Question for those of you with motivated hard working children.

[lunicorn]

If your child was set revision e.g. Physics: Forces for a test in 2 weeks time, how much revision would they do and how frequently?
My DD (12) does it the night before. I think it should be something like 20 mins every other day with a big session the day before.

My DS is 14 and in Year 10. He is very motivated to do well academically because his dream is to study a course at Uni that requires AAA at A level. It's seriously competitive to get in so no chance of the Uni accepting lower grades. He's currently predicted 8/9 in all his GCSEs, purely down to his motivation to have an excellent application to this course.
My DS would only have ever revised for a test like you describe the night before when he was 12. He does has phenomenal recall and finds Physics really interesting. That, combined with his motivation, means that he's excelled in his class tests with only revising the night before.
He is aware he'll need to do in-depth revision for the actual GCSE exams but hasn't needed that for any of his class tests so far.
Hope that helps!

Does she get good results? If so, that obviously works for her. I was the same and got top marks in most things (back in the days when my brain functioned!) 😆

To be honest, I never revised and did very well at school but I retained information well when I was a young 'un. Now I have a mind like a sieve ... oh to be young again!

She does ok in short language vocab tests, but she might get a out 60% for the Physics.
I don't think she realises the purpose of the tests is help her remember what she's learned etc she thinks it's just something to get out of the way then forget.

Thanks for replies all

At age 12 you could let her sit the test and get the 60% and explain to her that had she revised properly she'd have got a higher mark. You know your kid and what will motivate her. My DS would be upset to get 60% in a test so he ensures he knows the topics beforehand, hence the revision the night before.

I don't think there is enough in 'forces' to revise it for 20 mins every other day for 2 weeks.

otoh leaving it until the night before isn't good either.

I've got 2 very different DCs.
DS (12) recently had a science test on forces. He spent precisely 10 minutes the day before, flicking through his book and got 78%.
DD (15) has to spend hours on that sort of revision ( she has poor short term memory) and would be thrilled if she got 60%; the last physics test she took, she got 35% ( forces and waves).

Horses for courses, I guess. I'm hoping DS will step it up once he finds a reason to. DD, on the other hand, will never get results that reflect her effort, so shell have to find a balance she's happy with.

Mine (now 17) would have revised a single topic test the weekend before. Maybe for an hour each on Saturday and Sunday, and then the night before.

You need to revise for long enough to get the best result you can,modified by how much you care about your grade,and balanced against everything else you need to do.
At 12 I'd be having a chat about how a bit more revision would probably have gained a better mark,about how it's good to practice revising as you'll need it more and more,and about how to do it - some children have no idea how to revise.Not all in one "ok,DD,let's talk about revision" session though,just in dribs and drabs

Your plan is too much for that kind of test,and the night before isn't enough IMO.(unless revising the night before gets you 90%)

At 12 for an end of topic test (what this sounds like) it would have been around an hour the night before, or possibly 2 shorter sessions on 2 nights just prior to the test. Remember they have literally just covered this in class so she hopefully has retained a lot of the information anyway.

What you are suggesting sounds very OTT - remember they will potentially end up with an end of topic test in every subject, so if they are doing 20 minutes per subject every other day ... well you can add up how much that comes to!

Generally DC's school assigns 1 or 2 lots of homework time to revise for a test which I think is about right.

2 or 3 half hour sessions during the week before.

12yo or 16yo DD might have been sane about it, still not quite what OP wants from her DS.
14yo DD would have obsessively revised (to point of damaging mental health).
DS1 would have done zero revision at all ages.
12yo DS2 would have done no revision, but now at 14yo, DS2 would do ok quality revision the night before, for up to an hour.

14yo DS2 has the healthiest & most sustainable attitude, imho.

I was always a last minute crammer and it worked for me . At the end of the day it’s the end result that matters . No harm in suggesting revising before the last minute however if the test result is good then clearly your DC’s strategy , on this occasion at least , works . Have you looked at the volume of information that needs to be understood/ retained for Forces and would it really take 20mins alternate days for the next fortnight ?

DD (12) was a bit lazy but has recently become very studious - wasn’t at all studious in yr 7 - will revise for a good couple of weeks before a test.

Difficult to say how much is quality revision time and how much effort is expended choosing the colour of the highlighter for that particular revision card !

Her marks have gone up though to 80-85% from 60% ish

Time spent is about would say 30 mins four or five times a week per subject. Three subjects on the go most of the time due to endless testing and measuring.

I have 3 dc.
Dd1 is very hard working and motivated. It would depend on how much other homework she had to do (or redo to top quality if she felt it wasn't good enough). But she'd look at it from when given, and make revision notes from about a week away.
Dd2 likes to do enough to keep out of trouble. She'd look at it the night before and read through.
Ds thinks every homework is equivalent to a full scale disaster. I'm sure "revise" homework would equal "nothing to do" in his brain.

I was like dd2. To be quite fair to her, she does seem to have a photographic memory, so she does pretty well on just reading it through once. I used to reckon on testing my friends in the morning (had a very well motivated friend) used to give me all the revision I needed to do okay, and as long as I kept out of trouble, that was fine.

My DD would possibly look at it the night before and do ok ish. She’s currently treating year 8 like a bit of a laugh but she’s a smart girl and in time I’m sure she’ll do it properly

Dd is a hard working y11 and would have looked once or twice max for 15-20 mins ish at that age. The school don't put the pressure on y8 the same way as y6 or GCSE students.

DD13 would do say 2-3 20-30 minute revision sections, including the night before - 2 if when she first looked at it she thought "yes I can do this" and 3 if she was a bit unsure. She learnt quickly from an early bad mark (well 65%ish, which in her eyes is bad) that revising only the night before isn't usually enough. So whilst you can advise, to some extent they have to learn from their mistakes. She now generally gets 80%+ in tests.

DS11 is still in the "revise the night before only" mode but is coming round to thinking abit more might be better if it's subject he's not very comfortable with.

I'd say that your ideas is too much for this sort of test but night before only not a great idea, but DC have to learn from their own mistakes.

My (high ability, does well)13 yo dd would do 30 mins the night before. She's not super motivated except in subjects she really likes, but knows how much she needs to do to do ok in tests.

What is a motivated, hard working child???
This thread makes me know I need to give DS a kick up the arse. He had exams all last week (Year 9, they've just started termly exams). He did ZERO revision!

Half and half for 2 nights before.

Actually, at 12, 20 minutes the night before!

GCSE forces is a massive topic with loads of formulae to learn... it'll need a lot of revision.