How to use the online timer
An hour is a common length for a paper, and practising against that hour is a different exercise from studying the subject. Under timed conditions the thing being tested is not only what you know but how quickly you can decide what to leave out, which question to start with, and when to stop polishing an answer that is already good enough.
Set the hour, sit down with a past paper and nothing else, and treat it as though somebody were collecting it at the end. No looking things up mid-question, no pausing to check a definition. Keep this tab open for the full hour — the count is held in the page, so a closed tab means the paper quietly becomes untimed halfway through.
Mark it afterwards, properly and honestly, and note where the time went rather than only where the marks did. Most people discover they spent twenty minutes on a question worth four marks. Doing this three or four times before the exam is worth more than reading the same chapter again, largely because it rehearses the conditions rather than the content.
Common questions
Why practise against the clock rather than just revising?
Because a timed paper tests different things: what to leave out, which question to start with, and when an answer is good enough. Those decisions only get rehearsed under the actual time limit.
What should I look at afterwards?
Where the time went as well as where the marks went. Most people find they spent twenty minutes on a question worth four marks, which is more useful to know than the score itself.
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