Find a rhythm, then hold it
A timed run rewards an even pace more than bursts. Three quick answers followed by a long stall add up to less than four steady ones. Before you start, decide on a comfortable tempo and treat the first ten seconds as the place to settle into it rather than to sprint.
Both games move on by themselves after a right answer, so there is no button between you and the next task. Keep your finger or your eyes where the next answer will be.
Know what a mistake costs
In Ink & Word a wrong tap freezes the game for one second. At a pace of one answer every 1.5 seconds, that is two thirds of an answer lost, plus the time the wrong answer itself took. A sure tap is almost always the better deal.
In Quick Sums a wrong answer only costs the time you spent on it: the count of correct answers stays. That makes skipping a real option. A sum you cannot see the way into within a couple of seconds is often worth sending with OK.
Expect the jumps
Quick Sums lifts the numbers after every five correct answers. The first sum of a new band is usually the slowest of the run, and that is normal. Knowing it is coming keeps a slower answer from turning into a rushed mistake.
On the ladder, every Quick Sums step asks you to reach one band further, so the step page tells you which band the target sits in and how big the numbers there get.
Use the same opening
On a ladder step the run code fixes the tasks, so the first sum and the first word are always the same. Use that: the opening few answers can be your warm-up every time.
Free play deals new tasks each run. When you want to compare one day with the next, the result card's chart of your last twenty runs at that level is the fairest measure.