Hey birdwing, I like your exam advice, and good to hear that it's used by state rankers too!
Does anyone follow strict times for when they should be aiming to be on a certain question e.g. be on Question 15 by the 2 hour mark?
Because I feel like this would help you stay on track and not run out of time (which I always end up doing).
Whilst I did have this sort of mindset on the day, I never bothered when I was studying. I hardly did any 4u papers under exam conditions during the lead-up; that was far too tiring. It was better to just take my time.
Especially given that most past papers (i.e. before 2011) had no M/C and were virtually unfinishable within the 3 hour block.
However in the exam, I followed a simple rule of thumb - 3 hours, 6 long response questions, so spend at most 30min on each section. Technically this doesn't factor in the M/C but it didn't matter anyway.
You definitely want to manage your time well in the exam. But however much time you spend should be up to you. Arguably, it's more important that you don't spend too long on a question at the start; focus on getting the easy marks first. Some marks in Q16 are freebies and can be scabbed more easily than a Q14 style problem.