How are your year 10/11 dc revising?

[Ikeatears]

Ds is in year 11 and, although he wants to do well, seems incapable of putting in the effort to achieve his targets.
He floats around expecting all the knowledge to magically appear in his brain! Can you tell I'm frustrated?
He's got targets of mainly 6, with the odd 7 and one 8 (maths) but I'm worried he won't even get 4s.
Please can you tell me what your dc are doing to revise? How much time are they spending? Do they use specific revision tools? How much are you having to nag them?
I'm hoping to show ds how much work other students are putting in.
Also, have any of your older dc had similar targets and a similar attitude and had a hard lesson to learn on results day? He's chosen the A levels he'd like to do but at this stage, I can't see him getting the grades he'd need to get on the courses.

Does he actually know how to revise?

• slots of 20-30-40 minutes
• have a goal for the session in mind - not just 'revise chemistry' but revise ionic and covalent bonding
• active revision, not just reading the book, but making notes, drawing mind maps, doing practice questions

It might be a bit early to start yet, apart from revision notes / maps for topics / units completed last year. However every bit done before term ends is something that doesn't need to be done later.

When are mocks? He will need a revision timetable for them. He needs to identify all topics, allocate time for each one, and work out when he is going to revise.

No phones / social media / Xboxes in room whilst revising!

Would he

A) be willing to sit down with you to make up a revision plan/schedule, Ikeatears?
B) would he engage & really help plan something realistic
C) would he then follow this plan ... without you nagging? How much are you willing to nag & chivvy?

What is his PlanB if he doesn't get the grades for the chosen A-levels?

I've done revision timetables with him, broken down into small topics, I've bought the books, the coloured pens, highlighters, index cards, I've sat with him to revise, I've encouraged him to revise on his own, I've helped him, tested him, nagged him, given him space to find his own way, I've rewarded him, I've punished him, I've tried every tactic I can think of but the second I back off, he reverts to doing nothing!

I can only be on his back so much, I have two other children and it's not me sitting the GCSEs! He just can't seem to self-motivate.

He has my office space to work in, it's quiet, with no distractions. He has a desk in his room but he says there's too much temptation to get distracted in there.
He has no clue what he would do if he didn't go to college for A levels. He's more than capable just not motivated.

The way these threads on MN usually go is most people encourage you to just keep trying & then you can live with yourself that you did your best whatever happens. A few people will mention breakthrus (to make their kids more motivated) they had with their own kids for diverse reasons. I find that people who post like you have will not want to do any less than keep hand holding, assuming you can't find a magic ingredient to make him more self-motivated. If you keep bumping the thread up you will hear a lot of encouragement.

I think I'd like to hear how other year 10/11s are doing - what techniques do they employ? Do they use use apps? Do they use specific websites or do they pin information up around their rooms? I can give him the toolbox but I can't make him use it. Just hoping some people will be able to share ideas that he may find useful.

I think it all might seem a bit unreal and far away at the moment.

My DD1 had mocks in the second week of January. She revised only from the Christmas holidays (controlled assessments took up the homeworking effort in the Autumn term).

For the real thing she revised from after the Feb half term I think, but the massive ramp up happened Easter holidays onwards.

What we did make sure was that content heavy subjects like science and History had revision cards done prior to the Christmas holidays. However due to her organisation problems I had to hand hold her all the way through revision, and for various reasons that may not be an option for you.

What did he do for end y10 exams?
Can he say what worked and what didn't work for him then?

DS put all the Science topics that he had covered in Year 10 onto cards/mind maps over the summer holidays. He is also using Tassomai 3 or 4 times a week. But he finds Science very tricky.

He's using DuoLingo for French.

His current plan is that he will work for 2 hours each evening. Homework first, then use the rest of the time for putting Year 10 History and Geography notes onto cards.

He plays rugby on Saturday, so realistically won't work at all that day.
Aiming for 4-5 hours on Sunday.

After the grand total of one week, he seems to be sticking to the plan, but who knows if it will continue. Mocks first week back after Christmas.

It is really rewarding to complete a task for revision. So instead of struggling to motivate 'create mindmaps for ionic bonding' perhaps a concrete task would help? Does he have access to textbooks? I sometimes recommend completing summary or end of chapter questions (many revision guides have these too) for my pupils. It's something concrete and when he gets stuck he can then mindmap, quiz himself on vocab etc... and then go back and hopefully complete the questions.

CGP workbooks are also useful for this purpose. He can then make a 'to do list' with each end of chapter/ summary question section and tick them off to see for himself that he's making progress.

Isaac Physics has some new GCSE questions too (they've been more focused on A Level in the past). They've made a book with many calculation-type questions available to purchase for £1 plus shipping.

(yr11 overachiever) DD suggests motivate them with "crippling fear of failure"
(DH suggested cut out job ads for McDonalds... :) ).

DD might have a point. I never tried or got organised in school until I nearly failed a class. In my system you could fail just for not doing the homework. Fear of public humiliation made me change my ways.

Dcs both year 10 - both do homework to the best of their ability, one reads loads of English novels to up his game. We have a Maths and a French tutor but they are both motivated to achieve and I do very little other than smooth the pathway. I believe the more you interfere and take control as a parent, the less they take responsibility and the more they fight back, do nothing and blame you for their failure.

I think fear of failure is unhealthy - we learn from failure.

@Orangeplastic I completely agree, I know my posts sound like I'm micro managing him and this is something I really want to avoid. I want to give him the tools to enable him to take ownership.
There are some really helpful tips on here, thanks everyone.

ha! that will learn me.

Physics, Maths, Chemistry. .. cannot be revised thoroughly by reading or mind mapping. These subjects are all about application so he needs to do questions to understand these subjects.

Also review the work he's done in school weekly. Chances are he hasn't fully grasped the concepts first time round. If he reviews what he's done jn class it should develop a deeper understanding of what he's doing.

@lljkk sorry, I don't understand?

I just wonder, as the parent of a child who's just finished year 12, whether it isn't a bit early to be 'revising'. My son revised for his mocks (first week back after Christmas) in the two weeks over the Christmas holidays and then for his GCSEs from Easter onwards. Of course there was revision in school on top of that, but revising now for exams that are nearly a year away is a sure way to arrive at burnout.

Shouldn't he just do his homework well, revise for any tests in school, and start revising a few weeks before his mocks? If they are before Christmas, that will be after half term. Then from February half-term (not that that happened here) he could start revising properly.

What ontopofthesunset says!

Just keep up with homework and in class tests at this point and then revise for mocks and real exams as they happen.

Ontop thank goodness! DS struggles to get his homework done - let alone do any revision!! Over the summer we re-organised his books/files and made sure all his sheets etc were stuck in.....
Probably need to do more of the same over half term. Christmas is earmarked for revision by me.

Completely agree with last comments. My DD (now year 13) was so bored with revision by the time she got to the actual GCSEs I'm sure it affected the intensity of revision during the actual exams.

ontop - such a relief to read your post. I was beginning to think I was the minority with not worrying at all about actual revision (as opposed to homework) until Christmas time. Seems like madness otherwise. 4-5 hours on a Sunday??? already?

Did no one read my post Sun 10-Sep-17 15:12:07?
My DD did same revision as Ontops

I did Teen and then got to the bit about revision cards before Christmas and panicked

Seconded, Ontopofthesunset . My DC (seven of whom have recently or fairly recently left school) certainly didn't revise at this time of year, nor is my eighth DC (Y11) revising. It seems far, far too early. None of mine bombed out as a consequence - I really wouldn't worry OP. Revising for mocks and then from Easter for the real thing is the usual pattern and if the mocks go badly then that can actually be quite useful, assuming the problem is lack of revision and nothing more.

What we did over the Christmas holidays, was make sure all family socialising was done in a solid block of 5 days over Christmas. Those days were completely revision free, but otherwise she did her scheduled amount (which was ~3 hrs morning and ~2hrs late afternoon). It isn't fair to keep interrupting them to visit Great Aunt Mary or whatever.