A timer changes what a quiz measures. Untimed, you are measuring whether a child understood the lesson. Timed, you are measuring recall under load. Both are worth knowing; they are not the same thing, and a class set to the wrong one gives you data you cannot act on.
Count up before you count down
Count-up mode records how long an attempt took without ever putting a number on the screen that is falling. For most children under eight, that is the whole benefit of timing with none of the cost. You still get the comparison across attempts.
A limit is an assessment instrument. Use it when you are assessing, and turn it off when you are teaching.
Lock it when it is an assessment
When the limit matters, lock it. The child sees “Set by your parent”, or by their teacher, and cannot change the mode mid-attempt. Pausing removes the question from the screen entirely, so a pause is a break rather than a research window.
Written by The PebbleYard team
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