Thursday, September 27, 2012

Finish First and You Will Do the Worst

Most everyone has heard the saying, hard work will pay off in the end.  Yesterday, students took the Study Island Benchmark Test, and it was a perfect example.  This test evaluates students reading on a variety of reading skills.  Students that took their time, went back in the passages, and found answers scored well, and mostly passed.  Students that rushed through their work had the lowest scores.

This one assignment is a message to all students about what they can expect this year in Reading Workshop.  Those with a good work ethic, that do their best, will do well.  Those that don't give their best and don't work hard are going to struggle.  And it's not just here.  No matter what students do with their life, hard work will pay off in the end.

The column on the left is minutes spent taking the test.  The columns on the right shows students' total percent and score.  A score of 400 is passing.


Compare those to students that took more time.


Taking more time does not guarantee a passing score, but it made a huge difference.  There was no time limit on this assignment.  So for students that didn't pass, I wonder why they didn't take more time.

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

The people who took less time and got a lower scores should take more time to understand the question and find the right answer to get better scores. Don't guess,CHECK!

Anonymous said...

I thinks hard work and taking your time is important because if you take your time you will probably get a better score to check over your work.

Hard work is taking making sure you do not have any missing projects and staying on task and that means you don't always have to get the best grades in the class or the highest scores all it madders is that you work your hardest and always try your hardest.

Anonymous said...

I think hard work is important because if you don't work hard you miss questions or you can get them wrong.

Anonymous said...

Mr.McGuire's statement is so true. The people that took there time on the benchmark should get recognized. But the people who didn't take their time and got low test scores will not be recognized. They won't be recognized because they did not put forth a lot of effort.

Anonymous said...

There was a kid who took forty five minutes and did not get the best score out of every body but he took his time and tried his hardest I think people like that should be recognized.
The people that took more time got better scores than the people that rushed. For the people that took there time good job and keep it up.

Anonymous said...

I think that taking your time and being a hard worker is one of the most important things in your life. I think that because my family and I do not like bad grades, in school my family always either got an A or a B.

I think I'm a hard worker because I take my time on school papers and I always keep trying, if I can't find an answer to a problem I keep trying until I get it. So that's why hard working is important to me.

Anonymous said...

I think this post explains how you should work hard on tests and such if you want a good grade.

I think I need to work hard more if I want a good grade to. We should all take time to work for a better grade so we can move on. Working hard will really help you in life.

I really need to work hard in life as well. (PS. these grade scores were really good.They must have worked hard.)

Anonymous said...

I think getting done fast is not okay because you either rushed or didn't do your best. If you don't go back to check your work you could end up with a bad or awful grade and your teachers will not be happy with that kinda a grade and neither will your parents.

The grades Mr.McGuire showed us were true, is you rushed you won't do so good. It's not a race because I doubt that through our seven years (if you went to kindergarten) of school that someone gave you extra recces or a prize for finishing first. If you finish first you should probably go over it again because your probably going to fast. So that's why you need to take your time.

Anonymous said...

I think the people who work hard on the test should be reward because they put a lot of effort in to the test.They will get a good grade,and for the people who did not work hard will get a bad grade. So it is important to work hard on the test.

Anonymous said...

I think that is is very important to take your time. If you just guess there is only a 25% of a chance you are going to get it right out of four questions.

Even if you are not the smartest kid or the best reader, you can still make an effort. Just try you hardest no matter what! If you are stuck on a question don't say "I give up" or "I can't" just read it again and again until you understand it.

On the benchmark test I really tried my best to get all the questions correct. Some of them were very confusing for me so I skipped them and went back later. Then after I answered all the questions I went back and checked all of them. I looked at each question and then read the selection again and thought to myself is that the best choice, does it make sense, and could that really be the right answer.

I have learned a lot from this post. Don't get in a hurry just to prove to friends how fast you can get done, it's not a race. It doesn't matter if you got a 40% and took an hour to do the benchmark, but what does matter is if you got a 90% and took five minutes to do the test. Because that means you didn't check and make sure that you did the very best you could. Thank you Mr.McGuire.

Anonymous said...

I think that the more time you use the better grade you should get. Example if your not the smartest kid and you took forty-five minutes and that was how much time you had you should have a higher grade than how much points you got on the test because you used all the time you could.

If you rushed and you still passed that's nothing to be proud of because you didn't use all the time you had and that should effect your grade.

If you rushed and didn't pass that's just something you need to work on because you need to at least use the majority of the time givin to you so you can check your work! I promise you if you check your work over and over again you'll probably get a passing grade like an A, A-, B+, B- maybe a C+ but it's not as bad as getting a D or a F.

That's why I think that it is very important to take as much time as you can. I try my best to do that and I get rewarded with A's and B's.

Anonymous said...

I think hard work and taking your time is important because,When you rush it's not good you can fail an assignment.Sure you might be a straight A student even when you rush but for the people that actually took time to do this test might not be the best of might of failed but at least they tried.

So for those people that actually took there time I know Mr.McGuire was very happy that they took there time especially for that one person that took 45.8 minutes.So next time maybe those students will actually take there time and try instead of rushing.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes getting done real fast will mess up your grade big time because you don't take your time. Most people win going fast wont care. Most of the time they will ask if it is for a grade or not because they want to know if they have to care about it or not that's why a'lot of kids didn't try or just didn't take enough time. So I'm glad that he put this post up because it is a wake up call for all of us.

Anonymous said...

I think Mr. McGuire was right. The people who try their best and work hard should get recognized for putting the effort. The people who didn't try their best and rushed their work should not be recognized because they didn't put forth the effort they needed to succeed.

For the people who tried their best and took their time and checked over their work, good job. For the people who rushed their work, didn't try their best and didn't check over their work. Try and do that next time and you will do better.

Anonymous said...

It is very important to work hard because if you work hard and take your time you know that you tried your best and you made a effort to get a good grade. Sometimes even when you try your hardest you will not get an A but that's okay because you gave it all you got.


I admit I don't always take my time to do something because I want to hurry up and rush through it. I've worked really hard on projects and work before too. I think it is so important to check over your work because it does make a difference to go over all the questions.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with this post. My mom always said "Take all the time the teacher gives you." and that's true. The more time you take the better grade you'll get.

If you were to ask me if I took my time, I would say that I try to take as much time as possible. But if you have a test that has only 5 questions or so, then I don't really need to take that much time.

This post is 100% true. Take a look at the scores Mr.McGuire posted above. If you take a look at the kids who took less time, have a bad grade. But, if you look at the kids who took there time, have a good grade. So, take your time.

Anonymous said...

I agree, the chart shows that if you take you're time you will get a good grade as if you rush and don't care about it you will not do good.

Anonymous said...

I think that when you use more time that your scores will be higher than what people would if they took 3 minutes to do their work. Some people for that matter might think that the stuff they are doing is easy and still get a higher grade and do a small amount of time.You should second guess yourself and look back over the question and may be read the selection again.

I am a hard worker because I take my time to do my work and check my answer by going over it and eliminating the answers I know can not be true and if I can not find the answer I try to think of ways that the other answers can not be true.

If you get any sort of A, B or a very high C you will probably get a passing grade. I f you get a D or an F that is not a passing grade.

Anonymous said...

I know I should of looked back more and triple checked my work. I was really confused because in the story there was numbers next to the paragraph. I know now that I need to slow down and triple check my work.

Anonymous said...

I think you should take your time not just on test on anything really. Because the more time you take the better you will do. If you don't take your time you probably won't get a good grade. Some people work hard and put forth the effort but might not pass. But at least you checked it and went over it. While most people just guess and don't even check it. But in the end whether or not you passed its the time and effort that matters most and will get you noticed.

Anonymous said...

It reminds me of the expression you reap what you sew. Because whatever you do it backfires either in a good way are a bad way.

Anonymous said...

I am a hard working student.I take all the time i need. I look back in the passage if I need to. I do agree that the ones who didn't take their time did bad. The ones that took their time got a better score than them. I used to do that when I was in first grade I got horrible grades. But now I take my time and look back if I need to. Also maybe kids that got really low score maybe guessed on the guessed.

Anonymous said...

I think I take a lot of time on my tests. Almost all the time I think hey I'm not done with my test but everyone else is done with the test but its not a race to finish the test first. And I bet that the kids who finished first did the worst(not to be mean but that's what the title says). I think when you take your time it helps because you'll understand the answers more and not just guess.

Anonymous said...

I think you should work hard because there is a huge possibility that you will do better. If you not care if you get bad grades but in the future you will. Because if you need to go to collage they won't let you because all the bad grades in the past.That is why you should work hard and take your time and do the best you can do.

Anonymous said...

I agree that people need to take their time when you are taking a test that takes half your grade. I mean, the test is important! I know that some people have problems with reading and writing but that means that you should take more time not less. You would go back and check,you wouldn't zip right through the test. A person that is really good at reading and writing wouldn't even zip through. So I don't know who these people are but they shouldn't do this again!

Anonymous said...

Hi my name is Hannah! I know i may be one of the people who didn't do that well but, I just wanted to get through it. I promise to take my time and try my best the next test we have. I hope other people will too!! ;]

Anonymous said...

I believe hard work is important because if you took your time you may not have got the best score but you tried, it is almost as if you were the first one done you thought you got a prize but if you were you didn't get a prize, all they got was a bad score. If you was the last one done you sort of did get a prize, and that prize was you tried your hardest and maybe even got a good score. When I think about quizzes or tests i get nervous because it is most likely a big grade and sometimes I don't understand that stuff like in math we had a quiz and I was nervous, because math isn't my best subject I've always struggled but when I was done I felt good because I took as long as I could and tried my hardest.

I think some people think they had to be the first ones done, the reason I think that is because maybe they thought they would get a prize for getting done first but the truth is they didn't get a prize, all they got was a bad score! If you was the last one done you sort of did get a prize, and that prize was you tried your hardest and maybe even got a good score. When I think about quizzes or tests I get nervous but even though I get nervous I still try!

That's why I believe hard work is important!

Anonymous said...

I think that hard work is important because it helps through life with your education. Hard work helps not only with your education and your grades.Hard work get you were you wanna go in life.

Everybody has a dream or goals they wanna achieve.If you don't have goals or dreams think of one if you can't ask somebody there are tons of people around you.Its not to late now.

Think+work=ACHIEVE

Anonymous said...

The people the took their time I give my respect to even if they had a bad grade they still tried their hardest and they want a good grade. The people that did not take their time and tried even if they had a good grade they still did not try their hardest. I think hard work pays off in the end because if you take your time and try you will be rewarded.

Anonymous said...

My comment is about the Study Island test call Benchmark test #1. After testing my teacher made a graph that showed how fast we all went. I was not that happy with how fast I went. As I thought he said that "Ever thought the kid at the bottom of the list took 45 minutes I still have respect for him."
So I thought well so test was for a grade but it was a test to see how fast we went. So now I understand why he did that to see how fast people went. So that is what this comment is all about. How fast people went.

Anonymous said...

Hard work?People that take their time are hard worker's and there for they should get a better grade for taking their time and making sure everything's right and even if they didn't get a good grade its important that they took their time and that's a hard worker.

If you had a test and you were done with in seven minutes like the post said that show that your not a hard worker and you didn't really care about what grade you got so next time you have a test or homework think about if you a hard worker first.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Mr.McGuire is right if you spend more time on benchmark you'll get a better grade. If you try your hardest and don't do the best at least you tried.They took most of the class period thinking. I think hard work does pays off.Just try your hardest and NEVER give up.

The people on bottom I have the most respect Because they were went back and read the passage.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Mcguire, in your post i agree with you that mostly everyone who didn't take their time got horrible score and mostly everyone who took their time got a wonderful or descent score. I think most of the people who got a bad score and only used 4-9 minutes got a bad score because they couldn't have read the passages and they probably guessed because I can't even read half a passage in three minutes let alone three passages and all the answers done in four to five minutes that's ridiculous. I think your blog has a good point

your friend, Oakley

Anonymous said...

I think people that take their time and work hard should be rewarded.

Drawing is just like working. If you take your time it will look very good but if you hurry it will look sloppy. Some of the greatest paintings in the world took up to a week.

Starting out in Study Island I wasn't taking my time and I didn't get a very good grade. But I started taking my time and I got A 100%.

Anonymous said...

I think that working harder can make you have better grades and more of a success. So when you work harder you read everything and check to make sure you have everything.

On the benchmark test I think that I worked hard and read everything. But the people who didn't work hard probably didn't read the passage. So if they didn't read the passage they probably guessed because they didn't know what the question was about.

Maybe they didn't work hard because they wanted to have more free time or they wanted to finish first so people would think that those who finished first were smarter than everybody else.

So lets hope that next time everyone works hard and gets a good grade!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Mr. McGuire I think the chart was a great idea.I think I did great because I went back in the passages and read it over then I took a while to answer the question. I may not have passed but then again I may have. If I didn't I know deep down inside I did. I think I did my best no matter what.

Anonymous said...

The Study Island benchmark test was pretty easy. Someone who reads the story gets a good grade. Someone who doesn't read the story gets a bad grade. I read the story but picked the wrong answers I thought It was. So yeah I did my best.