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why do exams have time limits

This is the most annoying thing about exams, why the hell is there a time limit. Dont you think it should be removed? Or there should be a reasonable time limit?
Im not saying remove it for everything, just remove it for subjects that have essay writing in it, it literally can make an A*/9 student go to a 5/C just because they didnt have enough time to write what they wanted to/

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Original post by salimyasin10
This is the most annoying thing about exams, why the hell is there a time limit. Dont you think it should be removed? Or there should be a reasonable time limit?
Im not saying remove it for everything, just remove it for subjects that have essay writing in it, it literally can make an A*/9 student go to a 5/C just because they didnt have enough time to write what they wanted to/


The exams are physically possible of finishing, they make sure of that. It's down to a student's exam technique and managing their time carefully. It's more than possible to answer everything in a paper well in the time allocated.
Reply 2
But it should be fair for everyone, for example in my class when we were doing the mocks, no one finished any of the 3 maths papers, btw my class has about 17 people and some of those are actually talanted at maths but lost at least 30-40 marks of the 240 because they couldnt finish the last questions which take time and cost the most marks, the last questions typicallly take in total more than 30 min of the exam.
Original post by MediocreSince01
The exams are physically possible of finishing, they make sure of that. It's down to a student's exam technique and managing their time carefully. It's more than possible to answer everything in a paper well in the time allocated.
Anyone can write a good essay given unlimited time.

The time pressures is what distinguishes a good student from a great student, being able to write quickly but effectively.
Reply 4
actually there are some people who cant, im just saying that not every subject should have a removed time limit, but instead give extra time and maybe be more harshly marked given the fact more time was given. E.g if u do a history exam and its 1hr 45, if you ask for extra time (and there should be a limit for this), that shud be take into consideration and be given harsher marking.
Original post by OysterWomble
Anyone can write a good essay given unlimited time.

The time pressures is what distinguishes a good student from a great student, being able to write quickly but effectively.
Original post by MediocreSince01
The exams are physically possible of finishing, they make sure of that. It's down to a student's exam technique and managing their time carefully. It's more than possible to answer everything in a paper well in the time allocated.


I agree
Reply 6
i fully thought about this as i believe it affects many students across the UK and so there should be reforms in exam timing.
Original post by salimyasin10
But it should be fair for everyone, for example in my class when we were doing the mocks, no one finished any of the 3 maths papers, btw my class has about 17 people and some of those are actually talanted at maths but lost at least 30-40 marks of the 240 because they couldnt finish the last questions which take time and cost the most marks, the last questions typicallly take in total more than 30 min of the exam.


I did the Edexcel GCSE for the first year of the new specification, and we never really found timing an issue - which implies that it wouldn't be unfair as quite a large majority finished the paper; plus a lot of the earlier stuff is overlap with foundation and so those looking to get the end questions right should be able to smash through the first half of the paper quite easily. Your timing will get better with practice, and you'll get quicker as you get more fluent with the skills.
Original post by salimyasin10
This is the most annoying thing about exams, why the hell is there a time limit. Dont you think it should be removed? Or there should be a reasonable time limit?
Im not saying remove it for everything, just remove it for subjects that have essay writing in it, it literally can make an A*/9 student go to a 5/C just because they didnt have enough time to write what they wanted to/

Because its also a test of speed of comprehension and recall plus being able to apply and produce time limited answers. Examiners dont have forever either. If you want unlimited time then do btec.
Reply 9
True, but in my mocks we did your paper and nobody finished it. Listen, of course there will be those who dont finish and those who do finish, but what im suggesting is that maybe there could be an extra time limit which could be activated and in return you get marked taking that into consideration,
Original post by MediocreSince01
I did the Edexcel GCSE for the first year of the new specification, and we never really found timing an issue - which implies that it wouldn't be unfair as quite a large majority finished the paper; plus a lot of the earlier stuff is overlap with foundation and so those looking to get the end questions right should be able to smash through the first half of the paper quite easily. Your timing will get better with practice, and you'll get quicker as you get more fluent with the skills.
Reply 10
if you were given extra time, you could produce better answers.
Original post by 999tigger
Because its also a test of speed of comprehension and recall plus being able to apply and produce time limited answers. Examiners dont have forever either. If you want unlimited time then do btec.
Original post by salimyasin10
if you were given extra time, you could produce better answers.

You are missing the point, which is they want to see what you can produce in the time given to test the skills I suggested.
Well in my class almost everybody finished it, so as said by people before timing is meant to distinguish between different abilities of students. There were a few questions that i would have been able to answer if i had 30 minutes figuring it out, but the most able students should see the question and recognise very quickly what you need to do to solve the problem
Original post by salimyasin10
True, but in my mocks we did your paper and nobody finished it. Listen, of course there will be those who dont finish and those who do finish, but what im suggesting is that maybe there could be an extra time limit which could be activated and in return you get marked taking that into consideration,
Reply 13
im not really missing the point, im just saying that the time limit, limits in being able to answer the rest of the questions. Foe e.g you spend extra time on question 3, which limits your time to do q4 and makes you miss out marks.
Basically, as i mentioned in my previous post, there should be an extra time limit you can activate if say your a slow writer
Original post by 999tigger
You are missing the point, which is they want to see what you can produce in the time given to test the skills I suggested.
This system would never work. So some students would have more than others? And then there should be 2 mark schemes based on how much time you had? No there should be one standard for all students in the country not one gets easier marks because they had to think quicker. If you are having a problem with timing then you need to practice questions in timed conditions because there are many students who can complete it in the timed conditions
Original post by salimyasin10
actually there are some people who cant, im just saying that not every subject should have a removed time limit, but instead give extra time and maybe be more harshly marked given the fact more time was given. E.g if u do a history exam and its 1hr 45, if you ask for extra time (and there should be a limit for this), that shud be take into consideration and be given harsher marking.
Original post by salimyasin10
im not really missing the point, im just saying that the time limit, limits in being able to answer the rest of the questions. Foe e.g you spend extra time on question 3, which limits your time to do q4 and makes you miss out marks.
Basically, as i mentioned in my previous post, there should be an extra time limit you can activate if say your a slow writer

That undermines the skills I suggested they are interested in. If you have something wrong with you then you can apply for special consideration.
Reply 16
In exams there are people who finish the exam really early, and they would be able to activate the extra time limit if they felt they needed to. Some students genuinely have difficulty with timing and so by giving extra time they would be able to finish their exams.
There would not be 2 mark schemes, it wud be that the examiner would take in the extra time limit into consideration.
Im not saying it should happen, im justing it should be considered and that the exam board shud adjust the time limit in a fairer way for everyone.
Original post by stephsmhb
This system would never work. So some students would have more than others? And then there should be 2 mark schemes based on how much time you had? No there should be one standard for all students in the country not one gets easier marks because they had to think quicker. If you are having a problem with timing then you need to practice questions in timed conditions because there are many students who can complete it in the timed conditions
I always get extra time, so cannot comment. But I always see the majority of people finishing with bags of time.
Reply 18
i dont have anything wron with me. I just felt that maybe more time shud be given so everyone would be able to finish the questions in the exam paper, e.g in maths like a mentioned before, no one in my class finished the paper. Its not that they had a special need, its just that the large amount of questions should be justified with more time.
Original post by 999tigger
That undermines the skills I suggested they are interested in. If you have something wrong with you then you can apply for special consideration.
Original post by salimyasin10
im not really missing the point, im just saying that the time limit, limits in being able to answer the rest of the questions. Foe e.g you spend extra time on question 3, which limits your time to do q4 and makes you miss out marks.
Basically, as i mentioned in my previous post, there should be an extra time limit you can activate if say your a slow writer


Yeah, and either way you'd have the same mark. The marks you'd gain because you have extra time would be lost immediatly because of the penalty

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