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I am advocating that exams allow the students to use the textbook, at least, as a reference and the tests allow for the expert students to be done quickly and the less expert students to use the entire allocated time. Learning how to research a correct answer is more important than memorizing the information incorrectly.
You have to look at education and testing abstractly and not as it relates to work. Speed and accuracy are requirements for industrial labor and some jobs that are increasingly being replaced by machines. When you test a student what is the desired outcome? If student A finished an exam in 40 minutes and student B finished the exam in 90 minutes but they both got 100% is student A smarter than student B?
I can personally think of too many instances where a guarantee of 100% accuracy is more important than speed. Speed is a by product of habituation and comes naturally to many who stay in their field of endeavour. When I was teaching I couldn't help but to feel that testing was more for accountability and less a viable marker or guide of student success.
I am advocating that exams allow the students to use the textbook, at least, as a reference and the tests allow for the expert students to be done quickly and the less expert students to use the entire allocated time. Learning how to research a correct answer is more important than memorizing the information incorrectly.
I have to disagree. Knowing how to find an answer, while important, is not the same as learning. Once you find the information, knowing how to use it is key.
True learning and mastery of a subject is being able to take what one has learned and apply it to a different situation or question. That's what tests should be about not just the ability to look up something in a textbook.
You have to look at education and testing abstractly and not as it relates to work. Speed and accuracy are requirements for industrial labor and some jobs that are increasingly being replaced by machines. When you test a student what is the desired outcome? If student A finished an exam in 40 minutes and student B finished the exam in 90 minutes but they both got 100% is student A smarter than student B?
If you use your computer to perform an intensive statistical analysis that takes it 30 minutes, and then you get a new computer that performs the same analysis with the same results in 15 minutes, is it a better computer?
If you use your computer to perform an intensive statistical analysis that takes it 30 minutes, and then you get a new computer that performs the same analysis with the same results in 15 minutes, is it a better computer?
We have more absolutes when dealing with machines than we do with people. How much more would you pay for a computer that accomplished the same task in half the time? We know they both work at 100% percent and deliver the exact same outcome. People don’t always work at 100%. If a Quarter back threw 2 touchdowns with the flu is he not as good, the same, or better than a healthy Quarter back who threw 4 touchdowns under identical conditions? If it was a test which quarter back would you say is better? Speed is a fundamental prerequisite for a machine. So we can’t compare their value with people in regard to speed.
Last edited by thriftylefty; 09-29-2016 at 01:01 PM..
I am advocating that exams allow the students to use the textbook, at least, as a reference and the tests allow for the expert students to be done quickly and the less expert students to use the entire allocated time. Learning how to research a correct answer is more important than memorizing the information incorrectly.
A valid point, although I wouldn't call using a textbook research.
Once when I was teaching community college full time, at the end of the term when I was about to hand in grades the Basketball Coach called me and told me that he was sending over one of his guys who was going take my final because he was short a few credits to be eligible to play next semester. A polite seven foot fellow came by and I handed him a book and the final and he aced the exam. It took him about two and a half hours. I gave him the A (on the test) and had to contemplate was he smarter than the A student who took the test in one hour but had over 40 hours of instruction to acquire the knowledge.
I believe that timed tests are unfair. I personally do not like the stress of being rushed in anything in my life and being rushed on a test would have a bad affect my performance,plus there are many people who have learning disabilities where they qualify for extra time on tests, as well as those who do not do well on tests who would be helped if the added stress of a time limit were not there. Timed tests do not make education better. I believe the are unnecessary and should be done away with.
As some of my greatest teachers would have said, This post is full of bellyaching.
If you understand the information very well, you'll be able to answer the questions quickly. If it takes a long time to consider the answers, then the information is not very accessible to you, and may easily be lost. If the teacher just wants to see how well you studied and paid attention in class, then it doesn't matter if you can answer quickly. But if they want to know how strongly the facts are engrained in your brain, a timed test is a good idea.
I recently did some IQ and knowledge testing, and some of the tests were timed. The idea here is to see how many answers you can get in before the time runs up. I think that's a good idea (although perfectionism can slow you down if it causes you to keep double-checking your answers.)
However, I don't really like the idea of giving people diagnosed with certain learning disabilities a pass to have extra time on their tests. It is good for some people, but there are too many people that seek a learning disability diagnosis just so they can get a little advantage over their peers this way. That's not fair to others.
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Should Timed Tests Be Done Away With?
