How To Help Your Child Prepare for Exams

Children are not usually a fan of exams, to say the least, but they are unfortunately an unavoidable aspect of school life. Parents can alleviate some of the stress of exams and revision by helping them get ready properly, as discussed below by a senior school in Hertfordshire. There are a range of things you can do, and you don’t have to be a science whizz or a maths genius yourself in order to help your child with their revision.

Encourage Positivity

Begin by demonstrating a positive attitude towards the exams and your child’s learning in general. When you recognise that they have been working hard, be sure to applaud them for their efforts. Not only will this help with your child’s confidence, it also shows the effort they put in is far more valuable than the outcome at the end. Children react positively to praise and will be more likely to repeat the behaviour again in the future if they have been rewarded for it in some way. Exam period is a demanding time for youngsters and can lead to anxiety. When it comes to looking after our children’s mental health, it is our job to help lift their spirits when we can, so that they can cope with the stress effectively.

Create A Revision Timetable

One helpful thing you can do to assist your child is to prepare a revision timetable with them prior to exam period starting. The earlier you do this, the more confident your child will feel when they enter the exam room. The two of you can consider any specific topics that your child might have been finding difficult, based on reports and feedback from teachers, and add in some extra revision time for those subject areas into the timetable. It may even be useful to hire a private tutor to help with those areas, or maybe persuade your child to join a lunch or after-school revision club if there is one available.

Encourage Down Time

Be sure to encourage your child to take regular breaks during their revision sessions so that they can rest and socialise. It might be worth adding these into the timetable too. We need to allow our children to be children. Studies have shown that little and often is the best approach with regards to studying, as opposed to lengthy hours at their desk. After all, you don’t want your child to start getting irritable or uncomfortable, because they won’t be able to concentrate properly.

Acknowledge Exams Aren’t Everything

While we all want our children to achieve the best they can academically, it’s also important to remind both them and ourselves that there’s more to life than exams. Every child is different and excel in different areas. While you may have raised a science lover, other children may be more creative or sporty. It’s important to not only acknowledge these differences but to encourage them too.

This is a collaborative post.