Should You Start with Short Answers or Multiple Choice on the ExAC?

Take a breath: this is a pacing question, not a knowledge question. Two sections mix multiple choice with short-answer (constructed-response) prompts, not one: Section 1 carries about eight written prompts and Section 3 about six. The Preparation Guide settles the order for you, telling candidates to give priority to the questions worth more points because they are clearly identified. So write the short answers first, each on a hard budget of eight to twelve minutes, then run the multiple choice with the time you have left. In our years of post-exam debriefs with Intern Architects, our team at Examitect, an independent ExAC prep platform unaffiliated with the CACB, has watched this single order decide section margins. The goal is not a perfect paragraph; the goal is to maximise your score within the clock.

Key Takeaways

The seven things to know about ExAC question order before exam day.

Two sections mix the formats, not one. Section 1 carries roughly eight short-answer prompts and Section 3 roughly six, so the order decision is a Section 1 question before it is a Section 3 one. The Section 1 overview and the Section 3 overview walk through the prompt mix in detail.
The Preparation Guide settles the order for you. "Give priority to the questions that are worth more points. They are clearly identified." On the ExAC those are the short answers, so they come first and the multiple choice follows.
A hard per-prompt budget is what makes short-answer-first survivable. Divide the time you have allotted to the written block by the number of prompts, write it at the top of each page, and stop when it runs out; see the broader pacing patterns in our ExAC exam hacks post.
Short answers are hand-marked against a rubric, so they reward content, not eloquence. Markers look for specific elements (Canadian terminology, named references like CHOP chapters and NBC 2020 Parts, decision rationale), and a tight three-bullet response usually outscores a long paragraph.
Two marking rules decide more than order ever will. If a prompt asks for two points, only the first two you write are read, and anything past the printed lines, in the margins, or on the scratch paper is not marked. The ExAC 2026 exam guide maps the full format.
Scan the section before you write anything. Spend the first two minutes counting prompts and noting rough timing in the margin. Blocking the two formats handles cognitive load better than alternating between them.
Practise the order before exam day. Take at least one full timed Section 3 mock with multiple-choice-first pacing, ideally with answer explanations that match Canadian references; see how practice questions and mock exams work together to calibrate pace and fatigue.

At a glance

Strategy	Budget and write the short answers first, then sweep the multiple choice
Where it applies	ExAC Sections 1 and 3, the two that mix formats
Why	The Preparation Guide says to give priority to the questions worth more points
Pace	8 to 12 minutes per short answer; the rest of the three hours on the multiple choice
Goal	Maximise section score within the clock, not perfect any single answer
Other sections	Sections 2 and 4 are multiple choice only (skip-and-return applies)
Common mistake	Writing a short answer with no hard stop and losing 15 minutes on one prompt
Pre-exam practice	At least one full timed Section 1 or Section 3 mock run in this order

Where the order matters: Sections 1 and 3

The Examination for Architects in Canada answers most of its items on a bubble sheet, but two sections also ask you to write. Section 1 (Design and Analysis) carries approximately eight short-answer prompts and Section 3 (Sustainability and Final Project) approximately six. Sections 2 and 4 are multiple choice only. So the order question is not a Section 3 question: it is a Section 1 question first, because Section 1 has the larger written block, and most candidates do not expect it there.

The Preparation Guide gives the order directly, under its own time-management advice: "Give priority to the questions that are worth more points. They are clearly identified." On a mixed section, the higher-point items are the short answers, and they are flagged as such on the paper. That is the instruction, and the rest of this post is about how to follow it without letting one prompt swallow the section.

In the post-exam debriefs our team runs after every sitting, the candidates who finish a mixed section are the ones who arrived with a fixed plan and a hard per-prompt stop. The ones who struggle are not the ones who started with the writing; they are the ones who started with the writing and had no timer on it, spent fifteen minutes on the first prompt, and then raced the multiple choice with what was left. The order is set by the guide. The discipline is yours to bring.

Why the short answers come first

The argument is not a preference; it is the published instruction plus arithmetic. Compare the two formats and it is clear which one you cannot afford to leave to the last twenty minutes.

Format	Typical pace	What you can lock in
Multiple choice	60 to 90 seconds per question	Full marks on a question in roughly a minute. No partial credit risk; you either get the mark or you do not.
Short answer (constructed response)	5 to 15 minutes per prompt	Partial credit by rubric element. A complete answer takes time to plan, write, and check.

Multiple choice has the higher marks-per-minute, which is exactly why it is the safe thing to leave until later: it degrades gracefully under time pressure, and a rushed guess still scores sometimes. A rushed short answer usually does not. Writing the high-value items first gives you three advantages.

You protect the biggest marks on the page. A short-answer prompt is worth several multiple-choice items. Leave it to the last fifteen minutes and you are gambling the largest single scores in the section on the clock.
You write while your attention is fresh. Rubric-aware writing is the most cognitively expensive thing the section asks for. It is better done at minute twenty than at minute one hundred and sixty.
The multiple choice absorbs the overrun, not the other way round. If the writing block runs five minutes long, you lose two or three multiple-choice items you can still guess at. If the multiple-choice block runs long, you lose a whole short answer.

There is one real cost to the order, and it is worth naming. Multiple-choice items in a mixed section often touch the same content as the written prompts, so a multiple-choice pass warms up recall the short answers draw on. You give that up. The way to buy it back is in the scan: read all the short-answer prompts in the first two minutes, then let them sit in the back of your mind while you draft, so nothing arrives cold.

The case for multiple choice first (and where it breaks)

To be fair to the opposing view: there is a case for opening with the multiple choice. The argument goes that it is faster per mark, that banking a run of quick answers is calming, and that a large pool of easy points should not be left at the mercy of a writing block that overruns.

That argument is not wrong on paper, and it is the order this post used to recommend. It breaks in two places. First, it is against the guide's own instruction to take the higher-point questions first. Second, the failure it is meant to prevent is a discipline problem, not an ordering problem: a candidate who over-writes the first prompt will over-write it whether that prompt comes at minute ten or minute one hundred and twenty. Fix it with a visible per-prompt budget, not by pushing the writing to the end of the clock.

There is one narrow case where multiple-choice-first is the better call: a candidate who has never once finished a timed multiple-choice block and knows it. If your practice mocks show you consistently leaving twenty items unanswered, the multiple-choice pool is your actual risk, and a fast first lap through it is defensible. Everyone else should follow the guide and write first, on a timer.

The Examitect rule: budget the writing, then sweep the multiple choice

Across every ExAC sitting our team has debriefed, the same pacing pattern shows up in the candidates who clear a mixed section on first attempt. We have distilled it into a single rule.

Step	What to do	Why it works
1. Scan	Spend two minutes counting prompts, reading every short-answer scenario, and noting rough timing in the margin.	You enter the section with a map of the time budget, and every written prompt has been read once before you start drafting.
2. Short answers, budgeted	Divide your planned writing block by the number of prompts, write that figure at the top of each page, and answer each one to the stop.	You bank the highest-value items while your attention is fresh, which is what the Preparation Guide instructs.
3. Multiple choice, first pass	Answer every multiple choice you know at a brisk pace. Flag uncertain ones; keep moving.	The fast marks are collected in bulk, and no single hard item is allowed to eat the block.
4. Multiple choice, second pass and sweep	Return to flagged items, commit to an answer on each, then check that no bubble is left blank.	Returning is faster than deliberating in the moment, and a marked answer beats an empty one every time.

The rule sounds obvious, and it is. The reason it still wins margins is that obvious rules are the ones candidates abandon under pressure. Practising the rule in timed mocks, twice in the last four weeks before exam day, is what makes it stick on the day. The practice questions and mock exams post breaks down how to integrate the two formats into a study plan that builds the habit.

A four-step pacing plan for a mixed section

Below is the pacing plan as a step-by-step timeline. Run it exactly as written on at least one timed Section 1 or Section 3 mock before the real thing. Adjust the per-prompt budget for your speed, not the order.

Step 1: 0 to 2 min

Scan and budget

Read the section header, count the multiple-choice questions, count the short-answer prompts, and read every short-answer scenario. Set the writing block: roughly 8 to 12 minutes per prompt, so about an hour for Section 1's eight and about 50 minutes for Section 3's six. Do not answer anything yet.

Step 2: Short answers

Write within a per-prompt budget

Write the per-prompt budget at the top of each short-answer page and hold to it. Lead each answer by naming the Canadian reference the question turns on (CHOP chapter, NBC Part, CCDC clause), deliver the rubric content in bullets or short paragraphs, and stop when the rubric is covered. If the prompt asks for two points, give exactly two: only the first two are read.

Step 3: First pass MC

Multiple choice you know

Work through the multiple-choice questions in order at a brisk pace. Answer the ones you know; mark the uncertain ones; do not deliberate. The goal of this pass is volume, not perfection.

Step 4: Second pass MC

Return to flagged items, then sweep

Go back to the multiple-choice questions you flagged. Spend no more than a couple of minutes per item. Commit to an answer; do not leave any blank. If you genuinely cannot decide, pick the option that most closely matches Canadian practice and the most recent codes. With three minutes left, check the answer sheet for blanks and fill them.

The most-skipped step is Step 1. Two minutes of scanning feels like wasted time when the clock is running, but it is the step that prevents the time-pressure spiral. Treat the scan as part of the exam, not a delay to it.

Common mistakes candidates make with question order

Every ExAC cycle, the same handful of pacing mistakes show up in the post-exam debriefs our team runs with candidates. Reading them now is cheaper than discovering them in the exam room.

Opening with the hardest short-answer prompt. Writing first is right; starting with the most intimidating prompt is not. Take the written block in the order that reads easiest to hardest, so the first budget you hold is an easy one to hold.
Treating every multiple choice as a potential trap. Most multiple-choice questions are answerable quickly. Reading every option three times because one of them might be a distractor is how a one-minute question becomes a three-minute one. Trust your first reading, flag the uncertain ones, and move.
Writing essays in short-answer questions. The Section 1 and Section 3 short answers reward specific rubric content, not eloquence. Markers look for named Canadian references, decision rationale, and the architect's action, and nothing written past the printed lines is read at all. A tight, structured response usually outscores a long, meandering one. The Canadian terminology (the language of CHOP, CCDC, and the NBC) is what wins rubric marks.
Skipping the budget calculation. Walking into the short-answer block without dividing the remaining time by the number of prompts is how candidates spend twenty minutes on the first short answer and three on the last. Write the per-prompt budget at the top of each page; treat it as a hard stop, not a target.
Leaving a short answer blank. A skipped short-answer prompt is a zero on a high-value question and an avoidable hole in your section score. Even with two minutes left, write a three-line answer naming the relevant reference (CHOP chapter, NBC Part, CCDC clause) and the architect's decision. A short rubric-aware answer almost always earns partial marks; an empty response never does.
Not practising the order before exam day. The order is a habit, not an idea. Reading about it is not the same as running it under a clock. Build the habit on at least one timed mock and ideally two, with realistic mock content that includes Canadian-referenced explanations.

What to do if short-answer-first does not feel right

Honest framing: pacing strategy is general advice, not a universal law. There are candidates who do better with a different order, and there is a way to find out which group you are in without gambling on exam day.

Run the test on a timed mock. Take a mixed-section mock in the short-answer-first order and score it. Take a second in the multiple-choice-first order and score it. If the difference is within a few marks, follow the guide and write first. If multiple-choice-first scored noticeably higher and your written answers still landed inside their budgets, you may be one of the candidates whose real risk is the multiple-choice pool, and you can plan for it on exam day.

One narrower exception is worth naming. If you find yourself unable to start the section at all, paralysed by the size of the short-answer prompts, answer five multiple-choice questions you are sure of. Banking a handful of easy marks is sometimes enough to unstick the rest of the section. Then go straight back to the written block and hold the budget. The point of the rule is the pass, not the rule itself.

If pacing is the part of the ExAC you find hardest, structured study time on timing rather than content is the highest-leverage thing you can do. The 12-week ExAC study schedule shows when to drop in timed mocks so the habit is built before exam day, not on it.