Timed tests

I know I’m not the only one who hates them. Not for the “Oh no, there’s not enough time!” reason, rather the opposite.

When I took my ACT, I sat with a solid 20-30 minutes of spare time after each section. I got a 31 on the test, a 36 (aka, perfect score) on reading.

But thanks to the rules, I could do nothing but sit there and wait a while. A long while. A long, bored while that I’m pretty sure actually made me do worse on the next sections by killing my momentum and forcing my brain into shutdown to avoid rapidly building boredom.

There are two options I see. One-Let students have a damn book. Here’s the system, in fact to ensure no cheating. You have to put your pencil down and hand your answer sheet to the proctor. Then if somehow it reminds you of the formula you forgot…well, too bad. And if it has an answer key somehow, again, too bad.

Or, we drop the restriction on starting the next section. It’s not like one section has answers to the previous section, so why are we waiting? When you’ve done the best you can, move on to the next section. I know people aren’t supposed to go back to previous sections in the current, but hey, they do anyway, so why not work with it?

In fact, throw out the whole section concept. It’s a test. Write it in sections, but no restrictions on starting or ending. You just have 3 hours to take the test, with a break in the middle. When you’re done, turn it in and go home. Go back and forth all you like, because hey, that’s how work and class go in reality anyway.

I know there’s an argument to be made that some people don’t finish all the sections in time of course, or maybe any. Maybe they bump against the time wall. Well, that’s why they apply some time management! It’s a critical life skill, afterall, knowing when to leave something and come back later. If you can’t apply that to a standardized test, you’re going to have real trouble in school and work anyway.