What are the biggest challenges Luxembourg students face with Proctored Writing Sample timing and how can they overcome them?

Let’s be honest, 30 minutes feels like nothing when you’re used to Luxembourg’s education system, where good writing means taking time to research, reflect, and revise. Your child has probably been trained to be thoughtful and thorough, which are fantastic qualities. But this test rewards speed and decisiveness, which can feel completely foreign.

The biggest hurdle? Decision paralysis. Luxembourg students often spend too much time trying to craft the “perfect” thesis or find the “best” examples because that’s what good writing has always meant to them. In this format, a good decision made quickly beats a perfect decision made slowly.

Here’s the timing formula that works: 5 minutes to read the prompt and jot down a quick outline, 20 minutes of focused writing (no stopping to perfect sentences), and 5 minutes for a final read-through to catch obvious errors. The key is training their brain to commit to ideas quickly and move forward, even if they think of “better” examples halfway through.

One more crucial tip: practice thinking entirely in English during timed sessions. Many Luxembourg students are so used to thinking multilingually that they don’t realize they’re losing time on mental translation. With practice, they can learn to harness their multilingual advantage—using their diverse perspectives and experiences—while thinking and writing in one language throughout the entire process. It takes practice, but once they get it, they often outperform monolingual students because they simply have more interesting things to say.