Furrowed brows. Bitten nails. Fluttering tummies. Outbursts of frustration and anxiety. All these symptoms and more will be present in households with 16 and 18 year olds over the next few weeks as we move into public exam season. Not, I hasten to add, amongst those who are taking the exams, many of whom will be disconcertingly calm as the various tests loom, but amongst their increasing frazzled parents. Are they revising enough? Are they revising properly? Do they really need their phone to revise? Do they need a tutor? How can I help?
For many parents, watching their sons or daughters go through GCSE or A Level exams is a gruelling experience. Despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that mums and dads took exams when they were at school, the bewildering variety of advice, good and bad, available on the internet together with their child’s apparently nonchalant approach to their work all mean that parents can feel powerless to help.
There’s no doubt that there is a good deal of obfuscation about. Many commentaxtors, no doubt with the best of intentions, downplay the importance of revision and indeed public exams, arguing that the focus on grades is having an adverse effect on the mental health of young people. Others will point to educational technology as a panacea for the drudgery of revision; rather than pen and paper, laptops and mobile phones provide a quick and easy way to revise, magically transmitting the information from their screens into youngsters’ heads smoothly and painlessly.
This was highlighted recently when Barnaby Lenon, Chair of the Independent Schools Council and the ex-headmaster of Harrow, stated that “exam grades are made in the Easter holidays” and advised a solid seven hours of revision each day during that holiday period. The reaction was predictably uproarious. Mr Lenon was accused of being out of touch with youngsters today, talking to only a privileged elite, piling on pressure to fragile adolescents and so on. More sensible folk, usually teachers, pointed out that quality revision was not necessarily directly related to time spent revising; it was all too easy for children to spend time on inefficient or ineffective means of revising, when much more could be achieved in much less time by using better techniques.
My experience both as a student and as a teacher tells me that, probably reassuringly, effective techniques for revision really haven’t changed very much over the years. There really aren’t any shortcuts to success, particularly at GCSE, which is an exam where hard work carries pupils a long way. My advice for revision is very simple. First, whilst it is possible to spend a lot of time in fruitless revision as some state, it is simply not the case that there are easy shortcuts to success. Revision requires time and pupils should be working two or three hours a day when they are at school and four to six when study leave begins. That sounds a lot, but with a properly constructed revision timetable, which importantly is adhered to, can allow that time to be spent without burnout or panic. Revision needs to be active, distilling notes and committing to memory, rather than just rereading the text book. Frequent selftesting is key to knowing where their weaknesses are as well as providing encouragement that progress is being made. Pupils should try to recreate the exam environment at home; sit at a desk, don’t lie on the bed, no music, no TV and, most importantly, no mobile phone. Nothing is more distracting than checking every five minutes for a text or message. Online quizzing is fine, but be sceptical of any other reason for keeping the phone on. Revision is tough, time consuming and often tedious. But, nothing is better for the mental health of youngsters is the knowledge that they are going into a public exam fully prepared for the challenge.
If you are one of those parents this year, I wish you strength and fortitude!