How much revision should kids be doing for their gcse mocks ?

[Cokeacola]

In terms of hours or what ?

dd who can get quite anxious about it all, feels like she’s not doing enough
and I’ve noticed she really not doing much at all
i don’t want to make her anxiety worse but I’m unsure how how much she should actually be doing

2x45 min session a day
After April up that to 2 hours a day

Past papers. Exam questions in exam times.
Consolidation of learning. Just reading, highlighting or going over notes is not

My dc (predicted 8&9’s) did little revision for gcse mocks - mainly what they did in lessons and a bit of reading through their notes. For the real thing they started around Easter and revised a lot between exams. The exams go on for weeks with half term in middle so it is a long haul. The key issue was they understood the work in class and so revision was just that - exam practice and memorising. For dc who don’t have a good understanding they would need to start earlier and do more and may need extra help. Schools put huge pressure to start revising early but that’s not necessary for all and can be counter productive as they are bored of revision by the time the real exams come round. It’s already hard enough to keep them revising between Easter and end of exams. If you know the exam boards you can look up the timetable on the board websites and see how spread out exams will be. Because there are so many subjects gcse is known to cause the most stress and MH problems - more than A level. We are one of the few countries who make dc take exams at 16 that matter. If she’s working at level 7 then she won’t need to do a huge amount for mocks provided her files are well organised and easy to read through. The mocks should then give her useful feedback how gain extra marks. She can expect to gain a grade between mocks and real thing just through exam technique and in class revision in a good school. Most schools will be setting lots practice papers between mocks and real exams. At this stage just doing a plan with bullet points for practice questions is enough. Re-reading the English lit texts is never time wasted.

It's really hard to say because all students are different. It's alwo worth bearing in mind that a large and growing proportion of homework set right now will actually be revision. You should fine out whether the school is planning to put on after school/lunchtime revision sessions - these can be incredibly useful if targeted. My DD2 did all the ones for maths, physics and chemistry which was where she was weakest and boosted a 5/4/5 prediction up to a 7/6/7 outcome in the real thing (2019 so proper exams). She didn't do the sessions for subjects she was strong in but revised them at home (all but English Lang where she told me she was definitely getting a 9 so didn't need to revise. And she did).

At their age you can only give as much support as they want and you can't make them revise.