<p>My DD is a great student but in exams she always leaves unanswered questions because she runs out of time. So of course she gets a lower score than what is correct reflection of her abilities. She says she needs time to answer questions and if she writes faster she will make mistakes. What advice would you give her? How can I help her overcome this weakness in testing skills? She is in high school and this problem appeared only after we moved her from an easy school which gave easy tests to a much more demanding prep school. She does well in quizzes throughout the year (A+ always) but for final exams she is never able to finish on time.
Thank you for any advise.</p>
<p>Does the subject matter? Is it mostly on essay tests where she runs out of time, or is it in math and science, too?</p>
<p>“She is in high school and this problem appeared only after we moved her from an easy school which gave easy tests to a much more demanding prep school. She does well in quizzes throughout the year (A+ always) but for final exams she is never able to finish on time.”</p>
<p>Has she been screened for test-induced anxiety, slow processing speeds, and dyslexia? Since this happened when she moved to a tougher school, she may have hit her “wall”, and previously un-identified learning issues may have been revealed by the new environment. Each of these issues has a work-around, but until she knows what her issue is, no one will be able to help her determine which work-around is the right one.</p>
<p>You’re associating doing well in tests is = to having enough time. If that’s the case, then the answer is this. She’s a perfectionists: She works and works and works on one problem and then runs out of time to finish. Test taking skills are also about time management. Best way to learn this is to practice. Read faster. Maybe she could read the questions before reading the passage, which some swear by.</p>
<p>Yes, you could probably get your dd diagnosed with some factor that will “explain” why she’s running out of time, but the truth of the matter is that she needs to practice. She needs to divide the time up so that she allows only a certain amount of time for easy, medium, and hard questions.</p>