This was a very refreshing listen. One thing I’ve loved about you is your “take what works for you, leave the rest” advice. Thank you for saying there is no, one WAY. *That* seems to be the major stumbling block. People are wanting a sure fire WAY and need to hear THERE ISN’T ONE.

I love the podcast! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This topic is very much appreciated!

I can't wait!

I teach 7th grade Latin. Post-COVID we have more students with anxiety, along with the general upward trend of students with numerous learning differences. Over the last few years I’ve just shifted my teaching style to provide all students with “extended time” on quizzes and tests. It’s not hurting students at the top—they’ll finish when they finish as usual and move on to the next activity (planning on my part). Those needing or wanting extra time have it, without the stress or anxiety of feeling like they’re timed.

Sorry, but much of that frankly sounds like yet another load of edubabble crap intended to cripple performance measures to the detriment of high-performing students. While tests shouldn’t be such a time crush that most students need to race through, there needs to be sensible limits for both student, teacher, and the rest of the class if it’s a schoolroom setting. That’s the way people are expected to work in the real world and equally. Most bosses don’t give “Mary” extra time compared to her colleagues because they know “she is so smart she takes longer to do things”. So no, one should not get unlimited time to solve a page of basic math skills problems. If you understand the material, you can solve them reasonably quickly, say one-half the speed of the very fastest student. Getting unlimited time is a disservice to all.

I know I am going to totally get trashed by my opinion, but I will state it anyway. My kids were incredibly slow with time tests, and they also felt a lot of anxiety anytime I gave them something timed. (I think this is normal and common!) My children also have multiple learning challenges (ADHD, ASD, Dyslexia, Sensory processing disorder, etc. etc.). So to put it mildly, they were not naturally quick or gifted at working under any type of pressure. However, I knew in the back of my mind that this was an important skill to build in my children. You see, the value I saw in time tests was NOT learning multiplication facts or being "quick"; it was learning to deal with a reasonable amount of pressure without collapsing. I looked at it as a way to build resiliency. We often shy away from things that add stress to our children's lives, but learning to deal with a bit of stress is a GOOD thing. So I worked at the skill of resiliency very gently over years and years. I would give them pep talks before we started. I would remind them that this WAS a hard task, but that "they could do hard things!" I would tell them a story about their future selves so they could envision how strong they were going to be. Fast forward to the high school / college days: When their peers around them are FILLED with anxiety about things and collapsing under pressure, my kids just smile and don't feel so much stress. They have strong roots. They were able to join the debate team...and write speeches and arguments in under 2 minutes. (And while the rest of the debaters were SO stressed, my kids actually enjoyed it because they were resilient.). They were able to compete and do well in math competitions and so many other things. SAT and ACT tests do not stress them out either. Looking back, I am glad that we did lots of gentle things that caused just a wee bit of stress. Being quick wasn't the goal, but learning to deal with a normal amount of stress was. 🙂

I graduated valedictorian of my class and I still remember my guidance counselor telling me that my sub par standardized test skills would impact my scholarships. I have vivid memories of extreme anxiety blurring any knowledge that I had on the day of the test. This pressure in test taking (grade school included) was a huge factor in our decision to homeschool.

“It’s time we stop confusing quick with smart.” and the opposite - it’s time we started recognizing and affirming that actually being *able* to slow down in our world of faster is better builds enormous fortitude and confidence. This is an excellent article and I will be pondering how to help my homeschooled daughter practice the age old morale of slow and steady wins the race.

I discovered that the standardized test I use for my homeschool assessments has a “no time limit” option. We pick it every year.

Love this analysis! I am a woman later in my career. I have a PhD in engineering and have learned and used a lot of math. What is odd is that I have extreme difficulty even today with simple addition and subtraction that I trace back to the stress of timed tests. It caused a lot of anxiety that was unnecessary. I do think better when I slow down and I can solve applied problems in real-time (and even enjoy driving as one mentioned above). However, I appreciate the calculator that helps me through the low level detail of addition and subtraction. It was always easier for me to do algebra and calculus. Why try to weed out high performers early?

Such a good article.. Thank you !

In the UK, we encountered a very serious problem with cheating on assessments other than examinations. Teachers, heads, tutors and parents were doing the work for the students, as the final grades had a value that could be translated into lifetime earnings. This is a most perceptive article, but the underlying problem cannot be ignored. An American friend on my MA course in London, now a famous author, put it this way - "If life's a game, I'm cheatin'." Those who can, do. Those who can't, cheat...

I agree 💯. I know so many kids, one of mine included, with a large disparity between aptitude and processing speed. These highly knowledgeable and deep thinkers need time to process and clearly articulate their thoughts. My son would completely reason through each answer. I tried to teach him once you think “it can’t be A bc” you don’t finish the thought, you move to B. He couldn’t do it. Hd had to finish that thought. Now he’s the person I want building bridges or airplanes!!!

I imagine teachers may appreciate being able to hone tests to check on understanding or mastery with specific questions, and enough time for the students to work the problems, etc., rather than create enough questions to fill every 30 second time slot of a shorter test, forcing the kids to work faster and less accurately.

I love that my NYT subscription lets me gift articles I'd like to share with someone, but I had no idea I could do that on Facebook, too. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

As soon as a clock is involved, my super-smart (but anxious!) kid shuts down. I had crippling test anxiety during high school and college which I know affected my ability to perform on tests.

There was a wonderful discussion in the AP Calculus Facebook group about the importance of not focusing on the timed aspect of the exam until the spring. Give students a chance to learn without pressure. Being able to do the work quickly will come later.

This is so true! Timed tests are also terrible for brilliant people who just have slightly slower processing speeds. My mild-mannered 9th grader who loves math and is good at it will still give you an earful if you ask about the timed multiplication tests she had to take in 3rd grade....

Here here! Give students a chance to show what they know and time to think! I remember when one of my children was in 1st grade, the teacher placed a timer on her desk to encourage her to work faster - for everyday work, not just tests; she did that to another child too. The teacher didn't think much of the intellect of either one of them. In subsequent years, they were both identified as gifted. The school in general just seemed to want everything done quickly and rewarded speed. I remember thinking - those children just don't have time to even think. One of my favorite children's books -- the Magic School Bus -- goes back in time to see Sir Isaac Newton sitting under a tree -- doing nothing-- but Ms. Frizzle points out that he is doing something very important - he is thinking! And tests, yes, for the love of God, give them time to finish and show what they know.

Jaclyn Haynie

Amy Truax McLagan

Standardized testing is always going to have flaws. It is standardized, not designed to pull out each students potential. Do I think the times exclude some excellent thinkers? Sure. The opposite will hold true, though. Would complete lack of pressure time limit then result in a measure that somehow leaves out another aspect that sets some students apart? Yes. There are professions where we need speed and professions we do not, so the work example in the article is only partially applicable. Again Standardized testing is only a portion of a student. Grades, essays, interviews, and community involvement give an overall picture. I think all situations provide positive learning and taught my children to look for those things. Not finishing a test, taught you had some limitations. Sometimes limitations can be over come by working harder, learning new techniques. Sometimes you just have limitations and that is ok, too. We don't do each other favors changing standards unless they are crippling and this article does nothing to prove that the standards have keft society bereft of our most intelligent due to time limits on tests.

"You wouldn’t want a surgeon who rushes through a craniectomy, or an accountant who dashes through your taxes." Maybe not, but I do want an ER doctor who can stop a hemorrhage before I bleed out and an accountant who can finish my taxes before the filing deadline. There needs to be a balance between taking your time to thoroughly work through something and knowing when good enough for now is good enough because it needs to be done now. As a performing musician, I have to be able to think and work in real time. If I'm giving a solo recital, I have the luxury of playing a phrase exactly how I think it should go in the time I'd like it to take. If I tried to do that in an orchestra, I wouldn't last long. It's also a skill every single person needs to possess to get behind the wheel of a car and drive on public roads. Driving can be anxiety inducing, but if you can't get up to speed to merge on the highway at the speed of traffic, we're all going to have a problem. There are any number of times in life where you will need to slow down and take your time and any other number of times you will have to get going and get it done. Wisdom is in knowing which is which. We can't throw out one or the other, we have to be willing to teach kids how to determine which kind of situation they are facing and how to function both with and without time pressures.

I agree that untimed tests are often more fair. However, fluency can only be measured with a timed test, so when the purpose of a test is to see what kids can do easily, sometimes it makes sense to see how many math fact flash cards they can get through in 2 minutes or how fast they can read a passage aloud. For kids with slow processing speeds, the results of this kind of test may always be lower than their peers, but if that's used to inform instruction, it's valuable information. Context matters, imo.

Tenth grade math, almost three decades ago, I had a “girls can’t do math” teacher who had upper-level timed tests. I was an A+ student who studied hard, but I simply could not finish his tests on time. I tried everything before mid year, when I swallowed my pride and begged for more time. It was killing my grade and my love of math. I was starting a downward spiral which I never recovered from. He told me to “study harder.” I looked at him in disbelief- I knew the stuff thoroughly, I just couldn’t do it that fast. I was not the only one; he used time to thin the As. Two years later, a girl who was handicapped-rated due to a twisted leg received additional time. If only I had a handicap! Nothing was wrong with her hand or brain! So while I disagree with this in some sense, I have experienced teachers who think they should use time this way, and it does not promote a love of learning. That was the year I gave up on being a mathematician as a possibility. A teacher told me that speed was a major factor and I didn’t measure up.

There are loads of computer games for math and they seem to always have timers. It used to stress the heck out of my kiddos! I had to find ones that allowed you to turn the timers off or at least slow them down considerably. It was always frustrating to me that most math games had this as I thought games would be the best way to practice things like multiplication tables, which take so much time to memorize. I imagine this is still the case but my kids are grown now and I haven’t looked into math games for many years.

"They evaluate students as if they’re applying to join a bomb squad or appear on Jeopardy. Time pressure rewards students who think fast and shallow — and punishes those who think slow and deep..." Love these lines. I would add that time pressure can be a good measure of recall, but not necessarily of problem-solving (as the article argues--I agree). I wonder if the parts of a test that measure recall could be fairly narrowly timed and more time could be allotted for multi-step problem-solving?

Great read 👏 Elisa Palm - thought you might appreciate this!