The first step is to establish whether your child actually has a speed problem. If they are slow because they do not understand the underlying concept, timed practice alone will not solve the issue.

Build accuracy first.

Once the relevant skills are secure, introduce strategies for improving efficiency.

1. Recognise common structures

Students who recognise familiar problem types can select strategies faster.

2. Break complex questions into steps

Instead of repeatedly rereading a long problem, identify what is known, what needs to be found and which information matters.

3. Estimate before calculating

Estimation can sometimes eliminate clearly incorrect options quickly.

4. Use strategic skipping

If a question is consuming too much time, move on and return later when appropriate.

5. Practise under gradually increasing time pressure

Start with comfortable timing. Reduce the available time gradually as accuracy improves.

6. Analyse slow questions

Do not only review incorrect answers. Identify questions that were correct but took significantly longer than expected.

This distinction is important.

A student who answers 90% correctly but spends too long on certain question types needs an efficiency strategy, not necessarily more content instruction.

The objective is to develop automaticity in foundational skills while teaching students when to persist, when to move on and how to allocate limited exam time effectively.