Studying for exams: our top 10 tips
/by Gabbie Jerrit, Academic Tutor specialising in science
With SATs, GCSEs, A-Levels, Common Entrance and more, it is inevitable that your child will face the experience of exams or tests during their school life.
So here are a few pointers for you, the parents, to help your children through their exam times - particularly those studying for GCSE and A Levels (Key Stage 3). As a teacher whose own children are just old enough for competitive examinations, I’m becoming aware that the real victims of the emphasis on exams are in fact us, the parents. I may have named my first few grey hairs after particularly difficult pupils, but it’s your own stressed kids who will lose it, declare they hate you and run off to hide.
1) Know what syllabus you are doing
Kids need to know what they need to know. I always thought this is obvious, but a surprising number of pupils have no idea what exam board that they are doing for a particular subject (it could be OCR, AQA, and EdExcel among others) and whether they are doing the A or B variant if one exists. Their teacher almost certainly told them at the start of the year, so make them look in their files and, if it’s not apparent there, check the school’s or college’s website or give them a ring.
2) Get a copy of the syllabus
If the school hasn’t supplied the list of topics that the students need to know for their A-level or GCSE, print it out from the exam board’s website. They are pretty easy to find through Google. Syllabuses are vital as a checklist for students and to help them see how the different topics fit together. Make sure your student reads it and doesn’t get a horrible surprise. Every so often schools teach the wrong topic: it’s rare, but it’s unforgivable, so be certain that your school isn’t going to be the one to hit the papers this year. I have been in the room where an English paper turned out to be about a totally different book, and despite being neither an English teacher nor a student, I still felt the bowel-clenching horror.
3) Make the copy of the syllabus their best friend
Your student needs to be ticking off topics as they go along: I used to do it in pencil, so I could use it again. The school may have presented the topic list in a slightly more user-friendly form such as a programme of study but, whichever you have, use it to judge the revision time available. If they have twelve big topics, they need to allocate time to all twelve. It may not be the same amount of time – school tests may mean they know some topics well already – but they are all important. It is much easier to pass by getting some of the marks on every exam question than by getting full marks on half the paper and leaving half blank.
4) Difficult topics need to be identified
Hopefully, your student is a good enough learner to know what they struggle with already but, if not, a quick read of the syllabus will identify the stuff that stirs no memories at all, or that gave them nightmares the first time round. Lots of students hope that these topics will just go away. They won’t. You may try to help them yourselves, and sometimes that works, but bear in mind that parents are generally the recipients of the worst of their kids’ behaviour, even when trying to help.
Therefore, someone more detached may be more useful. We would say find a tutor, obviously, but if you can’t, an older sibling or a neighbour may be able to help. The BBC Bitesize website and YouTube can also be handy. Just don’t let them sink into denial that the topic exists.
5) Find out what kind of revision works for them
Some people read things and take them in very well. I don’t. I need to be active to be sure my brain isn’t wandering off. Some people write beautiful revision notes in many colours: I always found that beautifying the notes could waste hours too easily. My personal favourite was writing key words in the margin of my class notes in pencil because it kept me awake and was quick, but your student should try all the different methods that they can. Recording themselves speaking can be great for languages if they can get over how silly their voice sounds when they play it back. Remembering how to do scientific practicals by acting them out worked well for me but, again, they will have to get over feeling daft.
6) Get them to be honest with themselves about what works
As so many exams (principally GCSE and A-levels) happen in the summer, it would be lovely to revise in the garden on a sunny day. My experience as teacher and student suggests that this never actually works for anyone. By the time they have dealt with gusts of wind, a bee, and finding the sunblock, it’s usually time to go to the loo. I also have suspicions about how useful revising with friends is really. If a friend is going to shame them into being quiet and staying still, that’s great, but the temptation to gossip is huge. There is some evidence that having music on helps if it is familiar to them already, but I always found it distracting, although it was bizarrely fine if I was doing Maths. Trial and error will tell them what suits them. I think sessions of fifty minutes with ten minutes break are the best: they may need your gentle reminders that the break has now finished.
7) Handle revision guides with care
Revision guides are excellent for making sure that you have covered everything but remember that they are written to be summaries. Your student may need to consult their notes or a textbook for a deeper explanation of a particular topic in order to understand it properly, or to answer long questions about it.
8) Encourage them not to compare themselves with others
Friends will say unhelpful things like “I’ve revised all of History already!” They may have, in their eyes, but they may not have done it well. They may also say that they aren’t getting any work done when actually they are managing a bit. Encourage your student to stay on your own course of study without feeling worried by what others are doing.
9) Reassure them that it won’t matter if they can’t sleep the night before
Many people don’t sleep well the night before and then panic because they aren’t asleep and are thus obviously going to fail. Adrenaline – our ‘flight or flight’ hormone - carries everyone through on the day and they will summon up amazing amounts of knowledge under pressure. They may end the exam feeling like death, but that’s fine. Try to make sure they are eating healthily - lots of fruit and veg and perhaps a multivitamin - over the whole exam period to keep themselves healthy.
10) Make sure they turn up
Schools and colleges generally do their best to find students who don’t arrive on time for exams, but they can only do so much. If you have to be out when they need to leave, make sure someone else is checking in on them just in case they sleep through their alarm. Keep some emergency cash and taxi numbers somewhere in case the buses or trains or family cars play up. Don’t encourage them to swap notes with their friends afterwards about what the answers were. They can’t do anything about it now, anyway, so help them to relax and enjoy themselves. They may feel aimless and strange without having some revision do to at first, but don’t worry, that won’t last long!
We hope you find these tips useful and that the revision and ensuing exam period go well for your child and you.
If you think you’d like some extra academic support for your child then do talk to us about private tuition. We can establish what support is best for your child in their particular situation. Call Sheila on 07980 565632 or email sheila@discoverandbe.com