I revised mm, honestly, I did loads.

[RomanyQueen]

Is it just me or is it glaringly obvious that kids of year 10 onwards should be able to understand the basics of learning, I'm not talking serious lecture, but just basics to understand you can't revise what you didn't learn.

I've prepared a plan for what I'm doing over the holiday but you know that the plan won't work because they haven't learned how to plan.

I'm not teacher bashing here btw, just as much our responsibility as parents to get this through their skulls.

What do you do, if they just don't see it. You can try and explain even giving good reasons to save time and energy but do they listen.
Nah, it's just mum going on about where learning didn't take place.

Happy summer holidays folks, 2 weeks on Friday, for us, yeh!

[TeenTimesTwo]

I'm not quite with you.
Do you mean they were trying to:

• revise things not yet taught (crazy)
  
• revise things they didn't understand (pointless)
  
• revise but they don't know how (ineffective)
  
• revise but with an unreasonable plan (fooling themselves)
  

Our school does help the DC try to learn how to do this. DD is in the middle of y9 exams, and eg science had had them making revision cards, and they were given a table for a revision plan in school.

However for DD it would have been too little too late, and I had already done a plan & cards with her.

[Teacakeandalatte]

I think getting them a book about revising helps.

[LaMarschallin]

Good grief! There's already an exam on Meghan Markle?

[Zoflorabore]

I'm out the other side of this (just) as ds left school last Friday after his last GCSE.

He has Aspergers and is a real worrier so I knew he would want to make a start pretty early on with revision and he did but really struggled with "how" to revise.

What helped for us was buying sets of revision cards, normally on a metal ring which could be flipped rather than the loose ones which confused him more when they went off sequence.

Also we bought him a desk and set up a lovely study area in his room and bought every CGP revision guide possible ( some subjects like art and drama don't have them ) and found loads of revision apps which test you and even some podcasts as he found out he was an audio learner.

Ds had 3 sets of mocks. November, January and March which meant he had from last September to find his rhythm and decided to concentrate more on the subjects he struggled with which hopefully paid off.

Lastly, i bought him a different colour ring binder for each subject and all revision sheets/notes/information were added to them which meant the stuff he needed was all there at hand when he needed it.

Organisation definitely makes a difference.

[InMySpareTime]

I have one foot in each camp for this one.
DS constantly frustrates his teachers with his erudite intelligent contributions in class but woeful exam performance. He thinks revision is staring at the front page of mock exams with his phone in his other hand playing YouTube.
DD started making revision cards and a long term revision schedule (which she sticks to) in the first term of Y10.
I don't think it's down to the quality of teaching, they are just very different characters.

[bellinisurge]

I'm old. No one taught me how to revise at school. You just worked out a way that worked for you. Or didn't.

[Lifebi]

Is there a good revision book that any of you would recommend?
InMySpareTime, I sympathise as I have a similar 13 year old son who has to be connected to his phone while he tries to revise.
How do you convince your child that revision is important and can't be done with a YouTube video playing in the background?

[Tortoiselass]

The only exam I ever revised for in my life was my A level French, because I knew I couldn't pass that one if I didn't revise.

[XXVaginaAndAUterus]

I can remember buying revision books for my GCSEs.

I made a timetable (I'm sure you can download blank ones), and planned out equal blocks of time for each subject, taking into account that I would have time for some subjects after the first exams. I'm a kinaesthetic learner (though the VAK model is flawed, and information coming over in all 3 modes is best), so writing helped me absorb information. I'd read the section of my notes, while making a condensed page of notes, or work through the revision guide section. Sometimes I was learning stuff for the first time from the revision guide, I am sure 😏 last minute before each exam was read through the revision notes I'd made.

I didn't much change my read notes and write more condensed notes method through A levels, two degrees and professional exams until I did practical professional exams (which I found much harder!).

I'd encourage anybody to think up ways to make revising more interesting - I've used a sharpie and barbie to learn the muscles as a grown adult! Bbc bitesize if they still do it, is a good online resource, and there's probably a you tube video for anything. Offer to let him talk you through something, as being able to explain to somebody else cements learning. Then there the balance of break to focussed study time - 50 minutes to 10 is a good goal, and you can perhaps help by helping to ensure he stays well hydrated and well fuelled - brains burn carbs, as well as need healthy fats.

[XXVaginaAndAUterus]

Is there a good revision book that any of you would recommend?

This probably isn't what you're asking but my brain is squeaking so I wanted to put it out there; maje sure the revision guides are the ones for the right exam board.

I think I got a how to revise book out of my local library to be honest. The best one is probably simply the one that they will read - so I'd go for light hearted and looks easy to read and digest personally.

How do you convince your child that revision is important and can't be done with a YouTube video playing in the background?

Maybe the how to revise book will lend authority on that, but in all honestly some people focus better with something on in the background. In my day it was the radio or friends episode repeats!

[IdaDown]

www.cram.com/

I like the Cram app. You make your own electronic flash cards. Good feature is when testing yourself, any that you don’t get right go to the back of the pack and you can run through again. Really useful for rote learning facts/languages.

We do similar to ZofloraBore - (DS is dyslexic and hfASD) good organisation helps all kids.

Also timings for exams, esp essay type papers. We break down the paper into time sections per question. Then DS can’t overrun on one question and be out of time for others.

Essay planning - how you plan them. What to include in intro, paragraphs. It’s very formulaic for DS but it works.

[LoafofSellotape]

Ds's school held a How to Help Your Child Revise evening and also had lessons for the kids. Really useful.

[TeenTimesTwo]

WHSmiths were selling www.cgpbooks.co.uk/secondary-books/gcse/revision-tips/xhr41-how-to-revise-for-gcse-study-skills-pla earlier in the year. I had a quick look through and it looked sensible stuff. It's only £5 so might be worth a punt.

There is also a package you can buy (based on agile programming) that comes with a method for planning and then topic header cards or something (magnetic & a magnet board I think?). It was mentioned on one of the y11 support threads I think and a couple of people were using it. I think if you had all the topic headers then you couldn't miss out stuff, or something.

[Seeline]

I think the problem with revision is that it so personal to each individual. Not everyone works or learns in the same way so there is never a one-method-suits-all answer.

Also different subjects call for different revision methods eg with maths, as long as you are sure you've understood hte basics, the best way is just loads of practice, languages need loads of vocab, sciences tend to need lots of short facts/formulae etc and humanities need longer facts that can be linked together to create different arguments. The same methods of revision will not work for all.

I think the best tip is to make sure they really learn stuff for all the small topic/end of unit tests. That will help highlight any areas that haven't been understood in the first place, and will also help build foundations for further information to be added at later stages.

In addition there are lots more resources available these days, BBC bitesize, You Tube tutorials, specialist websites, Get Revising/The Student Room etc. I think it helps to incorporate a variety - it relieves hte monotony and a different approach can help.

I think many kids need help with the enormous task of organising a revision timetable - making sure they include adequate breaks and downtime is important when the panic starts to grip and they schedule 25 hours of revision a day!!

[noblegiraffe]

Lots of useful info on how to study here: www.learningscientists.org/faq

[TeenTimesTwo]

This is why it is important that DCs and their parents take tests and end of year exams seriously lower down the school. The tests in KS3 are a great way to practice different revision methods and work out what works.
If you keep saying 'it's only y8, it's only y10, they're only mocks' then when it gets down to the real thing you haven't worked out that you love mind maps, get distracted when doing things online, and take twice as long to learn Chemistry than you think.

[noblegiraffe]

It’s not just the learning how to revise when you revise for e.g. Y8 exams, the actual act of revision means that you are more likely to remember it next year and so

a) you hit the ground running in September
b) you’ll remember it more easily next time you revise

[RomanyQueen]

Hi, again sorry took a while to come back.

it's not so much the revising but knowing what revision is, how to do it and how to learn before hand.
It's not just been my kids but other people I speak to.
The kids are taught by the teacher maybe teacher will recap, know certain topics that are challenging, may even tell the kids this.
They then go away and forget about it, some make revision notes, cards, maps etc. Others don't, and then spend ages doing what they call revision close to the exams and wonder why they didn't do very well.
You can't revise if you haven't learned it in the first place.

I just feel if more kids understood this they may do better, i know mine would.

[MarchingFrogs]

I just feel if more kids understood this they may do better, i know mine would.

You could write a revision revision guide, perhaps?

[kesstrel]

You can't revise if you haven't learned it in the first place.

For most people, learning takes effort. Unfortunately, many "progressive" education advocates refuse to acknowledge that. For so many years, in so many schools, quizzes and testing were frowned on, and games and fun elevated to a high priority. If kids pick up from teaching methods that they're not really expected to make an actual effort to learn, many of them will just keep on doing what's easy.

Our local school still doesn't have end of year exams lower down the school. It's only recently that they've started having mocks. Testing is too stressful and boring....

[RomanyQueen]

Marching.

I have done, and lots of other things, but mine insists on doing it herself, but is one of those who reads through stuff, makes notes etc a fortnight before the exams never seeing the material since the lesson. If it happened to be one she attended.
I've helped friends with suggestions for their dc, but I see them again and their kids haven't done anything.
It may seem strange all these parents who talk to me we're just in a community where that happens.

[NeleusTheStatue]

Sorry I might not have fully understood but a bit confused by your post, Romany. When kids are at boarding school, don't you expect all or at least most of revisions are done at school? If they haven't you may like to question how the school make sure kids do self study? Are they left on their accord how and how much revisions to do at school?

[Namenic]

I found the read, cover up, regurgitate, check usually works. Like you learn spelling/vocabulary for foreign languages?

Try drawing a mind map from memory then check what you missed out? I guess kids frequently underestimate how much they have to repeat this.

[RomanyQueen]

Neleus

No, not necessarily boarding schools or private schools.
I have friends in our area and it's a common discussion topic around this time.
I don't mean in a weird way, but just in general chat, sahm's talk a lot on markets and in shops I hear grannies talk about it too.

It's not that they don't do anything, it's that they are doing the wrong thing.
So Johnny and jane did lots of revision but didn't do well in the exams. Puzzled they say to their parents, teachers etc that they revised a lot.
They spent time trying to cram stuff they hadn't learned. Information they hadn't seen since they were given it in the classroom.

So my point was that kids have to learn the stuff before they revise "You can't revise what you haven't learned, yet"

So with a whole heap of kids the message doesn't seem to get through. It seems this is them not listening to teachers and parents ,or them not understanding. A huge shame though because if these kids had the skills they would probably do better.
I know my own would gain better results.

I guess it's the old leading a horse to water. Some will drink, some won't.