There's still time for your teen to improve their exam grades - here's how.
So many of the teens I am currently working with are asking me if it is too late to get the grades that they really want if they have not been achieving them in the mocks.
The answer is most definitely no – it is absolutely not too late. When I hear teens say to me that they probably have now revised enough to pass so they might not do too much more revision for a particular topic, my heart sinks.
If your teen is now at a stage where they feel confident they can pass, imagine what they might be able to do with the time left available! I’ve seen teens move up 2 grades in these last 8 weeks. These last few weeks are when your teen can make the MOST significant difference to their grades.
Up until the Easter holidays, the emphasis is very much about finishing the content of the courses. This is now all finished. In the time that is left, your teen can put all their attention on applying their knowledge and learning how to maximise their scores.
By this point, it’s all about strategy: focusing on the right things in the amount of time they have left.
Here’s how you can help them do that.
Help your teen to visualise success
Our brains cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is visualised. We can use this to our advantage. Help your teen to close their eyes and be in the moment where they achieve success right now – what do they see? What do they hear? What do they say to themselves? How do they feel? Repeat this regularly so that the image becomes stronger and stronger. If they have been worrying (i.e. visualising failure), this is a particularly important exercise. With practice, the vision of success will become the new normal.
Help your teen create a revision timetable for each week
If your teen knows exactly what they are going to revise and when each day, it will be so much easier for them to just sit down and get on with it when they get home from school.
Be realistic about the amount of revision that they can do after a full day at school
By this stage, the best thing your teen can do is practise applying their knowledge to the questions that could come up in the exam, rather than just flicking through flashcards. They will discover what they really know and understand by DOING. Your teen might choose to focus on just one or two subjects per evening, which leads to my next tip …
Print the papers for your teen in advance
I have printed a stack of exam papers for my daughter so that she does not need to spend precious revision time (and brain power) finding the questions herself. That way all of her energy is channelled into productive learning.
You don’t have to sit there for hours printing them off yourself. You can send the files to a local printing shop and get them printed for you. Past papers for each subject at GCSE and A-level can be found here Past Papers – PMT (physicsandmathstutor.com). The mark schemes are also included. Your teen will learn so much from marking their own work. Get them to look at what they are doing brilliantly first, and then make a list of areas to focus on for improvement. This is the quickest and most effective way to improve grades.
Make sure that they take breaks to do something fun.
Brains do not work effectively when they are being crammed full of information all day long. Your teen needs fresh air, good food, exercise and fun to function at their best. Less really is more sometimes!
