Planning under time pressure in the written examination
The written examination gives candidates a fixed time to complete several sections, including a listening-and-response section, a reading-and-response section, and a detailed-study essay. A candidate, Sofia, has a habit of spending too long on the first section because she wants to 'get it right', then rushing the essay and running out of time before her conclusion. In her last practice, she spent 35 minutes on a section worth about 20 per cent of the paper, leaving 25 minutes for an essay that needed 40. Her essay had a strong introduction and two developed body paragraphs but stopped mid-sentence. She insists her problem is speed of writing in Russian, and wants to practise typing faster. The examination is handwritten.
1. Diagnose Sofia's real problem and explain why typing practice will not fix it.
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Sofia's problem is allocation and decision-making, not motor speed. She spent 35 minutes on a section worth roughly a fifth of the paper - a disproportionate investment driven by perfectionism ('getting it right'). The essay, which carries more weight and needs sustained structure, was starved. Her essay shows she can write well when she has time; the failure was running out of it before the conclusion, a planning and pacing failure.
Typing practice is misdirected for two reasons: the examination is handwritten, so typing fluency does not transfer; and even faster writing would not help if she still over-invests early. Without a time plan, extra speed would simply be absorbed by the same perfectionist habit.
2. Propose a timing and decision strategy for the examination, including how to handle the temptation to over-polish early sections.
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She should derive a minute budget from the marks: if the essay is worth, say, 40 per cent, it gets about 40 per cent of the writing time, and each other section gets its share. She should write these targets on the paper before starting and check the clock at section boundaries, not continuously.
For the early-section temptation, she needs a rule: answer every question once, move on, and return only if time remains. A 'good enough' answer completed across all sections scores better than a polished first section and a truncated essay. She should also plan the essay in the first three to four minutes (thesis, three points, conclusion) so the structure is fixed before writing, and reserve five minutes to write the conclusion and check.
Practice should replicate conditions: full papers, handwritten, timed, with the minute budget enforced. Reviewing where time was lost after each attempt builds the discipline.