What Students Are Saying About Timed Tests

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What Students Are Saying About Timed Tests

While the author said that you would not want a surgeon who rushes through a surgery, the opposite is actually true. When a patient is under sedation for too long, the outcomes are often bad. One would not want a surgeon to have your skull open for three days while he/she figures out what to do. Likewise, the accountant example proved the opposite point than that the author made. Taxes are due by a certain day, and if the accountant cannot get them done by that day, there is a penalty.

Timed tests teach children the skills of time management and prepare them for life. Timed tests help us get ready for the very real deadlines of life, deadlines that both sexes, and people of all races will face. The truth is that real life won’t wait for you to finish on your own timelines.

Joseph, Block 1, Hoggard High School

I believe that time pressure does affect students to make silly mistakes under pressure and should be changed to grasp a full understanding of a student’s knowledge. However, with an increase in time, I believe that there should also be an increase in difficulty. For example, with an increase in time on the math section, there should be an increase in difficulty in the questions such as introducing more complex topics like calculus. This way, the knowledge and understanding of a student can be better understood by what they actually know, rather than their knowledge when they are stressed. On the other hand, the time constraint on the tests can show colleges and jobs how that student performs in high stress situations and if they would be a good fit at that institution.

Pranav, Bentonville West High School

Thinking under pressure is a valuable skill in society no matter what career path you choose. Whether it is braking quickly to avoid running a red light, to negotiating a business deal, being able to think on your feet is an underappreciated skill. Timed tests encourage students to think fast, but not necessarily shallow. The time limits allow students to grow in areas that they struggle in to the point where they could do it in their sleep, and definitely under pressure. However, not all skills need to be graded under a time limit. While there is value in working under pressure, there is also value in thinking thoroughly about a topic in a low-pressure environment. A balance between timed and untimed assessments is best for students looking to enter any career, as slow, thorough thinking and fast, skilled thinking are both valued.

Lydia, Bentonville West High School

I can see both sides of this discussion. On the one hand, I agree that in certain situations tight time limits can create additional stress and harm certain students more than others. For more open-ended questions, like writing prompts, time constraints can limit deep thinking or thoughtful responses, with the optimal strategy being to follow a template and use your first thought or initial reaction. However, I can also see the benefit of time limits. In certain situations — namely math — certain skills have the express purpose of shortcutting a long and tedious method. Time limits are also practical for standardized tests. If there is no limit, students will be incentivized to take an exorbitant amount of time to complete the test. Finally, I disagree with Grant’s assertion that speed isn’t correlated with competence or importance in the real world. Speed can reflect how ingrained concepts are in the student’s mind and how efficiently they can be applied.

Liam, Glenbard West High School