip decision isn't just about time, it's also about whether you can eliminate any options before moving on. A question where you can eliminate two or three options is worth a quick educated guess before skipping. A question where you have genuinely no idea is safer to leave blank and revisit only if time allows.
How to actually train this instinct
Practice this explicitly in timed mocks, not just content review, since the skip decision itself is a skill that needs repetition to feel natural rather than panicked in the moment. Candidates who've never practiced skipping tend to freeze on a hard question during the real exam precisely because they've never rehearsed the decision.
Want to see how your current pacing across sections actually looks? The Lounge is a free IMAT score predictor - answer a few questions and see exactly where you'd realistically land, and which universities that score would clear.
Try the free Score PredictorA hard question isn't a threat to your score by itself. Getting stuck on it, and losing the easier questions behind it, is what actually costs you.
