Quote:Repo Wrote:
Damn near every test Ive taken you either know it and zoom through, or you dont. All the extra 15 minutes will do is allow people who didn't study to bumble through a few more questions and second guess ones they already answered.
Quote:demolition Wrote:
That's only true for tests that are purely memorization-based. A good test in, say, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, etc. will require you to perform a number of calculations in order to reach the correct answer. Many guys are simply quicker to work out these problems than others are, or have a better natural intuition for the best way to approach a problem to produce the needed info.
Take a look at the SAT. None of the questions in there are exceptionally hard, but when you have 60 math questions in ~60 minutes, you have to use your time intelligently. Depending on the type of exam this can be even more pronounced -- Good luck doing an essay section in your final 5 minutes if you spent the first 55 minutes on the multiple-choice or short-answer sections.
In high school I took the Advanced Placement (AP) exams so that I could skip the first-year general education classes in college. There were two different exams that you could take for Physics: B and C. B was allegedly the easier one, and C was the more difficult.
I took some practice exams for both versions to decide which one to take:
- Physics B verbally tested your knowledge of concepts, without the math. All the multiple-choice answers were long sentences, and you had to pick the one sentence out of five that best answered the question (or the only one that was false).
- Physics C tested your knowledge of mathematical physics. Answers were either numbers or equations.
I went through Physics C quickly because I could work out each problem to get a number or equation answer and then pick the correct answer choice immediately from the five choices.
Physics B was a pain in the ass -- I had to read every single long sentence answer to choose the correct one. It took forever.
I took Physics C and didn't feel the need for more time. Physics B felt like the kind of question that tested how fast you could read the answer choices rather than your actual physics ability.