Hello Stan,
I have done the following: 1) made the timer "transparent" and 2) placed it on the right hand side of the screen by adding/changing a few lines in :
theme/standard/styles_layout.css
#mod-quiz-attempt #timer .generalbox {
width:150px;
/* PKJ change transparency all modern browsers */
filter:alpha(opacity=50);
-moz-opacity:0.5;
-khtml-opacity: 0.5;
opacity: 0.5;
}
#mod-quiz-attempt #timer {
position:absolute;
/*top:100px; is set by js*/
right:10px
}
You may also look at some other very interesting approaches that Moodle users have developed in the Moodle forum:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=62602
read in particular the postings of Anthony Borrow and Peter Johnson.
Have fun!