Polly my DD was not told, when doing the Coding subtest of the WPPSI (at 4.5), that it was a race, timed, she had to do as much as she could as fast as she could, or anything like that. She was told HOW to do the task, demonstrated one or two items to prove she understood and then set to it. So she did each item exactly twice (perfectly), and then put down her pencil and watched the timer for the second half of the available time. She scored 10 for what she did (perfectly average score achieved in half the available time with no errors). Once she'd put down the pencil no amount of coaxing would make her do more, but if she'd be told it was a race, or to do as many as she could, or SOMETHING beforehand she almost certainly would have kept going.
Once she'd already decided she'd finished the test perfectly, she so was not going to do anymore. It was obvious to me, as her mother, that she felt doing each one twice and with no errors demonstrated mastery and that was all that was required. The psychologist came up with some completely hair-brained explanation that I can't even remember accurately now. I think she said my DD "was uncertain how to do the rest" Seriously? No errors, each one done exactly twice and you think she doesn't know how to do more identical problems? She's bored witless and was not forewarned that volume or speed mattered. The coding test is completely mind numbing, I wouldn't do more than I had to either.
