If someone finishes an exam in a ridiculously short amount of time, doesn't that just about always mean he or she failed

[aplefka]

I think it depends. There have been times where I've seen someone finish LONG exams (10 math problems; 2 hours allotted) so fast (finished in 15 minutes) that you know they failed. However, I tend to finish exams first or before more than 90% of the class and usually do pretty well on them. I think my comm professor said it depends on your personality, and that some people will just finish exams fast regardless of how hard it is, but I disagree. I think it depends on how comfortable you are with the subject matter (which probably has a lot to do with how much you studied).

 

[ades]

the faster i finish a test, the better i do. i am usually one of the first done on every test i take.

 

[Leros]

People who finished early either really know the material well or they have no clue and guessed and left things blank.

People who finish late are either perfectionists who keep checking their answers as long as they can or they don't know the material and are racking their brains as much as possible.

What time time you finish the exam doesn't say much about your grade.

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: dug777

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: Random Variable
Unless, of course, you're Chris Knight in the 1985 movie Real Genius.

No. In my experience, its always been the opposite, especially in law school. Some people read and write faster than others, and I think I'm one of them. If I come in having studied well and luck kicks in (luck being the questions asked raise issues in your strongest areas of knowledge), I can pound out a 3 hr exam in 90 mins just because it flows well from brain to paper.

Same if its multiple choice. I've learned not to second-guess myself, since when I change answers, I tend to be wrong, so I get through that fast too.

I mean, it could be the person just gave up, but I couldn't imagine doing that. If I were doing poorly, and I've been there, I'd be working til the "drop".

I'd argue (being a law grad myself) that anyone who says they can bust out a decent law paper in 90 mins out of three hours is full of sh1t.

Even if you've got it all lined up perfectly, there's more than 90 mins writing waiting in the wings to do well...

It was a fluke, once in a law school career thing for me. It was also taken on a laptop, otherwise I can't write that fast. The exam itself did have 1/3 multiple choice, 2/3 essay, so I should've clarified that. But when I checked the time as I finished, I did a double-take, went out for a drink of water, came back and decided I wasn't going to fiddle with it. I did pretty well on it too.

If I made it sound at all like it's a normal, routine thing I do on exams, let me clarify now that it totally isnt
I never expect never to happen to me again (I have 2 semesters to go).

 

[trOver]

Originally posted by: senseamp
I usually finish early, then force myself to double and triple check my exam until time runs out.

qft

 

[pontifex]

when i took my MS cert exams they allot like 3 hours. i think i finished them all in like 1 hour each. the first one i only missed one question. i tihkn after that is when they stopped showing you your score and it was just pass or fail. i passed all the others also.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: senseamp
I usually finish early, then force myself to double and triple check my exam until time runs out.

same.

If i take a long time to finish exam, that usually means I'm not going to do well on it.

 

[Glitchny]

The smartest kid in my programming classes always turns our assignments and coding practicals in first or within the first two people, last i knew he hasnt gotten less than 100 on any of them.

 

[SirStev0]

My buddy and I took Computer Science 101 at Penn State Freshmen year... It was basically C++...

I had never had programing before and conversely he used to program mudds when he was 12... For some reason I really took off in it... had no problems at all... We were the only ones that were doing well... We were actually doing extremely well...

After owning the extra credit assignments we both figured out we would probably have to crazy fail to get less than an A in the class...

We raced the hour and a half final... He finished in 8 minutes; I killed it in 12 minutes... Both of us got > 95.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: SirStev0
My buddy and I took Computer Science 101 at Penn State Freshmen year... It was basically C++...

I had never had programing before and conversely he used to program mudds when he was 12... For some reason I really took off in it... had no problems at all... We were the only ones that were doing well... We were actually doing extremely well...

After owning the extra credit assignments we both figured out we would probably have to crazy fail to get less than an A in the class...

We raced the hour and a half final... He finished in 8 minutes; I killed it in 12 minutes... Both of us got > 95.

I had a class in college that had four tests. Only your three best scores would count against your grade. I aced the first three tests (95 or higher). I did not study for the last test, which was given during finals week, I brought party hats to the "final" for my friends and gave one to the prof, and I finished the 2 hour multiple-choice test in 15 minutes.

I got a 97

MotionMan

 

[chuckywang]

No, case in point:

I was the first person to finish my Real Analysis final (by a long shot), and I was also the only person to get 100% on the final.

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but ... beep beep.

 

[imported_yovonbishop]

No. I was usually one of the first people done taking exams in most of my classes. The fact was, I knew my stuff and didn't need to take the entire time to think about it.

I'm a robot.

EDIT: I forgot to add that I did well on exams. Yeah, that's pretty significant to my point I suppose.

 

[Xonoahbin]

I'd call it incorrect. I typically am done with any type of exam the fastest and I typically get the highest note on it. I write very fast when it comes down to it, so people are always amazed as to how I finished the exam so quickly.

 

[SirStev0]

Ohhh... and I should also mention that after TA'ing two classes... usually most of the last people to leave are the people who do the worst... especially the 3-7 that refuse to stand up and turn the freaking thing in after the 5 minute in between class period...

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: dug777

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: Random Variable
Unless, of course, you're Chris Knight in the 1985 movie Real Genius.

No. In my experience, its always been the opposite, especially in law school. Some people read and write faster than others, and I think I'm one of them. If I come in having studied well and luck kicks in (luck being the questions asked raise issues in your strongest areas of knowledge), I can pound out a 3 hr exam in 90 mins just because it flows well from brain to paper.

Same if its multiple choice. I've learned not to second-guess myself, since when I change answers, I tend to be wrong, so I get through that fast too.

I mean, it could be the person just gave up, but I couldn't imagine doing that. If I were doing poorly, and I've been there, I'd be working til the "drop".

I'd argue (being a law grad myself) that anyone who says they can bust out a decent law paper in 90 mins out of three hours is full of sh1t.

Even if you've got it all lined up perfectly, there's more than 90 mins writing waiting in the wings to do well...

It was a fluke, once in a law school career thing for me. It was also taken on a laptop, otherwise I can't write that fast. The exam itself did have 1/3 multiple choice, 2/3 essay, so I should've clarified that. But when I checked the time as I finished, I did a double-take, went out for a drink of water, came back and decided I wasn't going to fiddle with it. I did pretty well on it too.

If I made it sound at all like it's a normal, routine thing I do on exams, let me clarify now that it totally isnt
I never expect never to happen to me again (I have 2 semesters to go).

:thumbsup:

Best of luck :beer:

 

[DrPizza]

I took my state exam certifying that I'm okay to teach math during the late summer administration. It's a 3 or 4 hour exam that I had to travel 1 1/2 hours to. Most of the people at that session had failed an earlier session and talking to them made me really nervous about the exam. Every single person I talked to advised me to make sure I finished the written part 2 question before I did the multiple choice, because there's no way I'd finish the exam in the allotted time.

I was back home and was having a celebratory dinner with my wife long before the exam was over. I thought the test was a joke.

 

[kinev]

Ridiculously short? Probably.

But, if they're just the first one finished, then maybe, maybe not.

 

[Gerbil333]

Nah, I know people who have finished 200-level engineering exams in 1/4 the alloted time and somehow managed A's.

 

[Feneant2]

I retook a course once because I had not understood most of the second half of the semester due to having a poor teacher. So with this teacher, I finished the first exam in around 10 minutes instead of the hour they expected. The teacher gave me a disgusted look and even wrote the time it took on my exam in front of my face.

I only scored around 85% but he was super impressed

 

[BeauJangles]

No, I finished my 3 hour economics final in 25 minutes and received an A in the class. Nobody else finished within an hour.

 

[Mo0o]

Depends. If it shorter than physically possible to write down all the answers, then they probably failed. If not they could just be really fast test takers. I'm consistently the first or second person out the door and I do just fine on tests.

 

[DrPizza]

Reminds me of my sophomore engineering final exam; actually, it was the freshman engineering exam; I switched majors to that engineering field at the beginning of my sophomore year.

Showed up 2 or 3 minutes late for the exam with a cup of coffee and a teddy bear. I couldn't quite get up the guts to show up in pajamas. Freshmen looked at me like I was out of my mind for arriving late. 100 multiple choice questions; I was done in about 20 minutes. (3 hour exam.) Last one in the door, first one out the door. Did quite well.