My3girls Posted September 7, 2016 Posted September 7, 2016 Do you have your students practice these? If so how? What subjects? Do you make up the questions or do you find them somewhere... where? When do you start? Any other thoughts or opinions on the topic are appreciated. Quote
regentrude Posted September 7, 2016 Posted September 7, 2016 My kids practiced timed essays only during test prep for standardized tests, using prompts from test prep books or similar questions. I have not found timed essays to be useful in any other setting. None of my kids' college classes has in class essay exams - either short answer, or essays to be written at home. Quote
My3girls Posted September 7, 2016 Author Posted September 7, 2016 I guess the times have changed. I remember having essay questions on tests in High School and College. Some of my college exams only had 2 or 3 questions on it, and I wrote pages and pages hurriedly. I just thought of them for some reason yesterday and had a mild panic because we really haven't worked on it at all. Quote
regentrude Posted September 7, 2016 Posted September 7, 2016 I guess the times have changed. I remember having essay questions on tests in High School and College. Some of my college exams only had 2 or 3 questions on it, and I wrote pages and pages hurriedly. I just thought of them for some reason yesterday and had a mild panic because we really haven't worked on it at all. Actually, come to think off, there was occasionally an "essay" question in DS' lit class exams - but nothing he could not have done without dedicated prep. Certainly the specific format for the ACT/SAT requires drill, but is otherwise completely unlike any realistic assignment. Quote
Garga Posted September 7, 2016 Posted September 7, 2016 (edited) We are starting to do timed essays. But only because my guy dawdles if I don't set a timer. I think it's a good skill to have and worth looking into. You can teach it as part of test prep, or incorporate it into your daily work. I took some college classes about 10 years ago and had to write timed essays. My son has a ton (a ton!) of short answer questions to answer this year and I simply cannot allow him to take 20 minutes per question, which is what he started off doing this year. I've been teaching him how to answer more quickly over the past two weeks. Then again---for me, these aren't "essays" yet. They're short answer. But at some point over the next couple of years, we'll work on timed "essays.". (For essays I'm thinking coming up with a thesis and supports vs a short answer question that has a clear yes/no type of answer.) Edited September 7, 2016 by Garga Quote
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