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Re: [Phys-L] Timed Tests and the Development of Math Anxiety



It just hit me that this same type of anxiety is being promoted in other
subjects by the frequent high stakes testing. As the article pointed out
that the anxiety tends to hit students who have large working memories and
are more capable. So the excessive high stakes testing may be turning
students off to the tested subjects.

Of course business courses are not subject to this type of testing, so maybe
this makes a business degree more attractive, and math and science less so.

Hmmm,
John M. Clement
Houston, TX


This article refers to some very firm research which shows that timed
testing is one of the reasons why students have difficulty
with and hate
math. But notice that repeated extremely stressful
situations have bad
effects. Small amounts of stress may be beneficial, but I do
not know where
the threshold lies. Of course this relates to corporal
punishment which is
also a stressful situation which sends the wrong message.
But again, some
state standards imply that timed testing is needed. They
don't bother to
look at research.

I think that the conventional method of teaching physics also produces
fairly high stress levels because most students find the subject to be
incomprehensible. Then of course there is the problem of
tests with a time
limit which may be too short for some students. Other
research has shown
that students who are LD benefit greatly from extended time,
while "normal"
students do not. So giving anyone extended time is a good practice.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


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