Learning how to revise!
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Learning how to revise!
Ds has his year 7 exams shortly. Revision is currently marginally less painful then sticking pins into myself and takes soooooooooo long to achieve soooooooooo little.
Please, please, please can anyone give me any advice as to how to motivate my day dreamy, distracted son!
Please, please, please can anyone give me any advice as to how to motivate my day dreamy, distracted son!
Re: Learning how to revise!
Is there anything riding on the results because option one is to do nothing and let the results speak for themselves.
More pro actively:
Devise a reasonable revision plan together.
Check what directions the teachers have given - what to revise, types of question etc.
Focus on interactive revision - that in itself reduces day dreaming etc:
Making revision notes in form of bullet points or diagrams etc.
Look, cover, write ( whiteboards useful) anything to be committed to memory.
Practice questions: text books often have questions at the end of each chapter or section.
Spilt sessions into short chunks ( 20 mins?) with brief breaks ( 3 mins ? ) built in involving standing up, stretching, getting a drink...and a 'treat' at the end ( eg 20 mins on x box but involving fresh air if possible!)
At this point there is a very long road ahead so from experience I would say don't put on too much pressure. The most important thing over the next few years is to discover what works for him. He needs to realise that sitting in front of a text book day dreaming rarely helps
but its good to try out different ways at this stage.
More pro actively:
Devise a reasonable revision plan together.
Check what directions the teachers have given - what to revise, types of question etc.
Focus on interactive revision - that in itself reduces day dreaming etc:
Making revision notes in form of bullet points or diagrams etc.
Look, cover, write ( whiteboards useful) anything to be committed to memory.
Practice questions: text books often have questions at the end of each chapter or section.
Spilt sessions into short chunks ( 20 mins?) with brief breaks ( 3 mins ? ) built in involving standing up, stretching, getting a drink...and a 'treat' at the end ( eg 20 mins on x box but involving fresh air if possible!)
At this point there is a very long road ahead so from experience I would say don't put on too much pressure. The most important thing over the next few years is to discover what works for him. He needs to realise that sitting in front of a text book day dreaming rarely helps
but its good to try out different ways at this stage.Re: Learning how to revise!
From experience both my own and my DC option one doesn't work. I really think this is something all schools should be tackling head on. In my opinion it is the reason private school pupils have the edge re official exams. My DSs head told us parents revision should start well in advance for my Y7s exam. I really wish someone had told him that, okay they did but a week before exams were due to startKB wrote:Is there anything riding on the results because option one is to do nothing and let the results speak for themselves.
More pro actively:
Devise a reasonable revision plan together.
Check what directions the teachers have given - what to revise, types of question etc.
Focus on interactive revision - that in itself reduces day dreaming etc:
Making revision notes in form of bullet points or diagrams etc.
Look, cover, write ( whiteboards useful) anything to be committed to memory.
Practice questions: text books often have questions at the end of each chapter or section.
Spilt sessions into short chunks ( 20 mins?) with brief breaks ( 3 mins ? ) built in involving standing up, stretching, getting a drink...and a 'treat' at the end ( eg 20 mins on x box but involving fresh air if possible!)
At this point there is a very long road ahead so from experience I would say don't put on too much pressure. The most important thing over the next few years is to discover what works for him. He needs to realise that sitting in front of a text book day dreaming rarely helps
and he blamed me for not telling him sooner - I had but obviously he didn't listen.Also they need to be taught how to revise. None of mine know how to revise effectively and neither did I until frankly it was too late. And no they are not going to take naggy old mother's advice on this one.
Re: Learning how to revise!
I'm a bit confused about the thinking behind exams in Years 7, 8 & 9 at DD's school too. They used to have all three year groups sitting exams simultaneously, which must have been h*** for the poor teachers marking them. Now the exams are spread over three weeks but homework is still set for subjects when it isn't their exam. Trying to keep everyone happy is quite stressful.
Teaching them how to revise is very important. Some teachers do it well, but a few do forget, I suppose, that these skills don't come to the majority automatically.
Teaching them how to revise is very important. Some teachers do it well, but a few do forget, I suppose, that these skills don't come to the majority automatically.
Re: Learning how to revise!
My son is at Independent School and they run revision technique sessions which I believe all schools should run from say Yr 7. We had a chat recently and decided he could benefit from making flash cards throughout the year when they are covering new topics so that when it comes to exam time all the information is already at hand.
Re: Learning how to revise!
My DS is doing what I would describe as'proper' exams for the first time in Yr 8 - no notes or essay plans, just what he can bring in his memory. To much rolling of eyes, he has written out a table for each subject, with separate columns for each topic, eg, for RE, Creation, Eucharist (Catholic school!) and the sub topics beneath them. This way, he knows what he has to cover for each subject. He's then written out a timetable for the next two and half weeks listing what he will cover and when so he knows he's given himself enough time to cover everything (and so, when life (or swimming practice!) gets in the way, he knows what he's missed!).
Would strongly back the use of flash cards - it is much easier to learn, I think, by asking yourself questions - something I only discovered at post-grad! - so question on the front and bullet point answers on the back. This way, your learning is ready to be used when you need to recall it in the exam.
Of course, this is all theory so far - we'll see what the results are in two weeks!
Would strongly back the use of flash cards - it is much easier to learn, I think, by asking yourself questions - something I only discovered at post-grad! - so question on the front and bullet point answers on the back. This way, your learning is ready to be used when you need to recall it in the exam.
Of course, this is all theory so far - we'll see what the results are in two weeks!
Re: Learning how to revise!
I have one twin in an indie, the other in GS, both taking Y7 exams but thankfully one is already done (half term revision) and the other's are coming up next week (Mallory Towers type, when finished term finishes a few days later so its yippee all the way!)
Anyway, whilst I don't normally advocate (though I don't manage to avoid) helicoptor parenting, I do feel this is an area that we can guide and help esp in Y7. I helped both boys devise a revision timetable, based on hour long sessions which include 2 or 3 subjects. Our boys seem happy to work for an hour without a break, although they come and ask me to 'test' them which I guess does give them a change of scene.
- For the DS at GS he worked for an hour on, hour off through a few days in half term (we were away for three so he only did an hour on those days) - probably the others he averaged about 4 hour long sessions.
- For other DS, obviously his work is after school and we have just built in one hour per day but he started last thursday so thats given him about 10 days plus during exams.
- For both I am a big advocate of the star or spider diagram - subject in the middle, main points off on satellite lines. This has worked really really well. Its quite superficial of course, but it gives them something to learn, which they can then talk around which takes their own skills of thinking rather than just learning by rote.
Obviously no results for DS at Indie yet, but DS in GS got between 75% and 95% in them all, except computing, which he forgot about, doh!!!! Obviously other DS is taking different exams, we don't know how hard the exams were etc etc.
We also feel that Y7 exams are all about learning to revise, learning to plan your revision, learning to actually 'do' the exams without being overwhelmed. We felt quite strongly that we didn't want them to be dominated by revision this year, an hour an evening is plenty if in school all day.
Anyway, whilst I don't normally advocate (though I don't manage to avoid) helicoptor parenting, I do feel this is an area that we can guide and help esp in Y7. I helped both boys devise a revision timetable, based on hour long sessions which include 2 or 3 subjects. Our boys seem happy to work for an hour without a break, although they come and ask me to 'test' them which I guess does give them a change of scene.
- For the DS at GS he worked for an hour on, hour off through a few days in half term (we were away for three so he only did an hour on those days) - probably the others he averaged about 4 hour long sessions.
- For other DS, obviously his work is after school and we have just built in one hour per day but he started last thursday so thats given him about 10 days plus during exams.
- For both I am a big advocate of the star or spider diagram - subject in the middle, main points off on satellite lines. This has worked really really well. Its quite superficial of course, but it gives them something to learn, which they can then talk around which takes their own skills of thinking rather than just learning by rote.
Obviously no results for DS at Indie yet, but DS in GS got between 75% and 95% in them all, except computing, which he forgot about, doh!!!! Obviously other DS is taking different exams, we don't know how hard the exams were etc etc.
We also feel that Y7 exams are all about learning to revise, learning to plan your revision, learning to actually 'do' the exams without being overwhelmed. We felt quite strongly that we didn't want them to be dominated by revision this year, an hour an evening is plenty if in school all day.
