GCSE Revision

[GL48]

My son is 16 and just gone into Year 11 so he will be sitting his GCSE exams this school year. He is naturally quite bright, but he’s also lazy. He sat his GCSE mock exams this year and considering he did barely any revision he passed them all, not top marks by any means but a good pass. I am worried though now it’s time for the real thing about his revision. I don’t know how to go about it. I don’t want to set a strict set time that he must revise in, but equally I feel that if I don’t push him he will literally do the bare minimum and he won’t achieve what I, and his teachers, know he is more than capable of. His dad is very strict and thinks we should clamp down on him and basically force him to revise whereas I don’t think that’s the right way. I’m by no means a push over with my son but I think there has to be a better way and forced revision won’t be very effective. Any advice? Can anyone recommend any revision techniques their children found effective?
Thank you

You can take a teenager to revision but you can't make them learn anything.

You need to motivate him. Whether that's seeing what he wants to do next and pointing out he will need to do some work to achieve it; bribery (why not) or competitiveness. If he isn't motivated then he won't do it anyway.

If he passed his year 10 exams then that’s a great start.

He clearly did something right, and he’s only just going into Year 11 so there’s ages before the real exams. There will be more exams and tests at school and the teachers will help guide the kids to the real exams.

IME trying to be strict about revision doesn’t work. Making sure he has a calm place to do homework and encouraging him- those are the key things.

Quite often very bright children never learnt how to have to work hard and revise. So give him all the tools he needs to revise.
GCSEs is meant as a dry run for A levels so that he figures out how best he revises and starts implementing healthy study techniques.
For some kids that is cramming a lot in the last 4 months and for others it is steady work a couple of hours 6 evenings a week right form the start of Year 10. There are loads of good EdTech resources, DD’s grammar even gives them SenecaPlus - that site has lots of exam questions on. Some kids learn by flash cards handwriting, others drawing elaborate diagrams (like my creative soul DD). You need to sit down with him and talk to him like he is a grown up and let him know you are there to help. Some kids write everything out in notebooks, others do it all on an iPad using EdTech. He really needs to start working out how he learns best. By A levels, they really need to understand what works best for them. For GCSEs there are so many subjects and content in some of the sciences and social sciences is overwhelming (like history and biology).

The best way to revise for GCSEs is to learn a topic well and then start doing the practice questions. You really need to learn how to answer the questions in the way they expect you to to get the higher grades. It is somewhat contrived I am afraid.

Regardless of what anyone says, he also needs to meet the targets for the next stage. So some Sixth Forms will insist on minimum grades for taking eg Maths or Further Maths or overall point score across 7 subjects. Some kids will just revise the subjects most that they really need later on and neglect eg English language which can then really come back to bite you if you need 2x6 in those to access the A levels courses. It is simply making him understand that he needs to do this to have the key to unlock the next stage of his education. For most kids if you explain it calmly and support gently it does work. Most of them especially boys are just digging their heads in the sand hoping to wing it as that has always worked for them in the past, as they are bright. However, if they do not get what they know they could have ultimately they do often end up very disappointed.

You need to chat with him about what he wants to do next.
He needs to meet the criteria for his next course.

But he also needs to be as well prepared for his next course as possible, so eg an 8 in Chemistry is better than a 6 if going on to A level..
And if hoping for uni then some places will look at GCSE results.

And for first job/ CV it is better to be able to say '10 GCSE passes at 6+' than '8 GCSE passes at 4+' or '5 GCSE passes'

Also if looking to do A levels he needs to learn how to work hard and revise, unless incredibly bright and he can get 9s with minimal effort, he will have to work at A levels so might as well learn how to do it now.

Sorry, just saw this was bumped by someone mentioning a specific tutoring company.
OP - hope things progressing OK in y11.