In a method and a control device for operating a magnetic resonance imaging system, initially, in a sequence module, multiple slices are excited in an examination object by respective spatially selective RF slice excitation pulses whereby the time between two consecutive of these RF slice excitation pulses defines a first time interval. A preparation block follows the last excitation pulse. The preparation bloc radiates at least one RF refocusing pulse designed so that, for each of the slices, one echo signal is formed. The time interval between two consecutive echo signals is equal to the first time interval. Then, a second RF refocusing pulse is emitted at a second time interval after the last echo signal formed by the preparation block. The second RF refocusing pulse is designed so that, for each of the slices, one further echo signal is formed, and the time interval of two consecutive echo signals is equal to the first time interval. Subsequently, at least one further RF refocusing pulse is emitted at a third time interval after the preceding RF refocusing pulse for producing a number of temporally separated echo signals per refocusing pulse. The third time interval is selected so that the number of echo signals per RF refocusing pulse is twice as high as the number of excited slices.