The GCSE year can be extremely stressful for both you and your child. You want them to reach their full potential, obtain the outcomes they deserve, and experience as little stress or worry as possible along the way. All parents, understandably, question how they might assist their child in learning and revising, but it can be difficult to know where to begin. So, we’re here to assist. We polled our amazing instructors to find the six best strategies to help your child revise for their GCSEs.
Use the suggestions in this post as a starting point, and then personalize it to your specific child and how they work best. For additional personalized help on studying you should also have a look at the Benefits of tuition.
Learn About GCSEs
Before you can adequately support your child through their GCSEs, you must first understand the GCSE courses they are taking. It’s also a good idea to find out what your child will be asked to do in the tests. Don’t worry, this does not imply that you must return to school and re-learn the GCSE subjects! The trick is to spend some time researching these topics:
● Subjects
● Exam boards
● Broadly what content is included
● The structure of the exams
● Key dates for mock exams, coursework and eventually the real exams
This fundamental knowledge is simple to obtain, yet it is critical for correctly assisting your youngster to accomplish outstanding results. Begin by researching the exam board websites for your child’s courses. You should also talk to your child’s school about important dates and
mock tests. They will also be able to keep you up to speed on your child’s progress and the main areas for review.
Create A Revision Timetable
This is perhaps the most crucial piece of advice we can give to anyone studying for their GCSEs. It is critical to developing a revision strategy early in year 11. Establish the main themes for revision each week until the tests. Revision periods should be “frequent and brief.” All current research indicates that regular revision is essential for effective long-term learning.
Our brains lose information the longer we don’t revise things once we initially learn them. The best approach to proceed is to do a tiny amount of revision every week during the term. Yes, it is tough to encourage the young adolescent to focus on revision all through the school year, yet if they can, they will see the results in their mock tests and, eventually, the real exams.
This should just take 45 minutes to an hour per week at first. You can then assist them in increasing their revision time in the months preceding the tests. Maintaining a flexible revision schedule makes this procedure considerably easier.
Make The Revision Effective And Efficient
With all of this revision going on during the academic year, you may be concerned about the work overload your child may endure. The easiest method to avoid stress and save time working throughout the year is to revise swiftly and effectively. With a few simple strategies, you can ensure that your child gets the most out of brief, weekly review sessions.
Essentially, revision should be a proactive rather than a passive process. This means that rather than merely reading notes, students should be ‘performing’ tasks and revising skills. Revising in this manner will put your child considerably ahead of the majority of other GCSE students who view revision as a tedious process of going through a revision guide or practice book. With an active approach to revision, your child may get the most out of the time spent on it. This efficiency is derived through active tasks such as answering practice questions and learning by applying skills and information.
Encourage your youngster to spend 45 minutes each day answering practice questions in their chosen subject. Then have them utilise the online mark method to thoroughly mark their work. Concentrate on what the examiner is looking for. Then, urge your child to re-answer the questions, paying close attention to what they’ve learnt through the marking exercise.
Set Up A Good Working Area
Creating a specialised learning environment is one of the best strategies to aid in the development of efficient and successful revision. It’s not enough to revise on the couch in front of the TV! The learning place could be a spare room or even a desk in a quiet room corner. The goal is to ensure that the environment is peaceful, free of distractions, and focused on learning.
You can design the room to limit distractions by allowing only work tools in the learning area. Try rules such as keeping the smartphone in another room and the laptop locked on revision
resources. Your child can also contribute to the space’s personalization by displaying revision notes or pictures on the walls.
Keep revision sessions reasonably short (40-minutes) with 10-15 minute breaks in between to assist retain attention. Encourage your youngster to leave the revising area during these breaks. This trains the mind to stay focused throughout revision time, with the reward of a well-deserved rest never far away!
Look For Great Resources
A short Google or Amazon search will reveal how many various learning and revision resources are available at the GCSE level. Finding high-quality resources might be tough.
Quality resources can make or break a project. They should include guidance on major topic areas as well as a variety of practice questions so that your child can refine their skills and efficiently revise.
It’s also worth noting that you don’t have to spend a bunch on GCSE revision materials to help your child. There are numerous excellent free resource websites available, including:
● Free revision aids and worksheets are available.
● BBC bitesize is a timeless classic for a reason.
● AQA, OCR, and Edexcel exam board websites for past papers and schemes of work.
Use these free materials as a foundation for your child’s learning. Important text materials, practice questions, and notes should also be provided by the school to aid with revision.
Ask For Help When You Need It
Finally, and most crucially, both kids and parents should be prepared to seek revision assistance when necessary. Nobody knows everything, and asking questions and discussing the issues can help us swiftly increase our knowledge base. It’s the same with GCSE revision. It is also essential in the “active” editing process indicated in step 3. Students learn to think critically through asking questions and discussing topics.
As a parent, you should ask questions and encourage your children to discuss and start dialogues about their subjects, and if an exam coaching centre could be of use, it’s wise to investigate further.
There is a lot to consider here, and it can appear to be a difficult task to effectively assist your child in revising for GCSEs. Following these six basic actions will go a long way toward assisting your child in reaching their full potential.
