Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Timed Math Tests

Just a quick message to see if other folks out there are dealing with timed math facts tests and how do your kids react to them. The public school where my DS8 is enrolled requires that the kids have 94% accuracy on math fluency tests (facts up to 13 I think)by the end of the marking period. Does anyone have experience with these kinds of tests, what explanations have you gotten from the school district or teachers on the purpose of them, and what do you do if your child knows their facts, but doesn't have the speed or desire really to do the practicing?
I really think this is making my son hate math and he was doing all this in his head years ago.
Thanks,
moni

We had to deal with this at both private and charter school.
My HG kid hated those with a passion, albeit he WAS fast on them.
My advice is to take practice tests at home (they are only a minute long - correct?)and just not to stress about it.
In our experience kids were not graded on them , they just had to achieve a certain fluency to go to the next level.
There is going to be more of "those stupid things" as you go along, so brace yourself.
As for the kid's lack of desire - well, you know your kid best

i would suggest talking to the teacher. My son's 3rd graders teacher said it's a love /hate thing with timed tests. She gave the kids the option to be timed or not at home. The purpose is when they get to 3 digit math it's easier. good luck

Oh how I hate these! DD is in 2nd grade and they have to do 100 problems in 5 min. We have the tests at least 2X a week. Once addition, once subtraction. She passes them, but the teacher told me some kids get so worked up over them that they sweat and everything. My dd gets anxious from them. I think once they pass them they should be exempt from doing them anymore,but NOPE! Repetition is crazy at school.

Timed math fact tests have really been a pain to my ds9, last year and this year (and 2nd grade, too). He knows the concepts, and can recalculate the answers but just doesn't seem to enjoy memorizing. He got his times tables pretty good towards the end of last year, thanks to timezattack and a good teacher, he was actually asking for the quizzes (360 degree turnaround from the fall of that year!). He ended the year loving math and getting straight A's.

Now it seems like he is starting all over
He just doesn't like to practice them and I guess he dumped all that info out of his brain over the summer as 'inconsequential'. Anyway, we've been having a few discussions about just doing the practice, whether timezattack or with me, as this does seem to be key to becoming an inventor or whatever sciency thing he envisions.
On the 'meet the teacher' day I gave her a note which stated all this - he hates the rote memorization, he is totally rusty on the times tables, although he was solid on them previously, and he will just need practice. I asked her to try to avoid having him become 'desperately discouraged', as he is the type to bemoan his fate at the slightest faltering and declare that he 'hates' Math. So far this year, at least I have him saying ' I hate MATH COMPUTATION!', or 'I hate these TIMED MATH FACTS!'

(And I keep him supplied with puzzles and books that are mathy/sciency for fun reading to keep the math bug going, as I do believe he really does enjoy Math, outside of those darn fact sheets! )

Thanks everyone for your responses to my post. Ania- yes the practice ones are only a minute and there is a good website called wildmath.com which we've been using to practice.
The tests in class are the 3 minute ones with 72 problems on them.
I did send an e-mail to the teacher expressing my son's feelings and even asking for more info. on why the district requires the timed tests. She did forward my e-mail on to the school's math coach who I haven't heard back from yet. The teacher did say that they only do them once a week (one sub. and one addition like your DD bh14 and like you I think repetition is so crazy, especially for gifted kids who don't need that much.
DS8 is in a self contained gifted class for the whole district and they are still required to do them which I feel isn't quite right.
Thanks again,
Moni