Transcript:
You’re listening to The Parents of Hardworking Teens Podcast, episode 94. What one head of department shared with an exam hall full of Y11 maths students that is so true, yet so often overlooked.

Hey there my Very Important Parents and Carers - I hope your week is going brilliantly so far. And if you’re on school holidays when this goes out, that you and your teen are having a lovely break.

This is a real off the cuff episode because I’m recording it right after a day of teaching, where for one of the lessons I was one of the supervising teachers in a big Y11 Maths exam.

This was a formal internal exam for the end of what is Term 1 here in Australia, where all of the students were all in rows in the exam hall, all under strict exam conditions. And as I was doing the whole walking up and down the aisles making sure that there was nothing on the desks that shouldn’t be, trying not to trip over the most mammoth of water bottles that seem to be the trend these days, I heard the head of Maths who was overseeing the exam and reading out the introductory info say one thing that made my ears prick up and my inner exam geek light on fire.

He said - and I quote: “This is exam is not just testing your Maths ability. It’s testing your ability to work to time.”
Which I know is code for - you’re not going to have a spare 30 minutes to sit and relax at the end of this paper. Don’t take things slowly as you work. Think carefully because there isn’t loads of leeway if you do something wrong and have to start over.

I’m not sure if every student necessarily cottoned on to that message fully because I don’t think it’s a message that’s actually shared all that often - and I was only there for the first half of the exam, so I didn’t actually get to see how many did get finished or didn’t.
But as you can tell, it did stick with me and I was trying to will those messages into their brains be telepathy as I carried on walking up and down.

We all know that the time pressure of exams is one of the things that adds to the stress of the examination experience. And we could say that that pressure is not conducive to students being able to produce their best work. Either because they’re stressed and therefore perhaps not thinking as clearly and calmly as they might otherwise, or because so often we can produce work and then edit or refine it. Not so much in exams, right?

And this is why I have so much to say about exams. Why I think many students are not quite seeing them for what they really are. Exams are not demanding perfection. Even the very top mark in an essay in an English exam allows for one or two minor slips in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
The standard produced under exam conditions is not marked the same as a piece of coursework or other formal assessment that has been completed over an extended period of time and has been edited, proofread, refined and likely even had feedback - professional, peer - or parent - so they can make it the best it can possibly be - for them.

So in some ways this is good news. That the level of expectation is adapted to take account of the circumstances. However, what is being tested in exam that isn’t in most other assessments IS how well your teen performs or what they produce within a very limited time.

This IS part of what exams are testing.

Which is why it’s so important that your teen can quickly and confidently (And accurately) dissect a question and determine exactly what it’s asking and what will - and won’t get marks in the mark scheme.

In this Maths exam, that meant that they had to process any information provided, determine what was required to be solved or calculated, and then carry out that process or procedure in the right way, ideally first time. There might be time to redo a false start once or twice. There might be time to check through a few answers that maybe logically have a questionable solution. There won’t be time to go back over everything meticulously.
That is the nature of an exam.

And this is the case across most exams and subjects as students move up through the year levels. If your teen is still in the lower year groups, maybe 7 to 9, perhaps even Year 10, then they might well have plenty of time to complete each exam paper. I’ve seen schools and subjects do this on purpose. They say things like, we want you to have plenty of time to really produce your very best work or answers. And there is no problem with that. I think it can build confidence and reduce the fear factor for exams. However, what often isn’t said or shared is that ‘it won’t always be like this’.
Suddenly in the senior years, Y12 or 13, or for A’Levels, the exam paper is literally timed to be able to complete it. Not to have plenty of time.
And for students to know this ahead of time is super-helpful. Probably before they’re sat in the exam hall. I’m not saying they weren’t told that before hand - I have no idea. I feel like they weren’t but that was just the vibe I got.
And from my experience with working with students in Rock Solid Study. Who feel like things have suddenly ramped up - or their results and performance have suddenly ‘ramped down’ once they hit a certain year level.

So, here’s what I like to do for students. I make it really clear that exams are not just testing their subject knowledge. They are also testing their ability to put that knowledge across in the way the question demands and the mark scheme requires, succinctly and clearly, within the time given.

That’s why there are 6 elements of exam technique. Exam technique is not just one thing.
There are multiple skills required to perform to your potential in academic exams. And that isn’t even including the subject knowledge.

This is one of the reasons I suggest students get used to working within time constraints even when they don’t have to. Checkout episode 5 on this podcast for more on this. The episode is called - more free time without sacrificing grades.
And one example is what I call scheduling outcomes. Don’t just ‘do some research for that report’ - say I’m going to find 5 quality sources within the next 40 minutes. Don’t just think I’m going to work on my Maths. Say - I’m going to get those 3 practice Maths questions 5, 6 and 7 done in 20 minutes.

There are so many benefits to this. It gets your teen used to working to time limits,AND therefore also increases their awareness of how long tasks actually take them. It increases your teen’s focus, and reduces their procrastination or likelihood of distraction, AND it therefore means they get tasks done quicker - so giving them more time for other things in life.
I’m not talking about speeding through and rushing something in a slap dash way. I’m talking about focused productive time.

And, I do personally think this is great life skill to build. no-one’s boss wants you to take twice as long on a task than they have set up their systems or business for it to take.
Think about the flack the building industry gets when they get behind schedule. I personally love a fast and efficient grocery scanning person at the checkout (confession - I know lots of people hate the packing system of Aldi where they just fire it off the end and you’re supposed to pack it after. I love it and treat it like my personal challenge to pack as fast as they can throw the items at me.)

I remember my first barista job at the local coffee shop when I moved over here and was being judged on not just the quality of the coffees I was producing but how fast I could do them. At another cafe I worked at I remember the barista there telling me that his interview was basically a stack of orders lined up along the machine and they timed how quickly he got through them all - obviously being good quality as well.
This is actually a really good analogy for exams I’ve just realised. Is the order right - did they create the right coffees AKA actually answer the question. How GOOD are the coffees - how well do they meet the marking criteria. And speed. Can they do all of that within a set time limit.

Nice - I think that’s a good way to round this out.

So, that’s my message for this week. I’m always glad of an excuse to remind everyone that exams are not just testing subject knowledge. They’re testing many different skills and one of them is working to time. So consider how your teen can build this into their study on a regular basis and in preparation for their exams.

If you know any other parents who have teens sitting exams this year and might benefit from this sort of info right now, then send them a screenshot of this podcast or tag them in one of our Facebook or Instagram posts.

Maybe they’ll buy you a coffee to say thank you :)

Have a fabulous rest of your week, and I’ll meet you back here next week. Take care, bye!