What is a Slow Processing Speed & How it Can Affect Students

Students who experience difficulties with processing speed are often not "found out" for a while as they have learned to overcome their challenges, either consciously or subconsciously.

However, as students progress through school and material becomes increasingly complex and sizeable, exam results can often not reflect either course work nor student capacity.

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Some students I've encountered have
come across a particular difficulty

that has them quite surprised and
quite confused.

So typically,
they might be academically quite smart,

perhaps IQ has been tested and
it's really quite high.

However, their results in exams have
been very poor despite doing what they

feel is considerable preparation and
it has everyone confused.

What's going on with this?

And something that's emerged that I've
been doing quite a lot work with is

a concept called slow processing speed.

Now, processing speed is literally
it tells what it says on the tin.

It's the ability of your brain to take
information in and to do something with

it, to process it, to understand how it
fits with everything else that you know.

So you might be taking it in either
by your ears or by your eyes or

by doing stuff, either which way,
it's about the ability to process.

And with some people,
that processing speed for whatever reason,

we don't know why, but
it's a little bit slower.

So, what does that mean?

In a classroom situation, it means that
the first time you encounter material,

it might take you longer than
the person sitting next to

you to really come to grips with what it
is that the teacher is talking about or

what this concept mean and how it fits
within the lexicon of everything else that

you have in your mind.

So that's the first thing and
in the classroom it can affect you, but

sometimes people are quite good
at hiding that and going away.

And going, well,
I can make up that time afterwards and

it's gonna take me a little bit longer
to understand that initial concept.

However, in an exam, slow processing
speed can massively affect you and

it can affect you in different ways.

First of all, you can be prone
to misinterpreting the question,

because you're zooming along.

You're under stress in an exam situation
and you're trying to be as fast

as possible, so you tend to
misinterpret the exam question.

You can miss steps.

So if there's more than one part to a
question, you can miss question part two.

You can make silly mistakes, particularly
once again, when you're feeling pressured.

Because that processing speed,
that ability for your memory and

that part of your brain to hold that
information and do something with it isn't

working as fast as you would like
it to at that particular time.

What then happens is that you
start getting flustered and

you start getting panicky, and that
sense of pressure in the exam increases.

And therefore, vicious circle.

We can end up making
more mistakes with that.

We can also have a situation where we get
a lot lower marks in our exams than we do

in our coursework which also contributes
to that additional confusion and

you can be in an exam reading an essay
question going, well, hang on.

I did really well in my
coursework on this area.

I don't understand why I'm
having difficulty with it now.

And because you're so
limited on time in an exam,

that slow processing speed can
be a real disadvantage for you.

So, what do you do?

The first thing you have to do is get it
tested and then apply for extra time.

Because without extra time,
it's not a level playing field for you.

It's doesn't mean that
you're as daft as a brush.

It simply means that you're going
to need that little bit longer

in order to process information and
that's absolutely fine.

I mean, I work with CEOs as well and
there are two different types of CEO.

There are those who make decision
straight up when they see something and

they go okay, I want it done like this,
like this, like this.

And there's the other type of CEO who
says, actually, I want to absorb this and

I want to process it before
I come up with a decision.

And technically speaking,
there's no right or

wrong, because it varies on the situation
and this is the same for you.

In a school situation, okay, just because
your processing speed is a bit slower,

doesn't me to say that you
should be disadvantaged.

So get tested and when it shows up
apply for that extra time as far as

the exam board is concerned, and
your school can help with that.

In a classroom situation,
ask for notes from your teacher.

So, you're not constantly
having to both write notes and

also process what's coming in.

In an ideal world,
perhaps get those notes beforehand, so

you can track what the teacher's saying
against the notes that you have.

So, you're not trying to
do too many things at once.

Assume that you're going to have
a longer preparation time when it

comes to doing your revision.

You're going to need to add in that
little bit of extra that perhaps your

best friend doesn't need to do.

Fine, it means you're going to
guarantee that you get things right and

you get the grades that you want.

It is what it is.

Make sure you do really
good time planning.

So with that extra time, make sure you've
time planned for your past papers.

So when you do practice papers,
make sure you add in that extra time and

how you're going to best use it as well.

That's one of the things that I do with
a lot of my students is that time planning

throughout the exam.

Because obviously, it's going to be
different when you have that extra time.

The main thing is really about
keeping that anxiety down and

if saying to yourself, if we've done that
planning, it's okay, I've planned for it.

I've done practice papers with it and

I can keep my brain flowing as opposed to
freezing, which is what we really want.

So if we're doing that and you're
feeling good, then you're going to have

far more of a chance to reduce silly
mistakes and also have, what I call,

a wide brain, wide eyes and the ability
to think outside the square and

also to pick up on all of the bits of
information that you need to access when

it comes to writing the more complex
answer to your exams as well, cuz panic

tends to make us quite narrow minded and
narrow focused as well as mistake prone.

So use anxiety reduction techniques and
I'm going to give you a little bit

of a progressive muscular relaxation
to show you how to use your breathing,

and also how to relax
your body a little bit.

So take a look at that, cuz that will
be in another one of my segments.

And then finally, at the end of your exam,
use the checking procedures.

Make sure you go back and you go right
what have I done In order to make sure

that I've written down what I
believe the right answer is.

And then if you do that,
the playing field is level.

You get the best opportunity and
hello, good marks.