S4 - how much homework and self study?

[Dontgobacktorockville]

I have a DD in S4 who doesn't appear to have had any homework yet in S4, and isn't doing any self study.

It all seems a bit laid-back. Her school achieves good results so I assume they know what they are doing.

How much homework do your S4 DC get, and if they don't get homework, are they doing self study?

Ds gets very little homework, but the back of the school handbook (which none reads!) recommends 1.5hrs study/revision a day in S4. We try to get ds to do 1-1.5hrs on week days, which doesn't go far with 7 subjects to study, but it is not easy to get into the habit, especially when allegedly none of his friends mums make them 🙄.

It is quite early in the year. You may find that your DC hits a spell about 6-8 weeks in when quite a few of her subjects have end of unit tests so she'll have quite a lot of revision to do.

For English she could always be challenging herself in reading- SQA take the passages for Nat5 and Higher from good quality journalism. She may Folio drafts that she can be trying to improve.

Modern languages recommend looking over vocabulary, verbs tenses etc as often as possible.

Thanks brokenwing. Good to know I am not the only evil parent wanting self study. DD is motivated but also very distracted by Netflix and a time consuming hobby.

Yes Lidlfix, in previous years the pattern was no homework for ages, then suddenly end of unit tests for every subject all at once. Just thought in S4 there might be a bit more consistency.

I think the 1.5 hours suggested is about right as the courses ramp up that will fill up easily. Self directed study as early as possible is great for developing time management and prioritising skills. Much better to do that now when not under pressure.

My DD4 hit the books as soon as school went back (S5) as she knows how quickly it all kicks in.

Getting started early also helps them work out what style of study suits them best.

Ds uses revision cards for French and also has a study guide with online listening /uses past papers audio files.

For maths the school provides revision work with answers to self test/study. They also have after school drop in sessions if you need to ask for help on quadratics! a particular topic.

Physics/chemistry/modern studies he also has study guides we bought.

English we are working on how to study, but focusing on RUAE just now and encouraging reading broadsheets for exposure to vocab/writing styles.

PE we also struggle with.

I haven't studied for 30 years so forget how. Working out a study plan and how to study effectively took some time last year as ds was mainly just casually reading over jotter notes which isn't the best use of time. They need to be able to practise and prove they can recall the information not just recognise it.

For PE Nat 5 this year my DD spent ages on SQA Understanding Standards looking at Portfolios that had scored well. Attempting to replicate the structure and put the content in her own words. Which went well fortunately as all 4 if my DS have found PE teachers to be universally useless at delivering the theoretical element of the course.

@Lidlfix do you have a link to portfolios that scored well? We tried to find examples and couldn't find anything.

I am clueless about doing links in my phone. SQA Understanding Standards then select PE on the left hand side of the screen then select Nat 5. The folios and marking commentaries are there.

Understanding Standards is great for all subjects.

Thanks for that link Lidlfix

I'm a tutor and would recommend not studying for more than half an hour a day on any one particular topic/ subject. The brain stops taking in and retaining information so well after that sort of time. If they are doing 7 subjects and don't have any other homework then they could maybe spend 2 x 30 minute slots on each subject each week. They could make mind maps of what they have learned or revision flash cards. You could try selling it to them that it will make it so much easier and they will not have to spend so much time revising immediately before exams. How you get them to actually do it though is more difficult!!!

Brilliant link for PE and other subjects Lidlfix. Thanks!

EducatingArti, our plan is roughly as you suggest:

Mon: 3 x 30 mins revision
Tue/Wed: 2 x 30 mins revision (has after school activities)
Thu/Fri: 3-4 x 30 mins revision (finishes school 1 hr earlier on these days)

This gives us around ~15 sessions
3 x Maths, English
2 x Chemistry, Physics, Modern Studies
1 x PE, French
1 spare/flexible
We leave weekends free, but if he skips any of the sessions above he catches up on weekend mornings.

Plus
Sun-Thu - We do 15 mins of homemade French flash cards together which is working really well for remembering irregular verbs and all the vocab (this is a great sized box of A8 cards for French to write your own, this also has some good tips on writing cards and spaced repetition. A8 is the perfect size for MFL, we find A7 better for maths/science cards)

Reading - newspaper articles and/or book

Preparing for revision sessions - this needs a bit of encouragement, so when he sits down to revise he knows what he is going to achieve from the 30 min session and doesn't spend the first 15 mins procrastinating!

Broken wing, that's a great plan. I will discuss with DD! Love the suggestion re French too.

Educatingarti - thank you, again, great advice.

Wish the school would impart some of these suggestions. Maybe they do to the pupils? But I am not aware as a parent, other than asking about self study at parents evenings.

Wish the school would impart some of these suggestions.

Our school is the same, they don't give them homework and tell them to self study, but don't give them any guidance how to study.

A few things we found made a difference with ds -

• The video I linked to before Thomas Frank, has a few revision/study type videos which you can gleam ideas from (he is a bit over enthusiastic, but most study ideas are there in 4-5 x 15 min videos). I also bought a couple of other generic study books and found them lacking, the videos covered most of it. I found the videos and asked Ds to watch and write a list of the techniques he suggested, then we talked through and he scored off/ticked what he thought would/wouldn’t work for him. He scored off studying/doing quizzes with friends as NOONE else studies. 🙄 The videos helped him realise revise cards are good, how to take notes at home, and the difference in studying between recognising something and thinking you know it and actual recall that is needed for exams.

• Having a kitted out, quiet area with everything he needs to hand to study for 30 min sessions without interruptions and lots of notepads/pens etc helps him focus really helps if its possible.

• We put together a weekly plan together and printed it out 3 months worth on a A4 sheet which he ticks off when done. We started off with, ok you’ve got 7 subjects, its recommended 30 mins sessions, how many sessions per subject (doesn’t need to be 2 for each every week, we do 3 for English maths, but only one for PE), put down after school activities and then work out when studying best fits in (let him suggest when it suits him best), mix and match e.g. not maths and physics together as both very formulae based. Because he did the plan himself (with guidance) he “owns” it more.

• Study guides. ds has jotter notes to study from which are terrible, the school hasn’t given them anything else. We bought the BrightRed Publishing (there are others such as Leckie and Leckie etc) study guides for physics, chemistry, french, modern, PE and English, most of which are slim, not intimidating and lets you see the topics they need to cover and says a bit about the exams. The french one has links to audio files online relevant to the units they do that you can listen to and answer questions on with the book. The science ones are good, ds likes them. The modern studies one he read in the book about causes of crime prior to a test and he thinks that helped him get 94% for his answer which is good when they see positive results from extra study! The English coursework book is heavier, been avoided until now, we have just started using that for RUAE and finding it useful, it has explanations, little exercises and answers (you can also use past papers). For maths we bought Tee Jay books for CfE 4+ and 5 which helps with some basic explanations of areas and masses of questions/answers at the back (really help with a trig question he was struggling with last week).

• Also bought english texts with notes – Of Mice and Men and Sail Maker, Carol Anne Duffy so he can read again at home to become really familiar with them (our school doesnt let them take these home). There are some youtube audio videos he has listened too while reading Sailmaker.

• We’ve printed off (work printer!) SQA website past papers for practise, but not used them yet.

• Ds does Physics and this Glow site from another school is really good for accessing past paper questions per unit/subject area link i.e Waves, electricity.

• He is using the A8 revision cards for French very well, and just beginning to use A7 for maths too. If he finds something hard he writes it down on a A7 revision card, i.e. last week he wrote cards for the different Trig rules and when to use them, how to work quadratics formulas. So he is starting to build up cards for areas he finds harder so will know what he needs to go back to and revise more.

We have been doing this for a few months now and he is getting better at it for some subjects now he kind of knows what he is doing and seeing benefits, but it has taken a while to get there. It is worrying through that they already seem to be starting their portfolios which are a good chunk of their marks and they (or maybe just ds!) don’t seem to realise it!

(Sorry that was long but hope you get something out of it which will get your dd started (and then ds isn't the only child in Scotland studying anymore 😂🤣😂🤣)

I'm having the same issues with DS3, he really hates school impinging on home life and activities and is an absolute expert at evading my efforts to impose a study routine on him, he even has the example of a diligent brother who did really well and a lazy brother who did badly but still he procrastinates...
VERY frustrating but he suffers from anxiety and can be very negative if he feels I am pressuring him so I have to be careful.
Doing past papers has the best results from my experience, so if you can only get them to do limited revision, chose past papers is my advice.

Just had a read through the useful tips in this thread. DS is S4 and taking 8 Nat 5’s. His prelims are towards the end of this month and we’ve had a recent parents evening which thankfully didn’t flag up anything untoward. I’m not seeing a huge amount of work being done at home though which is a little concerning. Also, there’s only one assignment out of three underway and no folio pieces for English so far. Some subjects seem to be further along than others and are talking about revision sessions in class pre prelim. Not so much with others!

DS is a self starter and I know he will kick into gear with maths and sciences and plough through the past papers. English is a bit more of a concern. Probably more the folio pieces rather than the exam.

His prelims seem fairly early. Is late November pretty standard? DD was at a different school and hers were mid January which worked well for her.

Ds' old school had them in December - November seems quite early.

December worked quite well a) with keeping attendance up in the run up to Christmas , b) in giving them some time off over Christmas (not so sure the teachers who have to mark the exams are quite so happy ) and c) leaving plenty of time after Christmas to deal with any shortcomings identified by the exams

The downside is that they've not necessarily covered the whole curriculum - and prelims in November would make that even more likely

Ds's prelims are in December. They have started after school supported study sessions for physics/chemistry and maths.

5 weeks to go and I'm feeling more nervous (but hiding it) than ds seems to be.

Dd's prelims are January, and she's done her folio piece for English and seems to be working on folio pieces for other subjects. So good to have a bit longer to work towards prelims - but not so good to have Christmas holidays overshadowed by studying.

No real increase in homework (as far as I can see) but she does have a study timetable now (one she's set up) and has found the National 5 revision books we bought a while ago really useful.

I have a DS in S5 and thought just the same as you last year! He is so laidback and never had any homework, or so he said. A lot of time seemed to be spent preparing for the exams though, and all of his subjects other than Maths had some element of continuous assessment.

Our school does Prelims in January too, I think mainly for the S5 and Highers as they need all the teaching time they can get. He's finally knuckling down this year as there was a big fuss over one of his NAt 5 results - half the paper went AWOL between school and the SQA and they had to rely on his prelim grade. So he's finally realised that prelims matter.

Scottish pupils seem to get amazingly little homework. Pupils in Italy, Spain and France seem to do hours of homework every day.

DD is reserving the last week of the holidays for revision. Is going away for the first week. Hope that works out.

Thewomanontheshore that's a massive generalisation! There have been times my DDs have been snowed under in S4 they are now Post Grad, Uni, S6 and S5. Where I teach it's always brought up at November and Feb Inset to give due thought to homework as pupils are stressed out balancing completing homework and try to revise.
As a parent and a teacher I find homework by and large pointless and much prefer revision or research activities. Pupils who most often need the consolidation of learning are most often the ones who don't engage with it or would benefit from support to maximise their learning .

Ds(15)/S4 gets very little homework 1-2 short pieces a week, it has been the same through most of secondary. They expect them to self study/revise for 1.5hrs a night instead.

Colleagues at work, different area, say their kids get lots of homework and have to work out what is due when. It is very varied depending on the school.

Never really knew how much homework ds used to get (S4-S6) as he just got on with it. Negligent mother, me

I do remember that at least for Geography, he didn't get much homework but got a test every Monday to check their understanding of the previous week's work.