For several weeks, Reanna Bhola and her sixth-grade classmates at Intermediate School 126 in Astoria, Queens, spent part of nearly every day focused on test preparation. First it was reading, with sample passages, questions and review sheets mirroring the actual tests.

Then came math. They did work sheets full of word problems from previous tests, and as the critical time came — three days of state math exams began on Wednesday — the students concentrated each day on test content, including double periods twice a week for what felt like “every second” of class, Reanna said.

Even over spring break, she said, her teacher asked the class to work on answering questions in under two minutes. “Every day, my teacher told me to at least spend 20 or 30 minutes practicing,” she said.

On Dec. 30, the day she was announced as New York City’s schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña denounced an overemphasis on test preparation as the dark underbelly of the previous administration’s data-driven reforms, telling an approving crowd, “We’re going to do all we can to roll that back to focus on the best quality teaching as opposed to test prep.”