My daughter encountered this in her ACT test this weekend. Request for “time remaining” was met with, “just keep on testing”. Grrr.
This was, of course, encountered during the math section. And the math section was the only reason my DD was retaking the ACT. Her other scores the first time were all 32-36 but the math had room to move up a bit to make her more competitive at reach schools and for scholarships since we expect little to no financial aid other than merit.
Her fault was in not buying a watch that didn’t have an alarm, and thus met testing guidance, but still… This was something she had not encountered in other tests and it threw her off and messed up her timing, leaving her with two unanswered math questions (and if your school name is Texas A&M, a bad opinion of you, since this was your on campus testing center that was so unhelpful).
As a consumer, I’m not thinking a proctor should be obtuse and mostly should just run an honest test. But I see little on the ACT site that clarifies what our expectations should have been.
Obviously, it will never happen to her again because #1 she will have a watch in her final attempt and #2 she won’t use the Texas A&M testing center again for her now unexpected September retake. We were really hoping to just have her take this test twice and now that’s blown.
Has anyone else encountered a proctor with issues giving a time check?
I think that a watch is as important a tool as a calculator. I wouldn’t expect a proctor to have to tell kids how much time is left. It would be distracting if several people kept asking.
She wasted time in asking a question, time that could have been used to answer the questions?
“it threw her off and messed up her timing” ? What threw her off? The time had not been called (not even the 5 minute time), but she had time to ask the question about time instead of using time to answer the questions. I would not indulge that kind of need to make excuses. It is what it is.
I agree with above that she shouldn’t have expected the proctor to serve that function. Imagine if 20, 30, 40 students asked? Lots of unnecessary and distracting noise.
Fair enough. The solution is simple, retake in the fall and bring a conforming watch. But since there are other places to test, the baseball fan in me will have no problem with her testing elsewhere.
And @Sybylla I wasn’t there to hear that interaction so I won’t characterize it and whether or not the nature of that interaction could have been a distraction. I’ve tried to make snarky comments to my kids when they were practicing their sports to get them immune to what their competitors might say. I failed her if she let something trivial like a personality difference mess with her. She needs to step her game up. I’ve reminded her that this is just another game. Hopefully she gets it now.
Just keep going may also be a reasonable response and use those words to prompt ourselves to work until time is called. Usually, a proctor announces time remaining or puts it n the board. Until you are told to quit, you do need to just keep going. Each s student must exercise time management skills. When a question is asked during tests, kids stop and then look up and listen before continuing on. Finally, your daughter’s question would be unlikely, if answered, to give her information to do more than keep going. So, keep going, in my opinion, is a better way to respond for time remaining or even consulting a clock or watch. The test was honest if rules for proctoring were followed. Proctors maintain an equitable test environment by not responding to questions about the test or its timing.
@RMNiMiTz So you missed the follow up post where I said she gets it now? She forgot her watch this time. That’s her fault.
Other ACT/SAT tests were at different testing locations and others got this info if they asked for it. The only difference was the testing location and the one proctor who rotated in during math. It made for a frustrating day given that it was different from all her other tests. Again, she gets it now. None of the places that did that for others were apparently obligated to do so. She didn’t know that but does now.
The person who rotated into the room during math did something not in her testing experience. This weekend she forgot her watch and she was surprised that this experience was different than all the previous Duke TIP tests, the PSAT x3, the SAT x2 and one previous ACT. Plus the other proctors that rotated thru on this ACT did it when asked by others. That made her be the only person that day or in other experiences that didn’t get that info. But the fix is simple, she brings all her stuff and she knows that what happened in the past was not a reflection of a policy just of the preferences of previous proctors. It was not Texas A&M’s fault.
OMG move on already. S@& happens. Calculators die, kids forget batteries, you run out of time when you take tests. It’s part of the deal. Save your energy for something that’s actually important.
