Do you ask your dc to do some revision even though they find it easy?

[WoodHeaven]

So dc1 just told us that he has a maths test coming up.
I asked him if he had thought about doing any revision and how he would do that.
Nope I don't need to do any revision. Why would you do that?

Maths is certainly one of his very strong areas. I have no doubt he is finding it very easy.
BUT
I'm worried he is going to miss some points. And I have an issue about not revising at all, especially that it will them extend to ALL subjects which wouldn't be suitable at all.

dc1 says he just doesn't need it.

So what do you think? Insist that he revising or letting him try and see how it goes?

Oh he is in Y7 and is just starting to really be independent in his work etc... hence why the question is cropping now.

i ask. DS1 (year 9) disappears off with his book. less than 5 mins later he is back saying its done. i look at his book and there is not a lot for him to have learned, so i can see why he might get through it quickly - but that quickly?? I ash him and he can answer all my questions based on the material, however he knows nothing off topic because he relies entirely on what the teacher provided. so he doesn't learn any other mfl vocab, for example.

i strongly suspect that DS1 does not know how to revise but whilst he regularly gets 90%+, its difficult to find an opportunity to learn. However, i know he needs to learn before it really matters, but i dont know how to show him until there is actually something substantial to learn.

I really wonder how do children revise in England?
I was educated in 2 different countries, but they both had text books.
We took notes in class. Revision for what you learned that day was normal practice everyday, not just for the test.
My ds is only in YR3, so there isn't any regular test in school yet, apart from spelling, and he gets 10/10 everytime without practicing.

Do they get text books in secondary? I'm worried how my ds learn to revise when things get harder.

DS1 hasn't held a text book in his hands yet and he's in year 9. On the other hand, he spent an hour gluing worksheets into his jotter the other evening.

My friends DS has just got his GCSE results this summer and has all A* and A's. He did FA revision wise and spent his time gaming when others were sweating over revision.

My DS has just taken GCSE test papers and got all A results as did one of his friends with no revision. Other boys in top set did do revision but got worse marks. Its just how life is very unfair that some have to slog for it and some dont. My worry about students who are clever is that they can become complacent. Ds has just been given GCSE revision books well we had to buy them from the school and DH is going to sit down with him twice a week for an hour at a time to go through them.

Until now in year 10 DS never revised for anything but never missed doing homework.

Maybe textbooks will make an appearance when starts the GCSE course next year? Or maybe textbooks are considered too prescriptive?? A history teacher on another thread told me that she wanted to teach whatever interested her?

I think Maths is a subject that, if you understand it easily and well, you don't need to revise for really. It's not like something with a lot of facts.

My dd won't revise she is yr 9

I looked at school's A level booklet online a couple of days ago. It said that to take A level maths, you'd probably have an A or A* in maths but you could only be accepted onto the A level course if you sat and passed an internal maths exam.

I just can't get my head around that! If A* isn't enough on its own, then is the school showing that it doesn't respect the GCSE gradings and its own GSCE teaching?

Maths, maybe not, but how about things like foreign language?
They started learning French in YR3, but I wonder how can he remember all the new words, grammar etc., without something to check up on.
It seems really tricky to me.

My oldest (14, equivalent of Y11) does revise for tests, but we are in a foreign system where course marks are more important - they get a grade average for each subject every term, and they know that their school reports and grades are important for entry to selective courses. So regular revision is an easier "sell" and it means they get into the habit early on.

My younger child (nearly 13) does revise for some subjects though not, it has to be said, for maths at which he is very able. I would only insist if I thought he was not getting thre results he was capable of.

Revision is less useful for maths than for other subjects but even very able children may benefit from practicing exam-style questions - speed often plays a big role in getting good marks in formal exams, and practice helps a lot here.

I ask DD not to revise, or at least to revise less. She needs to learn it's ok not to always be top of the class. She's getting very stressed out about revision & she'll get a great mark without heavy revisings.

She ignores me, of course, argh.

We were doing area and volume of circle, sphere, cylinder etc the other day, and my ds asked me to write down all the formulae in the note book so he can look it up. Even able child find it difficult to remember everything, certainly for my ds.
I know if we concentrate on this topic for few days, it might be embedded in his brain, but if we done this one day and done it again in 2 months time, I am sure he wouldn't remember how to calculate it. But this is what revision is for, in my mind, to make understanding secure.

Thank you all for your input.
I have to say, having Ho e through a different system where you had to some revisions even if very able, I'm at the way thevenglush system is working.
Dc1 has more ur Jess no books or exercise books. Most us done on the iPad ...
They are supposed to have the exercises etc put on the school website for them to access for revisions but it looks like it's quite hit and miss.
Dc1 is bilingual in French so no revision to do there either... They are yet to make it do something at his level (despite telling me they would) do we are doing some work at home instead. But it isn't revising iyswim.

Whoever said the risk is for them to be complacent has hit the nail on the head for me.
That and the fact he isn't going to learn something really important: how do you revise and what works best for you to do it (I know I need to write things but a friend of mine has a very visual memory and needs to look at it instead)

I suspect I will have to let him to do it his way and see how it goes.