Help - revision (lack of) related - just lost it with DS

I really just don't think some teens (especially teen boys) have the emotional maturity to deal with organising themselves and their revision.
It's a bummer that GCSES happen just as many of them are at the peak of their 'confused teenage brain' period! (Read Nicola Morgan's book on the subject...)
Any amount of appealing to their desire to do well in the future just falls completely on deaf ears - they are so completely focused on themselves and this moment, right now, that 'the future' seems a fuzzy, boring concept .

DS1 (now 18) admitted as much to me when I was agonising over DS2's lack of revision/attention/interest. He said he was completely out of control for his GCSEs, had no idea what was going on, and it was only because his school and DH & I frogmarched him through a revision timetable and past papers that he did as well as he did.

The change in him over the last two years has been enormous. He has owned and committed himself to his A levels and is totally organised and motivated. Thanks goodness, as I wouldn't have the time and energy if I had to manage him as well as DS2 at the moment!!

I think it's a little unfair to assume that young people are now so clueless that they can't organise their own revision - some are just academically immature and haven't quite reached that yet.

inowimcoming,

Does your son know what grades re needed to progress to A level?

You could ask him what he wants you to do. Sometimes teens want adults to take charge.

I didn't ever have it in me to ever nag a reluctant kid to revise.

TBH with new, much harder GCSEs, multiple changes of teacher, syllabus changes (two in year 10 and one in year 11) my ds does struggle to know what to revise. I think calling him useless is massively unfair, he plays sport to an elite player level (this involves 15+ hours per week training) and organising revision alongside very long school hours (8-4.30 plus Saturdays 8-12, fixtures Saturday pm and sport most evenings and Sundays) is tricky. IMO you don't have children to just stop helping them once they are 'old enough' .

Similar situation to Sad here. Huge amount of work set in multiple formats to be done at home as well as daily revision classes at school over the hol’s - some from 9-4pm. DS, who has ADD, doesn’t know where to start with the work at home so I’m helping where I can with organisation, encouragement and sitting down to go through things. At times he also can’t be bothered to work, which is frustrating.

My input Isn’t to get an 8 or 7 but to get a bare minimum pass, as that’s all I’m hoping for in maths and English, simply because he finds it so hard to get his thoughts down quickly enough, even with extra time.

Are young people now so clueless that they can't organise their own revision?

Some are but most aren't. But this was true in the past as well. Plenty at my school 30 years ago wouldn't revise and did awfully in exams. Not anything new. It is called being a stupid stubborn teenager.

We are having to get involved in DSs revision. He has dyslexia and to be honest the volume of stuff he has been sent from school telling him what he should be doing over Easter is ridiculous - pages and pages of links to internal school pages and past paper websites. He is completely overwhelmed. They sent an 'exemplar' revision timetable which had 3 x 3hr revision sessions a day, 7 days a week and only a few sessions left blank. 45 hours per week in total!
We've binned that and he's doing about 5-6 hours a day for weekdays only, and watching relevant DVDs for English/Drama set texts etc at weekends.

We have helped him plan each day's revision and made sure he has whatever he needs (notes/textbooks/past papers/mark schemes etc) set out the night before. This is partly for my benefit so I can control the printing out of past papers. The printer is in my office upstairs and I kept finding hundreds of irrelevant pages being printed out when he'd printed 'ALL' instead of just the sections of papers relevant to his courses . We're going through printer cartridges in a week

I think it's much harder for them to get organised these days - everything is spread out over books, websites, apps etc. In my day you just learnt everything in a single textbook and seemed to do OK!

I teach a core subject and have not put on a revision session this Easter. The pupils are not working well in class; doing enough to get by only. Therefore I refuse to give up my time for them. I have down every year since I started teaching but this year I decided to say no.

*its. Sodding autocorrect.

Are young people now so clueless that they can't organise their own revision?

Many are, yes. Our current school system spoonfeeds and supports so much they don't acquire these skills themselves. Schools put on so much structured revision (after school sessions, morning intervention sessions, lunchtime booster sessions, revision sessions in the holidays) that they don't think they need to do any on their own.

Schools don't want them to fail - Ofsted will hammer them. Teachers don't want them to fail - they won't get their annual pay rise if they don't get them to hit their target. Parents don't want them to fail - naturally. So everyone runs around doing the work for them, and they never learn to do it themselves. Why would they?

Obviously this is not all kids. But it's a lot of them. I know, I teach them.

Interestingly, a school near me stopped doing all it's GCSE interventions/ extra revision etc and put all the onus back onto the students. Their results went up.

I have no advice, just sympathy. My DS is the same. I'm sick of moaning. I am really worried for his future. He's so bright but so bloody lazy. I don't know what more I can do. So frustrating.

My dd has zero revision skills, though she is still in year 10. We've been beavering away at various topics this break, so I hope it will put her in good stead when revision begins in earnest next year.

I would be having heart palpitations over her not revising at all this close to exams, though. You have my sympathies. Maybe you can work together on this?

My DS is refusing all revision except what he can do in school. He is 16. It's up to him. It's his life.

He has done nothing this holiday. I will help him with organisation if he wants, he knows the offer is there, but he is actively refusing help.

My dh scraped through with lower grades than he ought to have got until he failed a year at uni. It was the making of him. I suspect my DS will also need to find out the hard way.

Are young people now so clueless that they can't organise their own revision?

I am with Cee - you may have to get involved in his revision. Yes he should do it himself, but many 15 and 16 year olds are still not mature enough to reflect upon longer term consequences of their actions (or inactions). Good call on giving him a separate space for revision.

My dd is currently revising GCSEs - only 2.5 hours per day in 5 half hour slots, but she is fully committed and concentrating during that time. Ds will not be taking GCSEs for another two years but I suspect he may be a bit reluctant like your son.

I will be (with ds) setting him a timed revision plan, discussing what sub topics he plans to revise in the morning and asking for detailed feedback on what he has learnt at the end of the day (asking to see his notes etc), and I will test him on topics verbally. I would rather that this not be necessary but I strongly suspect that with him it will be! He is in Y9 currently and has Y9 exams at the same time as his sisters GCSEs - I am trying to ingrain good practice by getting him to revise 30 minutes per day (don't need to go overboard for Y9) so that by Y11 he is accustomed to the notion that you prepare for exams rather than just wing it.

Its not easy though when they are reluctant. In your case I would also be offering financial reward based on results

Can you help him revise? I have helped my ds set up a revision time table by breaking down each subject into topic areas and having a chunk of time to do each. I have spent a lot of time also revising with him, testing him etc. I know I really shouldn't't have to but it seem the only way to get him to do it.