Slow Test Taking? Struggling or Just Slow?

[kraphysics]

Maybe I'm just dumb but one thing I've found is that I am really slow at taking tests. Even when I know the material and understand how to do every problem on a test, I still take up the entire time. I rarely finish early or if I do, I'm not satisfied. Is anyone else like that? Does it mean I'm an idiot or just slow?
When I do know my stuff, I generally do well even though I don't finish early but it really sucks because some other people are done half way through and people think they're geniuses where as most just assume I am struggling because I hand them in late even though many times I am not.

 

[Iclaudius]

Who cares what other people think? You say you're doing well. I don't see an issue here. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[FredericGos]

It does NOT mean you are dumb.

I'm like that too. I normally understand stuff more slowly than my colleagues, but tend to, in the end, understand stuff more deeply. In the end, they come back to me to understand things better... ;) I know that's weird but true.

There are many anecdotes about the famous physicist Niels Bohr. He was a notoriously slow thinker, but given time, he had deeper insight than most.

I think it's probably just the way some brains work.

 

[Nikitin]

i am also often slow. I did notice, however, that the more I understand the subject the faster I finish the test. mostly.

 

[ideasrule]

I used to ALWAYS be one of the last people to finish a test, mostly because I liked to think through every question in extreme detail. Usually a few people would manage to finish 15 minutes early, but they always scored far worse than me, probably because they didn't understand the material well enough to think about it in any detail.

 

[KingNothing]

It doesn't mean you are dumb, but it could potentially get in the way at some point. There are many exams (ACT, FE, etc.) where time is a limiting factor. There are a lot of "shortcuts" you can take depending on the type of exam.

 

[micromass]

Thinking fast is handy skill to have, I think I can be considered as a fast thinker. However, thinking fast/slow has nothing to do with knowledge or being dumb. I've had some professors who were really slow thinkers, but I actually thought they were the smartest professors I had...

 

[thegreenlaser]

I'm fairly quick at finishing tests, but that's mostly due to test-taking skills I've picked up from writing engineering tests, which are notoriously time-pressured in my school. In most cases I'm a very slow thinker, and I need time for things to absorb. I was always one of those kids who did really well in math/science from grade 1 onwards. However, when it came to things like "Mad Minutes" (where you had to try and finish as many addition/subtraction/multiplication/division problems as you could in a minute) I always did very poorly. We would sometimes play board games where you had to race against someone else to write the answer on the board and I invariably lost those. Even now, when things like "What's 23*7?" come up, my friends who aren't in math/science generally beat me to the correct answer. However, all that doesn't mean that I'm bad at math, I'm just slow. I can generally tackle much harder problems than other people, I just have to spend some time pondering. Being slow doesn't mean you're stupid, and it doesn't even mean you'll do poorly, it just means you're slow. Don't worry about what other people think about you or themselves. It may be that people are thinking you're stupid, but you know you're not stupid, and if they ever get to know you well enough that you need to worry about their opinion of you, they'll know you well enough to know that you're smart. Besides, in my school, I would say the vast majority of the people who get the really high GPA's (like 3.6+) will stay in a test until the very end, carefully making sure that they do well.

 

[aim1732]

Fast thinking is good as long as you grasp,consciously or unconsciously,what comes to you.Taking time to absorb things indicates you like to understand things deeper than mist people.That's good.Trust me,I have seen so many toppers who ace tests in no time but have a shamefully shallow sense of understanding of the topic of the test.

 

[Haldhad]

I'm dyslexic, I have to do that, if I don't reread the question so that I can make sure I haven't misunderstood it I fail a lot. Luckily most universities will allow for it and so give you extra time. I rarely need it but it is the same buffer most people get when they finish really fast. I'm not being given an unfair advantage in my opinion, I'm just being given an even break. Ironically some problems that require visualisation rather than implicit understanding I finish much faster than most people, but meh who knows what's going to be in an exam.

 

[kraphysics]

Well actually, I find that my brain sort of adapts to each test. If the test is long then I spend less time on each question and finish on time.. If the test is short, I just sort of relax and ponder on each question more while still finishing on time. I think it's not that I think slow but rather I get too comfortable taking tests sometimes. lol does that make any sense?

 

[Haldhad]

Well actually, I find that my brain sort of adapts to each test. If the test is long then I spend less time on each question and finish on time.. If the test is short, I just sort of relax and ponder on each question more while still finishing on time. I think it's not that I think slow but rather I get too comfortable taking tests sometimes. lol does that make any sense?

I envy you my brain does, but it takes time to understand a question and the answer I gave. You would not believe how many mistakes I make on the first run, just because I cannot read the test well without stepping in and out and back. I can easily do the whole understanding thing, but getting to that point takes time, once its understood its gravy. It's really weird, but I don't genuinely understand how people can comprehend questions perfectly straight away. I just cannot do it, frustrating but something you learn to live with.

Don't get me wrong I think dyslexia is an advantage it makes me able to visualise things with ease, and I can remember things for ever once they are in the old memory store, it's just getting them in there in the first place that takes time. I'm also naturally ambidextrous so I can do everything as well with my left hand as right, although my brain can't tell the difference between the two so my balance is shot.

I give thanks to the active spell checker on Firefox too every day.

 

[Geezer]

Maybe I'm just dumb but one thing I've found is that I am really slow at taking tests. Even when I know the material and understand how to do every problem on a test, I still take up the entire time. I rarely finish early or if I do, I'm not satisfied. Is anyone else like that? Does it mean I'm an idiot or just slow?
When I do know my stuff, I generally do well even though I don't finish early but it really sucks because some other people are done half way through and people think they're geniuses where as most just assume I am struggling because I hand them in late even though many times I am not.

I'm slow, too. I tend to mis-read things, scramble the order of words, even "invent" words that aren't even on the paper (all consequences of my auditory processing disorder). I have to read the directions and information several times--usually taking a break in between--in order to make sure I "got" all the information correctly. If I don't take the time to read, re-read, and re-read again, I'll bomb a test.

All that reading wastes so much time...

(And, no, I've never sought any sort of "accommodation" from my school for it.)

I'm a slow test-taker, but I'm not at all stupid (my IQ results have ranged between 144 and 165). And I got 800 on the Verbal section of the GRE, so I'm not exactly deficient with verbal stuff. My brain just scrambles verbal and written information; once it's in my head, I'm golden.

I'm dyslexic, I have to do that, if I don't reread the question so that I can make sure I haven't misunderstood it I fail a lot. Luckily most universities will allow for it and so give you extra time. I rarely need it but it is the same buffer most people get when they finish really fast. I'm not being given an unfair advantage in my opinion, I'm just being given an even break. Ironically some problems that require visualisation rather than implicit understanding I finish much faster than most people, but meh who knows what's going to be in an exam.

I'm not dyslexic, but I have a sibling who is. My issue is more along the lines of not being able to process information sequentially. Individual letters and words are fine; I've never confused "d" with "b," for example.

 

[Haldhad]

I'm slow, too. I tend to mis-read things, scramble the order of words, even "invent" words that aren't even on the paper (all consequences of my auditory processing disorder). I have to read the directions and information several times--usually taking a break in between--in order to make sure I "got" all the information correctly. If I don't take the time to read, re-read, and re-read again, I'll bomb a test.

All that reading wastes so much time...

(And, no, I've never sought any sort of "accommodation" from my school for it.)

I'm a slow test-taker, but I'm not at all stupid (my IQ results have ranged between 144 and 165). And I got 800 on the Verbal section of the GRE, so I'm not exactly deficient with verbal stuff. My brain just scrambles verbal and written information; once it's in my head, I'm golden.
I'm not dyslexic, but I have a sibling who is. My issue is more along the lines of not being able to process information sequentially. Individual letters and words are fine; I've never confused "d" with "b," for example.

No me neither seeking compensation wise, but I am happy to know it's there if I need it.

I confuse everything with anything at times, particularly when stressed, as you can be in an exam.

Dyslexia tends to run in families so you might not be very dyslexic but you may share some of the problems.

IQ doesn't really measure anything but your ability to do well at school and never really was meant to or ever has. I'm not even sure why people still use these as intelligence tests, or call it an intelligence quotient. But meh some people like inadequate scores to tell them how bright they are. If it's any consolation I score highly on IQ tests. Wouldn't wipe my *** on them but at least they tell me I can do a very stringent and restricted amount of things well enough. Even though they say nothing about my intelligence or anyone elses. Would Beethoven have been good at IQ tests, who the hell cares, he was still a prodigy, gifted with language or maths or spatial co-ordination? Some people are just special never the less and gifted beyond words.

 

[kraphysics]

Actually until now I was talking about physics tests. My worst problem are those reading comprehension tests. It takes me really long to read the stories.

 

[erok81]

I'm usually in the 10% of people to leave and always score 90% or higher. I'll go through the test a couple of times, I think that is my problem. Plus there is usually one problem that will take as long as the rest of the test does. :)

One thing to note is the people that leave early, aren't necessarily scoring well. I would always see people leave halfway through tests and be jealous I couldn't do that. Then I became friends with a lot of those people and found out they were leaving so soon because they couldn't finish the test. Or just gave up on hard problems and left the test early.

 

[Geezer]

I envy you my brain does, but it takes time to understand a question and the answer I gave. You would not believe how many mistakes I make on the first run, just because I cannot read the test well without stepping in and out and back. I can easily do the whole understanding thing, but getting to that point takes time, once its understood its gravy.

You took the words right out of my mouth (keyboard?).

Don't get me wrong I think dyslexia is an advantage it makes me able to visualise things with ease, and I can remember things for ever once they are in the old memory store, it's just getting them in there in the first place that takes time.

Both of these are true for me as well.