I need some help figuring out what kind of help we need! My daughter is very bright and has no trouble at all picking up concepts, especially in math and science. However, she is loosing tons of points on tests because she isn’t reading the questions carefully or making “sloppy” mistakes. She has already been given the advice to slow down, be careful, etc. I am stumped. This is severely hurting her now. Is there any kind of tutor who can help her work on her reading and test taking skills? I’m not even sure what to look for.
Have you seen the tests and questions?
Can you discern anything common among them?
My D used to get math word problems wrong not because her math was off but because they were so poorly worded and open to interpretation.
Its not a problem with the questions. I think she is just reading too quickly and filling int she blanks with what she thinks should be there. The problem is simply telling her to “slow down” hasn’t helped at all. She needs some practice or techniques if something like exists.
D19 has had the same problem which surfaced in junior high…basically a fast brain rushing through things and not paying enough attention to details. In math it resulted in careless, rather than computational errors.
One of her English Junior high teachers helped her slow down her reading, DH and I talked with her about this over a number of years (held post-test taking discussions and analyses), and her ACT tutor also helped finally break this pattern. What the ACT tutor did, because D19 was finishing practice tests so quickly, was to have her literally categorize each question before she answered it. (All test tutors categorize questions, but there isn’t a standard way.) Regardless, this categorization strategy made her slow down her brain and thinking enough to stop making careless mistakes.
In terms of a tutor, maybe start with a reading tutor, but any experienced tutor (subject based, test taking and/or exec functioning) should be able to address this issue.
The reading too fast can be a product of phonics. Kid reads beginning and end of words and skips the middle. The brain leaps to a wrong conclusion of what the word is. My D did this.
The way to correct it is have them read aloud to you on a daily basis—when they say a word wrong have them reread the sentence to correct it. After awhile they’ll learn to slow down a bit and pay more attention.
My DD also had this issue in 8th and 9th grade. For her, it was a two fold problem - she had a fear of running out of time and second, she did so many practice questions that she anticipated what a question said without reading it fully. Her math teacher at the time was totally unconcerned because she clearly understood the concepts and was “just” making sloppy mistakes. It was making DD crazy though because she knew could have been seeing 100% on exams.
We did not use a tutor but she went in after ever test and quiz and analyzed the errors with her math teacher. We also had her put away her phone when doing homework so she wasn’t worrying about timing. She “grew out” of the issue by the end of 9th grade. It was like something finally clicked for her and she found the balance she needed with finishing but being careful.
Not sure what to tell you about the tutor, but wanted you to know you weren’t alone with this issue.
@gouf78 Interesting that you mentioned reading alound. She never makes these mistakes when she reads alound only when reading in her head. When she has had the opportunity to take a test alone in a room (for example a make up test), she always does well because she actually reads the questions aloud to herself, but she can’t do that on a real test. I feel like there is some sort of solution here but I can’t find it. She is not looking for any special accomodation and will be going to college next year and so we need to fix this now.
Is there a possibility that her difficulty is a visual perceptual processing one? Have worksheets been a challenge from the beginning? If it is a longstanding observation that this is particularly hard for her, having an assessment before deciding on the best help may make sense.
Whatever it is, a good tutor (reading perhaps) should be able to observe how she tackles the page and help her develop more effective approaches. Does she miss details when reading books as well or is this only evident when taking tests? As reading becomes more dense, it may be more evident outside of tests.
I think it is “smart kids hit a wall” syndrome. As in smart kids get by along time on picking up concepts easily and being able to anticipate answers when things are straightforward (and not really having to study). At some point, concepts and testing is more complex. My D sees it with her smarter kids in 3rd grade - they think they know what she wants and do what they think is right without reading instructions. IMO, this is the best time to catch it, when it doesn’t really impact them.
When D2 was studying for SAT and did review work, I realized she was missing questions because she picked the first one that seemed right- reading too fast. Had to go back and show her how to read over, then read questions, then go back and read again. Realized she was skimming and then just reading what she thought the question referred to. At closer look, the questions involved closely reading the reference paragraph and several preceding to get the actual answer, not just skimming and then trying to pick out one sentence that contained answer.
(As aside, I think lots of smart kids struggle in college because they didn’t develop study skills in HS because just being in class and paying attention was enough.)
How old is your daughter?
My son had the same problem in middle school. We dealt with it by checking every single one of his math homeworks and telling him which problems were wrong without telling why, then he had to redo them. This was so annoying he eventually started paying more attention
I’m studying for a professional certification exam myself right now and noticed I do the same thing on practice tests - read too fast, jump to a conclusion, and pick the wrong answer. It actually seems to be more of a problem for me when the question is on a subject that I know well, because then I get overconfident.
Based on my horrendously bad practice test results where half the questions I got wrong were “easy” ones that I should’ve answered correctly, I made a couple changes to my behavior. In some cases I’ll embrace my behavior and skim through the question and pick an answer, but then I go through the question again while asking myself “why is my answer wrong?” In essence reframing the question so mentally I approach it from a different angle.
Another thing I do is take a pencil/pointer and physically move it along the question as I read it “aloud” in my head. That is, actually using my mental voice to sound out each word at the same pace as if I was reading it aloud. It’s a technique I use for practicing timing and memorization on presentations because I don’t like talking aloud to myself. This really helps me to slow down and process exactly what the question is asking. I do tend to get a little spike of anxiety each time I slow down to do this due to concerns about time, but that’s eased up as I’ve done a few practice tests and realized I have plenty of time.
Can she pretend to read aloud while taking the test, move her lips, etc, but no sound comes out of her mouth? Or if a sound does come out it is a very low whisper that no one else hears?
In middle school S2 had a similar problem. He was rushing through because A) he wanted to be done with the test and B) because his middle school brain and ego seemed to feel he could stop reading the question as soon as HE read enough to get the gist of what was being asked. He also decided he didn’t need to write the answer on the given line, but rather next to the question.
His counselor got involved and they jointly agreed that after reading the questions he would say to himself “the question being asked of me is …” He fought having to make this change, but when threatened with not being able to take the advanced math the following year he corrected his attitude.
For him I think it was a period of being overly confident, some laziness and bit of brattiness. Everything turned out well.
How old is your daughter? A tutor can help with test taking strategies that will reduce errors. I would not completely rule out the possibility of an underlying issue causing her challenges. My oldest D had similar issues and after much frustration we finally had her evaluated upon the recommendations of our pediatrician. Once we identified her attention issues, we were able to get her the help she needed. I’m not saying this has to be something more than carelessness but we wasted years assuming it was.
We had an experience similar to that of @kjon . Advising our S to simply “slow down” was not working. What we found was that he needed a “strategy” to execute. In his case we developed a strategy where he would re-read each question identifying key words. Later, he modified his strategy to underline key words or phrases. Worked well for him.
What is a “ton of points”? Is she capable of getting 100% and she gets 85% or is she capable of getting 90% and gets 70%? Are you trying to get her to ace tests or pass them? I was a math tutor for years and I feel this is a common problem with bright kids - it has more to do with attention than with math. It’s boring to do the detail work and they aready know how to do the problem so they work too fast on the dull stuff to stay interested. I was the same way in high school and I only “slowed down” once math got harder in college (I was a math major). Can she listen to music while she works or drink coffee or anything else that helps her to concentrate more carefully on the boring parts of a problem? IMO she doesn’t need a tutor at all, she needs a coping strategy.
Reading to fast as I skipping lines. Vision therapy works great. Works for comprehension also. Have a great person suburbs of Chicago.
Take a piece of paper and have your kid read line by line and blocking the other lines so they can practice concentrating on what they are reading.
If this is for Act or the like… Practice “timing” of the tests. We did this with an Act tutor. He was great and my son got faster and faster without losing the comprehension.
As in smart kids get by along time on picking up concepts easily and being able to anticipate answers when things are straightforward (and not really having to study). At some point, concepts and testing is more complex. My D sees it with her smarter kids in 3rd grade - they think they know what she wants and do what they think is right without reading instructions. IMO, this is the best time to catch it, when it doesn’t really impact them.