I have a 4th grader who really is good at math but she has this mental block and thinks she isn't.
She is really bad with the timed tests. I believe the time limit makes her panic therefore she doesn't do well.
Do any of you have any tips or tricks that would help her with this? Are there any teachers out there that have any advice?
We used to do timed tests here at home all the time to prepare them for their real timed test at school. Practice makes perfect.
LBC
I agree. If her bugaboo is time tests, let her practice time tests. You all can make them fun at home.
Let her know also that learning is different from testing. Some people may be really good at learning a subject, but for some reason they don't test well - either time tests or some other kind of tests.
She is probably better even at time tests than she thinks. A spelling test doesn't go on all day - sooner or later the teacher calls time and everyone has to hand the papers in.
Another thought: assuming she has a wonderful teacher, encourage her to talk to her teacher about this. Here's an opportunity for your daughter to learn how to deal with this sort of problem on her own. When she's in college she'll really need to know how to talk with her professors.
Do flashcards at home with her.
Set up a 4x4 grid with numbers on the top and down the left side. Then have her do them, eventually have her do them and time her. Do 5 per page.
Have her do them this way, Do all these first...
0x ?
1x ?
10x ?
Then go through and just answer the ones she can do without thinking. She doesn't have to do number 1 then number 2. THis is a timed test, get done what you can.
Then she goes back and does the ones she has to think about like 7x8.
Does she know the 9's trick? There are a few.
We do flashcards up through 15x15 every day. MIne is in 5th grade.
I always nailed tests but timed freaked me out. So I would go through the test doing every question that popped into my head or was just plain easy. Then go back and do the rest. For some reason it always worked because I knew I would get the easy ones right. Then when I went back I did the hard ones and still had time left.
I was hating on the GMAT cause they wouldn't let me do that! :(
Give her permission to fail. I know that sounds crazy, however, the anxiety comes from the vicious voice in her head that is telling her how awful the world will be if she fails.
Ask her what the worst case scenario would be if she failed a test. Then ask her what would happen next. Most of the time the vicious voice just stops the scenario at the disaster and doesn't allow for there to be anything after that. And the big picture is that your daughter probably couldn't fail even if she tried.
My daughter would freeze up on projects because she believed they needed to be perfect. We ran through all the scenarios, including turning in a half-assed paper. We then went to all of the possible consequences. The reality was that she would be fine even if she got a really bad grade because overall she was a great student. This exercise allowed her to release the block.
She is now in college and every once in a while still hits that fear and so she just talks with me and I walk her through looking at the bigger picture rather than just the little, fearful, irrational picture she is stuck in.
When you practice the timed test at home.. Let her give you a timed test, but with double the problems! She will get a kick out of you trying to do what she has to do..
This is normal.. The teacher is probably already aware, but do let her know your daughter is freaked out. and see what she suggests..
