Accuracy and Speed?

[Cat90]

Good evening, can you help please with the following question:

How do you help a child to pick up speed along side the accuracy? At the moment my DS1 is doing well with extra 5-6mns per test paper but within 50mns for 85 questions his scores is lower.

Looking forward to reading your feedback.

[muminTewkes]

Hi
For us it literally has been practice.DS1's scores havent increased greatly tbh-but his speed has.Its just kind of evolved and he knows in his head now how long he has had and roughly where he should be.
We've only done maybe 5/6 full test papers and hes gone from taking @ an hour to 40 mins with ease.As I said,his scores have remained pretty constant though.
We did a few quickfire ones,8 mins for example,and these seemed to help the speed alot.I think it just gets easier the more they do!oh and the mock exam he did-he flew through,quicker than ever before,the adrenaline helped i think and of course it was "real" !good luck!

[Glparent]

Agree with mumintewkes - it just sort of fell into place with practice. Have to confess with DD1 speed was our main concern and for months before she'd be getting around 85% correct but missing last 2 or 3 sets of questions. We did find stepping up practice to two papers back to back (with break & snack in between as per real thing) really did focus her and the speed just came. Also DD worked with timer in front of her and tried doing papers with time counting up as well as down.

Is he missing out certain question types or simply working through and not getting to the end few? If former you could do some work just on those types to boost confidence, rather than constantly focusing on the timing. Sort of a distraction for both of you! All in all it will probably just click into place but I understand your frustration & sympathise!
Best of luck & let us know how you go.

[Cat90]

Thank you for your replies! He finishes the full paper every time but he's rushing some of the questions and therefore making silly mistakes.

I've read on this site (I think from Patricia) that there are certain questions that are best to be left to last because it takes longer to do them and I therefore was wondering if other parents might like to share other tips on speed and accuracy.

[muminTewkes]

Its been HARD to get ds to leave any question-as he is a bit of a perfectionist and hates to be "beaten"
He does move on now if there is one he is getting over and will come back to it at the end(now he has perfected the speed thing and has a chance to check)
We never have really left anything aside from the Z types,but even then,not really-its not a bad plan,but depends on your child!!!!
I agree with pp too,about checking its not certain types that are causing the problem.We've just really started focussing on any little issues-for us its bl**dy compound words(of all things!)that gets him every time!!!we've been doing mini tests on just those kind-thats helped too.

[turtleglos]

I have always counted my son down with halfway, 10 mins,5 mins and 1minute warnings. At the beginning I would lie and add 5mins without him knowing, gradually reducing this. He can now finish a 100 word paper in under 43 mins,usually scoring well.Any words he has struggled with we discuss at a later time when he is feeling ready. I also tell him how hard I thought those papers were so that his confidence stays high .
We are now doing 2 papers a week back to back with a 15 min break so that he gets used to concentrating for a long time.
He also spends 20mins a day looking up and learning new words that his tutor sets him so his vocab is improving every day.
I still cant get him to leave the long questions untill last though

[muminTewkes]

I have always counted my son down with halfway, 10 mins,5 mins and 1minute warnings. At the beginning I would lie and add 5mins without him knowing, gradually reducing this. He can now finish a 100 word paper in under 43 mins,usually scoring well.Any words he has struggled with we discuss at a later time when he is feeling ready. I also tell him how hard I thought those papers were so that his confidence stays high .
We are now doing 2 papers a week back to back with a 15 min break so that he gets used to concentrating for a long time.
He also spends 20mins a day looking up and learning new words that his tutor sets him so his vocab is improving every day.
I still cant get him to leave the long questions untill last though

I count down too...oh and I also tell him I thought the paper was hard....because I thought it was!lol!
The compound word list on the free downloads is great for vocab-as is the free rice site.
Seems alot of (boys in particular)have a problem leaving questions!

[EmeraldE]

One tip you could try is to time him on each section of questions. This quickly identifies where the time is being eaten up. Quite often it is codes, long questions and sequences which take the time (especially at the start).

I agree with many of the other posters that good timing comes with familarisation and practice. I advise DS not to waste time pondering over long questions (type 21) nor sequences which he cannot spot relatively easily.

Also no day dreaming, picking nails, fiddling with a sharpner, counting the floor tiles nor any other distraction he deems necessary!!

[turtleglos]

free rice is amazing! My ds1 was unsure about countries and capitals and this has helped a lot. although some seem to be a little obscure.

[Milla]

I agree that boys, well, my DS2 anyway, don't like the leaving of questions so I just left mine to do it how he wanted - could foresee ghastly scenarios of endlessly fumbling back and forwards through the pages looking for the ones left out, ditto hours of hunting for the answer slot. He would just go through in complete order and, horrors, finished 10 mins early on each paper. a couple of months before the test he would take 10 mins more so I agree with EE and Glp that it just comes when it comes.
stomach churning on behalf of you all.