Start Early! No one enjoys cramming and last-minute revision is stressful for all involved. Give your child the best chance of doing well and start early.
Make a timetable! Make a revision timetable with your child, you could use a Hyde Tutoring Template. Divide up topics and revise a little bit each day. Start with the topic your child is least confident with – this gets the hard stuff out of the way and gives them more time to come back to tricky topics for consolidation. If you are unsure where to start, ask your child’s teacher or tutor or do some mock tests to find out what areas need the most attention.
Make use of holiday time! Term time gets so busy with clubs and homework that it can be difficult to do a big revision blast. This is when the holidays can be really useful. Make sure to give your child some rest and some fun but also use the time wisely to get ahead with revision. You might want to consider signing up for a revision course, such as one of Hyde’s Tutoring courses. These can be a really good way of working through a lot of material in a short space of time. The holidays can also be a great way to consolidate material that takes longer to learn, for example learning vocabulary or reading set texts. For older children, the holidays can also be a good opportunity to prepare their revision folders; notes made in the Christmas holidays can be the notes they revise from in the Easter holidays.
Get a Tutor! Having a tutor can not only keep your child on track throughout the academic year but they can help so much when it comes to revision too. They can work through your child’s weakest areas and, unlike school, can set and go through practice papers one-on-one with your child. Try to find a tutor that suits and understands your family and start working with them early so they can get to know your child, how they learn, and what they need the most help with.
Try different revision techniques! There’s lots of ways to learn new information and you can encourage your child to try a range of learning techniques. They could make lots of spider maps, colour-code information, read aloud, or even make a rap song to remember facts and figures, they could record themselves reading an essay and listen back to it on a walk. Try a combination of using sound, visuals and movement and see what helps your child remember things the most.
Know what is needed from the exam! There are different exams that have different methods of testing your child. Make sure you know exactly what you and your child can expect on the day of the exam, and what they need to learn beforehand. Is the exam sat on a computer? Is it multiple choice? Will they need to write a story? Is it a module or for a specific exam board? This is another area where a tutor can really help. Make sure you tell your tutor what your exam board is or what schools you are applying for and they will know exactly what you need to do.
Incorporate past papers! If you make doing past papers just a standard part of the revision process, then it’s likely your child will find them less intimidating and less tedious. Doing past papers regularly can also be a great way to identify weak spots and to track progress.
Don’t forget about exam technique! Your child can spend months revising and learning but unless they are also taught good exam technique, they are not going to perform as well as they could do. This is typically an area where young children, however bright, need the most help with. Make sure your child understands how to keep control of their timings in an exam. Give them strategies to work through in an exam eg. Checklists/ process of elimination/ good planning/ showing working out. Make sure they are confident reading a mark scheme and can use that mark scheme to help them write the correct amount. Make sure they are checking their work as they go and leaving time to check at the end.
Make it fun! Revision doesn’t have to be lonely and boring. You might like to have a ‘revision playdate’ where your child can work with a friend and they test each other. They could do mock tests together and then mark each other’s answers. As a parent, you can quiz your child at the dinner table or get them to explain subject matter to you. Again, doing a revision course is a fun and sociable way to revise and it can be motivating for the children to work with others.
Stay calm! Lots of children (and their parents!) feel anxiety around exam time. Make sure your child is getting enough sleep and give them stress-busting techniques. Encourage them to view their exams not as a scary event but as an opportunity to show off all the hard work they have done. Help them stay motivated, make sure they have a calm and quiet place to work, reward hard work and give plenty of encouragement.
