Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment question about test taking speed

My dd6's teacher talked to me this morning about the speed at which she takes her tests...or should I say lack of speed. She takes so long that everyone else is done and she's still working. Apparently they're done in like 40 min. and she's taking 2 hours!! It's not that she doesn't know the material...he and I both think she's afraid to get any wrong. She always gets 90's and 100's on everything. I guess I just never realized that it took her that long to finish. Anyway, he's not worried about that for weekly test, benchmarks etc, because they can take as much time as they want. His concern, and mine, are the Calif. state tests because they are timed. He's afraid she will only finish half of the test and it won't reflect what she really knows. I spoke with her when we got home and she said that she just is thinking and doing her best!! Of course she is...poor thing. I don't want her to think she's doing something wrong.

Any strategies to gradually help her speed up would be appreciated!!

TIA, Laura

I just noticed this question...we have speed issues with our ds on certain things. Mainly math fact stuff, and frankly so far we haven't found a whole lot of help for this *yet*, but I am hopeful as I consider more his personal learning style and other factors.

Is your dd in 1st? Giving 6 year olds an hour long (or 45 minute long) test seems a bit odd. Even in 3rd my ds tests appear to be around 20 minutes, based on what he brings home. In first I would not imagine a test lasting more than 10 minutes. What are they trying to test? How many questions are on these tests??

I could definitely see my ds getting completely lost in his own thoughts during a test that long, unless it was really interesting and had tons of questions. If he had two or three of these a week...hm.

Might it be possible that she is finishing ahead and going back to recheck? Has the teacher actually observed that she is sitting on page 2 of a 4 page test when the other kids are wrapping up? (and the other two pages are blank?)

When you study with her, do you feel she is responding in an fairly quick manner, or do you notice some lag in responding?

Good luck, hopefully others can chime in with actual ideas to help

Thanks Crisc-

She's actually in third grade and the test that he was referring to are the 6 week benchmark tests. They are not timed, but the other children generally finish in about 40 minutes. She also has weekly tests for Open Court and spelling, and math tests just whenever they finish a unit. He is concerned because apparently the Calif. State tests are timed. I need to confirm this from him though. He is just worried that she will not finish and her score will not reflect what she has learned.

She's usually pretty focused, but that is a long time for anyone to sit and take a test. She always scores 90- 100 on everything so I know she is just making sure she does it right, which is a good thing! I told her that is was ok if she sped up a little even if the grade went down for awhile. This way she doesn't think we're going to be mad at her for it. She takes it very personally if she doesn't do well on a test:( She does let it go quickly though when we talk about it. Also, they take timed multiplication fact (100 problems in 4 min.) tests daily and she is passing them usually every week and a half to two weeks. She has gotten a lot faster at these as the year goes on.

I don't usually study with her so I'm not sure about the lag time in answering. I do know that when she is doing H/W she tends to take a lot of time. So it doesn't surprise me that he said this.

Also, I signed her up last week for the SCAT, which is timed! I don't know how that will pan out because she probably won't have time to answer all of the questions. But, if nothing else, it will give her good test taking experience!!

Thanks, Laura

I know boys and girls are different, but my DS6 (who usually gets distracted when expected to keep doing problems ... and quickly) really responded to video game type math facts. There are some at funbrain.com, and arcademicskillbuilders.com; DS seems to especially like racing or space versions.
I heard that Timez Attack is good, but I haven't tried it because you have to buy it to get the full version...might be good to start with the lower numbers and see if she likes it.

Yeah! Look what I found this morning. "The CSTs are untimed tests, but almost all students should complete the tests within the times listed. Each test part must be administered in a single sitting with no breaks. However, if some students are actively working on a test when time is called, they must be allowed time to complete it." This is the wording straight from the Calif. Dept. of Ed. so I will bring it up to the teacher this afternoon.

She still needs to speed up so that she doesn't take forever, but at least she will be allowed to finish it.

Thanks for the help!

Laura

Sounds like it won't be a problem (yay!), but I wanted to throw in my two cents anyway DS at 6 was slooooooooooooowwwww. Well, at least it seemed that way -- and I think a lot of it was that he was working on stuff that wasn't really aimed at 6 year olds, but something that should have taken an hour could easily go on for a week. He's 9 now, and although I still have that mindset I've had to stop saying he's slow because somewhere in there he really picked up the pace! I didn't do anything to nudge it along, so I'm putting my money on "maturity".

Thanks for your post, Erica! I'm hoping for that to happen with DS7, too. He's only slightly faster than the average 7yo according to testing, and he's working on stuff that is significantly harder than that which the average 7yo would be doing. So I'm hoping that as he matures, he will get at least a little faster.

You give me hope!

Well in the end, I'd rather be coaching a child to answer and move on - then trying to remind all the time it is better to be right than fast. Perfectionism is a burden or joy my husband and daughter share :-) I should occasionally have such a complaint. I'm more with better DONE than perfect (but my life as a stay at home doesn't really require lots of rights and wrongs - socks are in your drawer and their yours is as close to perfect as we're looking).