Last-minute studying and starting an essay mere hours before it’s due are more the norm than the exception for many students, myself included. It’s no one’s responsibility but the procrastinator’s to fix those habits. However, there’s one test format that exists outside of these parameters: the timed essay.
In my experience, timed essay exams discourage deep engagement with the material and favor flowery nonsense over genuine analysis.
There are three central forms midterm examinations usually take — long-term at-home, multiple choice/short answer and in-class timed essays. The first two types have clear benefits.
At-home essays typically require thorough research and editing. They reward the hard worker. It’s difficult to write a good paper in college without having knowledge of the material, and while writing skill matters, it will never get you there on its own.
On the other hand, timed essays ostensibly reward writing, but only the component of speed when compared to at-home essays. Redrafting and improving structure is near impossible given the time constraints. As such, timed essay submissions are far worse than untimed ones, giving rise to an “altogether different mode of writing.” Typical timed essay results have been described as “atrocious” compared to other forms.
Is a format that results in such writing the best way to gauge a student’s knowledge?
Additionally, requiring a broad knowledge of sources is often less necessary in timed essays, as the format usually requires — and has time for — the use of very few.
Synthesizing information already gathered into a cohesive paper is also less important in the timed essay form, as there is barely enough time to spit the raw ideas onto the page, let alone stratify them into a convincing, sourced narrative.
The skills that timed essays value when compared to at-home essays aren’t source studying, editing or understanding of the material — it is speed and speed alone.
Comparing multiple choice/short answer exams to timed essays also highlights the issues with the latter. There is practically no way to ace a multiple choice or short answer exam without knowing the material well. However, a speedy writer with lacking knowledge of the material could snap out an essay in time, and because the average results are so bad, it’s more difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff than it would be in a multiple choice exam.
An unprepared, yet quick writer would inevitably fail a multiple choice exam, and rightly so.
Ultimately, the most important skills a conscientious student must develop, from source analysis to rote learning, are better realized through means other than timed exams.
Proponents argue timed essays teach students to marshall evidence to support their conclusions, but is that not much more doable when you have more time to analyze sources as you would in an untimed essay? They might also posit that timed essays train students to quickly recall information and think under pressure, but is it truly a better way to measure such capabilities than a short answer exam? No.
On every level, timed essays are an inferior measuring stick. They incentivize procrastinators like myself to study far less than multiple choice exams do, and disincentivize analytical students from showing their creative capabilities. It’s time for them to end.
