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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Y10 Revision advice from school

150 replies

differenttoyou · 20/05/2014 17:17

Received an email today from school telling parents that a revision assembly had been held this morning for Y10 with advice for how they should study for end of year exams.

Furthermore, in response to questions from parents the following recommendations were issued:

During the half term it is recommended that the DCs should be doing approximately 5 hours of focused revision a day.

Between the holidays and exams the recommendation is for between 2-3 hours revising per evening and 5 hours on a Sunday.

They had stressed the importance of consolidating knowledge as they are now half way through their GCSE courses. The exams in question are internal exams, no external exams are involved.

Would any of your DCs devote this amount of time to study at this point or does this sound like overkill? What has been the advice from your schools?

OP posts:

BehindLockNumberNine · 20/05/2014 17:38

Crikey!! That seems like a lot!!

DS is in Y10. He sits his core Science exams in June. School are putting on revision classes, 3 hours a day, for 3 days in the half term.

He had a German speaking exam last week, which counts for 25% (or somesuch) towards his final grade in Y11. He practised (with me) for 15 minutes a day.
He also had an ICT module, again this counts for a certain %age towards his final mark for next year. He revised for a total of 5 hours, spread over 2 weeks.

Five hours a day during half term seems a lot to me. For DS this would mean burn-out...

Original poster

differenttoyou · 20/05/2014 18:05

DCs came home and the first thing out of their mouths was "did you get an email from school" followed by hysterical laughing and "xxx teacher is mad if he thinks we'll revise that much". Had to say that I agreed with them. Can't see any of them spending that much time on revision. We did have a productive discussion about suitable planning, making sure they cover all the topics in their various subjects, the importance of the exams, etc.

OP posts:

creamteas · 20/05/2014 18:05

My guess is that the school think that pupils will do a lot less than recommended.

In other words, they want 2 so have suggested 5

BeggingYouForBirdseed · 20/05/2014 18:14

I think this is a normal amount of revision and most pupils who gain mostly A*/A grades will be putting in this amount of revision. Waking up early and revising from 7-12 is not difficult, and then they have the rest of the day to themselves. Alternatively, 2.5 hours in morning and 2.5 hours in the evening. I would be pushing my child to revise this much if they were sitting GCSEs

TeenAndTween · 20/05/2014 19:27

Well, my DD1 is in y10 with end of year exams in July.

Broadly speaking, over half term she will be doing

homework if set
prep for MFL CAs, if topic has been set by then
relaxing

My aim is that revision will start after half term. She lost most Feb half term to homework, and half of Easter to preparing for an RE module, she needs a decent break.

Next year will of course be different.

creamteas · 20/05/2014 19:29

I would be pushing my child to revise this much if they were sitting GCSEs

But OP said year 10, so not sitting GCSEs this year

sinningsaint · 20/05/2014 19:33

My DD2 is currently in Y11 and mid GCSE's and isn't even doing that much!! Oh and is still on track for her A's and A*'s..

TantrumsAndBalloons · 20/05/2014 19:35

Dd is doing her GCSEs now, she isn't doing that amount of revision.

Leeds2 · 20/05/2014 19:40

Way too much for Year 10 internal exams.

mumthetaxidriver · 20/05/2014 20:25

I can't imagine there are many 15/16 yr olds out there really up revising at 7am and even less Yr 10 children sitting internal exams. My Year 11 son is probably doing 5 hrs a day now but that's mid exams!!

Sparklingbrook · 20/05/2014 20:28

BeggingYouForBirdseed · 20/05/2014 21:41

Schools stress that both year ten and eleven are important for gcses. Year ten to prepare you and also some pupils do gcses in year ten. Either way, the more work you do in year 10 the more prepared you will be in year 11! Much easier to revise than actually have to learn it all

zipzap · 20/05/2014 21:55

When I was at school - way back when O-levels were the exams of choice - we did formal internal exams twice a year from the start of senior school.

The amount of revision sounds about the same as we were encouraged to do at that point (I assume it's the equivalent to what I would have known as the Lower Fifth if we did O levels in the Upper Fifth). They were also really keen on regular exams and revision on the basis that at that point you would have done at least half if not more of your course and the more you could revise now, the less the effort it would be to revise for the main external exams.

It did work - although it was tempting to start revising at the beginning each time which meant that you knew the early stuff really well and the end stuff not so well. I changed schools after O Levels and can remember my new A level biology talking about something that I'd done in my syllabus that they hadn't covered in theirs. Was at the start of my old syllabus so I'd covered it lots of times in previous exams and by the time he'd started drawing the thing on the board I'd already done both life cycles written down in my notes. He then said that we weren't going to do the sexual life cycle because he was very shy and didn't like talking about sex, even when talking about it in terms of single celled organisms because it was too difficult, we'd just do the asexual one. At which point he wasn't too impressed when I asked what was difficult about it, as I'd already put it into my notes... how to mark your card in a new school with a new teacher. oops.

noblegiraffe · 20/05/2014 22:13

Hmm, my Y10s look bewildered when I suggested they might like to start some revision over the half term, and these are A* kids. I might tell them that other schools are saying 5 hours a day just to see their faces!

Nocomet · 20/05/2014 22:22

For Y10 internal exams.
DD1 might have done 5hrs on a non school day/ 2 in an evening quite often at the moment doing her actual exams, but not in Y10 and not for her mocks (which we forgot about until two weeks before )

She'll do loads tomorrow, Geog, English on Thursday, Drama on Friday and she's out Thursday night.

No way will she work every day of 1/2 term as she mostly has science and maths left. Science she could do tomorrow and the maths teacher has called a revision session.

DCs have three years of revision (six with uni) they really don't need Y10 as well.

BillyJoel · 20/05/2014 22:24

Dd is in yr 10 and will do maybe an hour a day of homework/ revision. She is smiling at 5 hrs per day......

mummytime · 20/05/2014 22:25

I think that is over the top, and not helpful advice. Up to date research suggests: revising in short intense bouts, and then a break/or at least moving to a different topic. They should also be advising a variety of techniques to use in revision, such as: post it note with key facts, flash cards, quizzes, condensing notes and of course (when doing the actual GCSEs -Past papers).

CrispyFern · 20/05/2014 22:25

I didn't revise at all for my GCSEs and I got all A*s.
Are they a lot harder nowadays?

noblegiraffe · 20/05/2014 22:30

They are harder than they have been, but also some people need to do more revision than others.

wakeupandsmellthecoffee · 20/05/2014 22:31

I've asked my DS year 10 to do 2 hours a day in half term .No weekends .1 hour then a break then another hour .
1 hour a day in term time .
Passed papers and specific revision books
I would rather he did a slow revision and get it bedded in than a massive overload in year 11 .
Fingers crossed and best of luck to all the stroppy teenagers out there that are still our babies .(no matter how tall and loud they grow )

LePamplemousse · 20/05/2014 22:38

Seems like overkill to me - the school might be saying 5 hours in the (perhaps vain) hope that the kids actually do one or two hours though, if they think 5 is expected.

AElfgifu · 20/05/2014 22:55

seems like the bare minimum to me.

Original poster

differenttoyou · 20/05/2014 22:56

Nocomet LOL. Cute picture.

I think that we will come to an arrangement of sorts. I like the suggestion of an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. I think that they realise that the more they do now the easier it will be next year. Here's hoping that they follow through.

OP posts:

BackforGood · 20/05/2014 23:22

OP - my dc would have fallen around laughing at that too

Really Begging ? I presume you don't have / haven't had any 15yr old dcs then ?
Don't think anyone will disagree with your 2nd post, that the more work done in Yr10, the smoother Yr11 should run, but your first one is not realistic at all.

Nocomet - love it !

Original poster

differenttoyou · 21/05/2014 00:27

Does anyone live in a parallel dimension where teens on holiday voluntarily get up to start studying at 7 am? If so, I'd love to know where it is so that I can send the kids there for the duration.

OP posts:

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