Get better exam grades without stressing!

Kip McGrath Education Centres in Hull have been kindly sending me useful articles packed full of hints and tips to help your child’s learning journey. In this one they look at reducing the stress of studying for exams……

The new style GCSEs are tough, coursework is no longer an option, and grades depend on performing well in stressful exam conditions. Yet, very little (if any) of the school timetable is allocated to study techniques. This is particularly tough for students who struggle with transferring short-term learning into embedded knowledge (i.e. most of us)!

Weak memory is an issue for many students, especially those with dyslexia and other related Specific Learning Differences (SpLDs) and revision can heap even more worry and stress onto already anxious students.

This guide has a whole month’s worth of ideas and resources to help students (and parents/carers) get to grips with stress-free studying that works!

Our rules

• If you know how to study, you can achieve better results in less Who wouldn’t want that?
• Don’t write yourself off before you’ve even started. A positive attitude makes all the difference!
• Keep it short – sprints generate far more energy and excitement than marathons.
• Mix it up – try and use activities that use auditory/hearing, visual and hands-on methods.

Your Unstoppable Teen https://unstoppableteen.com/is a hugely useful website and free downloadable app focussing on revision and improving grades as well as physical and mental wellbeing. It has podcasts, weekly emails, and excellent study advice

• Free download “21 Effective Study Skills PLUS 2 Super Learning Strategies to Help You Succeed in Tests & Exams.”
• Weekly emails with study tips
• Podcasts – we particularly like ‘How to Study Better’ https://unstoppableteen.com/how-to-study-better/

Active v Passive Learning

Have you heard the following quote from Benjamin Franklin: ‘tell me, and I forget, teach me, and I may remember, involve me, and I learn?’ It’s proven that people learn better if they’re actively involved in what they’re doing. You may not be surprised to hear that reading a textbook is a passive activity, and you’re likely to forget most of what you read!

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a different revision activity for every day of the month – so mix it up and try doing at least 2 different activities every day. With GCSEs looming, a small amount of revision every day (starting now if you haven’t already!) is really going to pay off in May/June.

A study activity for every day of the month

• Summarise a passage in 15 words max (harder than it sounds!)
• Make a spider-diagram
• Think of 3-5 real-life examples of what you’ve read
• Decide which is the best of your examples
• List 50 mini questions about the subject (imagine testing someone else)
• Write answers to your mini questions
• Write a study plan for the week ahead
• Keep a reflective study journal
• Sum up the 3 most important points of a lesson/chapter
• What is the most critical aspect, and why?
• Make a wallchart or large plan and link aspects together
• Decide which is the best book you are using and why
• Which section of the book is most interesting or useful? Why?
• Pretend you disagree with everything you’re reading and explain why. Argue your case. What examples would you use to support this?
• Invent titles for essays or reports and spend 5 minutes writing a plan
• List the key points for one aspect of your studies
• Draw a picture or symbol for each point
• Discuss your ideas/difficulties
• Contribute to an online chat/discussion or start one
• Write the main points of an essay/answer on cards/sticky notes and move them around to explore different structures
• Teaching topics to others is a great way to learn. Make a PowerPoint presentation about what you’re revising and teach it to someone else (even your pet)!
• Create podcasts using voice memos on your phone and then listen back to them on the bus or walking to school.
• The app Chegg Flashcards https://www.chegg.com/flashcards is fab and free and can’t get lost, eaten or smothered in jam! Use this app to test yourself anywhere randomly, anytime
• Even good old-fashioned revision cards work better on the move. We love Wilko’s version: https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-stay-magic-revision-cards/p/0478651
• Create big, colourful posters or a mind map for each topic
• Revise different subjects in different rooms in your house. Visualise the room to trigger your memory in the exam
• Invent mnemonics for factual terms or spellings (Big Elephants Always Understand Small Elephants = BECAUSE)
• Create acronyms to synthesise information into just one word (doesn’t need to be a real word). Google some examples.
• Write out your notes a few times, condensing them down each time to fewer and fewer words that will trigger your memory of the subject.
• If your assessment includes a presentation, practise in front of someone you know, in the mirror or on video.
• If your assessment includes a practical component, use role-play as an effective way of putting your knowledge into practice, before the examination.

If that doesn’t get your revision off to a flying start, would you believe you can even improve your exam grades in just 1 hour?

Let us show you how in our FREE, 1-hour workshop that includes your own exclusive revision toolkit to take away. Anyone can join in, it’s never too late! Strategies for:

• Time management and organisation
• Goal setting and motivation
• Revision plans
• Exam technique
• Stress management

At Kip McGrath, Tower Grange, 721 Holderness Road, HU8 9AR. Saturday 29th February 2020, 1.30 – 2.30pm. Book your place now* – email Liz at hulleast@kipmcgrath.co.uk or call (01482) 770906 or message her on facebook here. *Please note: places must be pre-booked. This session is takng place at Kip McGrath Hull East but will be staffed by both Hull East Director Liz and Hull West Director CJ.

Kip McGrath Hull East Centre (Holderness Rd Hull) Director, Liz Martin, is a Specialist Dyslexia Teacher and Assessor. She has a Post Graduate Certificate in Difficulties in Literacy Development (Dyslexia) and has a current practising certificate with PATOSS. Liz also has experience in teaching and supporting children and young people with Dyspraxia, Visual Stress and ADHD.

Kip McGrath Hull West (Anlaby) Centre Director, C-J Lingard, holds a Master of Social Science degree and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education. C-J’s teaching experience has taken her across the globe and into a diverse range of teaching environments. Kip McGrath Hull West offers tuition for primary and secondary students in English and Maths.

Find out more on the Kip McGrath website here.

A big Mumbler thanks to Kip McGrath for writing this useful article and for sponsoring an award in the upcoming Mumbler Awards! They are sponsoring the Best Over 5s Class or Activity, find out more about that here.