11 Plus Exams Forum

My DC has joined secondary school and has lost all focus. Her school - although a very good school - has given very little homework so she has spent the year doing very little work outside school. DC was always hard working and academic - but has just stopped working as she seems to have just given up - PLEASE HELP? What should I do? We spend our time worrying about what school to send them to but what do we do when they get there and give up....... School says working as expected but DC won't (or can't grasp revision skills) and not working to prepare for end of year tests. Any advice greatly appreciated?????

This will sound harsh, but if school think she is on course, then let her mess up her end of year tests, this nay be the eye opener she needs to put in more effort during year 8. It took three crappy results on little Latin tests before son number one realised revising verbs on the 10 minute bus journey was not working! He is v lazy at revising, I do nag every morning, but at the end of the day it is his objective not mine. By secondary school the doe eyes and natural ability that helped them lead the pack in primary, no longer work, they have to realise that with a few harsh words on a report card or test paper!

I sat down with my dcs and we devised a revision timetable. Literally, it's a couple of subjects per day. I then schedule time for them to do it. Ie. morning - revision - rest of day is free. I try to be firm in getting them to sit down and revise, but usually facebook/minecraft/you tube gets turned on at some point during the revision hour.

Learning to revise is an art that many year 7s don't have. My year 9 dc really struggled in year 7. - I used to sit down and actively test him. Now in year 9 he seems to be much more organised and gets on with it himself. Using Latin as an example again, last year he was ready to drop it at the earliest opportunity. In a recent difficult test, he actually did quite well, and Latin took the reserve slot in his list of options.

I agree with SB3, sometimes letting them fail helps them to work out what they need to do.

I absolutely agree with south bucks! You can lead a horse to water etc... They have to learn to learn themselves. Y7 exams really aren't that big a deal so if they are going to screw up on any, this is the year to do it and it will be a learning experience for them! It is a real lesson to be top of the heap in primary and then realise that you have to do some work to come in the middle at secondary - but if they learn it themselves, they will know that for GCSEs/A levels/Degree and beyond! A gentle suggestion and/or the offer of help to draw up a timetable is as far as I go - plus the kind offer of snacks and drinks if anything actually does get done!!

When are the end of year exams? My dd1's y7 exams weren't until after the May/June half term - there's no way she would have started revising in the Easter holidays!

I don't think letting them fail or find their own way is the right thing to do.There may be a lot of reasons why they are not working to their potential.

I would set up and agree a time-table of study-active study-and monitor the results.

mon786 wrote:School says working as expected but DC won't (or can't grasp revision skills) and not working to prepare for end of year tests. Any advice greatly appreciated?????

I just wonder whether it is worth not worrying too much about it in year 7 - both DCs had very low key year 7 exams (with minimal revision) and I don't think the schools used the results for very much at that time - I think all that came later.

Allportico - dc2's exams are in two weeks time! Very early methinks.

Yes, that is early, and now seems a reasonable time to start. Was wondering about the OP's dd.

I would set up and agree a time-table of study

Tbh, you can set up and agree whatever you like, it doesn't make much difference if the child hasn't agreed too!

Are these end of year exams going to actually mean anything? Affect sets, etc? In my dc's cases, they didn't. (They were only setted for maths, and at that stage didn't need to revise for it to do well.) If not, I can't see the point in getting too worked up about them. If the only casualty of a bad mark is going to be your parental pride, then your child is going to have to find their own motivation - and it might take getting a bad mark to spur them on next year.

Yes, *ask* your child what the exam will cover, whether they think they know it all, what they might plan to do if they don't know it, do they even know how to revise, etc. But you can't make them do it, and seriously, if they don't do much preparation, and they don't do brilliantly well, then that's a great learning point.

Teachers will help - we do go through the work and 'lead' them gently in how to revise.