Time Management Skills

[Night Elf]

My ds18 is in his last class in Keystone HIgh School. He has already been accepted into The University of North Georgia for Fall 2015. He's smart as a whip and does an incredible job with writing of any kind. His problem, however, is one of time management. The tests with Keystone are not timed so he can take however long he wants with them. He knocks out the multiple choice questions really quickly but takes his sweet time on essay questions. He is a perfectionist and will sit and think about what he wants to write before he actually writes. I've tried to help him learn to think and write more quickly. I've warned him that he may encounter questions on college tests that require a paragraph and that he may not finish his tests within a class period if he can't think more quickly. Is there anything specific I can do to help him with this? I was thinking about writing prompts but creative writing and writing about material he has studied are just two different things. Will creative writing within a time limit help him with academic type writing though?

 

I don't recall college tests having too many long answer type questions, only short answer which required no more than a few sentences. He has good study skills and good recall of the information, so I'm not worried about him trying to remember the material during a test. I'm strictly worried about his need to spend time thinking first. As an example, it can take him as long as 30 minutes to write a decent paragraph. I've seen him write more quickly but I'd say that isn't his norm. He probably averages 10 to 15 minutes when he's really confident about the material he's writing about. How can I help him write more quickly?

[TechWife]

 

 

I don't recall college tests having too many long answer type questions, only short answer which required no more than a few sentences. 

 

Just an FYI, essay tests and essay questions were par for the course in my days at UNG, especially in literature and in the courses for my major. I remember other courses, science and history, for example, that has some knowledge based questions, but there were always discussion/essay questions at the end of the exam, which is where we spent the majority of our time. Because the purpose of the tests was to evaluate how well we synthesized information, which is best demonstrated through discussion, discussion questions and short essays were the default for written exams. 

[katilac]

I had tons of essay questions in college. 

 

Use writing prompts for essays, like the ones for the ACT writing section. Still not a perfect match, but good practice and better than pure creative writing. 

 

You might also use the questions from prior Keystone tests and have him practice writing timed responses. If you can't access or remember them, start writing them down as you go along. You can also google stuff like "topic X essay question" to get more practice examples. 

[Deee]

Debating made me a faster, more organised and more concise writer. Do you have a local debatng group he could join?