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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

Question for those of you with motivated hard working children.

39 replies

lunicorn · 12/01/2019 15:13

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.

OP posts:

rememberatime · 14/01/2019 17:39

My daughter is very academic and got very high grades in gcses - but she would not revise far in advance for most of her small exams (GCSEs obviously were an exception). She carefully weighs up her study/leisure time to importance of results ratio and decides what's worthwhile and what isn't. But then she is a mathematician.

For a small test she might do a couple of hours two nights before and then a top up the night before and the next morning.

RedSkyLastNight · 14/01/2019 17:41

OP's DC is 12 so not doing GCSE quite yet....

Alanna1 · 14/01/2019 17:48

It depends on your child, I don't think a group of people on the internet can help. Personally I'd say 20 minutes every other day for 2 weeks for a test on one topic in one area is substantially too much. Is it a big test? If it's basically a classroom test for the teacher to check the class is understanding something, then 'd probably suggest one time sketching out key notes/principles (i.e. create a revision note, one page), then one practice set of questions. That should tell you if more time is needed or not. If more time is needed maybe do some practice questions together one time. Otherwise, just review the notes and some questions the night before.

MergeDragons · 14/01/2019 17:52

Just a question does your DD know how to revise??? Do they just read through their notes? Do they know that they could make mind maps or flash cards or practice past papers or prepare a presentation on the topic to give to you? At 12 they might not really have had to revise before so may not know what else to do.

hendricksy · 14/01/2019 19:18

My dd is predicted 8/9's in her GCSEs in year 10. She doesn't really have to try that hard but has exams at the moment ( not ones that count ) and we have been doing revising together . She writes all in the info on cards and I text her . She would have winged them at 12 and mostly did . If she is able and has a good memory I wouldn't worry ! 🤷‍♀️

Pythonesque · 15/01/2019 21:42

My 13 yr old would probably do 1 session to revise for something like that, and do well. We've been talking over Christmas though about how that won't (and isn't) work for vocab learning - he's been learning vocab, thinking he knows it, then his mind goes blank faced with the test. Discussions have revolved around little and often ...

Different revision strategies will be appropriate both for different subjects AND according to how easy or difficult a particular student finds them. Revising the "easy" stuff - good notes / preparation, go over it once or twice. Revising "hard" stuff - take time over making good notes / rewriting or practicing or whatever, probably not longer sessions but definitely more of them over a longer period of time.

Smith888 · 23/01/2019 13:10

I think for now it's fine as she'll learn. My son did the same and was surprised by his results, so he's gone into overdrive trying to impress the teachers. I may teach him to create revision cards as I think they are useful if you are the crammer type, and he's not terribly organised. At least it would help him with planning.

ReflectentMonatomism · 23/01/2019 13:31

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.

For a y7 test? Behave.

Glance at the notes the night before. She’s 12, ffs.

Roomba · 23/01/2019 13:38

With my DS (aged 13, in Y8) how much revision he does entirely depends on how confident he is in the subject matter. He's hard working, but if he knows the subject well he will probably go through it the night before to check he hasn't missed anything, and that's it.

If he isn't as confident, he'll revise in depth the weekend before the test, then go over it again a couple of times beforehand to make sure the knowledge has 'stuck'. He had a couple of shocks during Y7 when he just assumed he would be fine with no revision/a quick read through and didn't do anywhere near as well as he'd expected! But I think that did him a huge favour as he realised that he needed to put some work in to remember every topic for the first time at school. Better to discover this at 12 and learn how to identify areas of weakness and good revision technique than to come across this concept at uni and have no clue how to proceed (I speak from experience )

tammytoby · 23/01/2019 14:09

I think it should be something like 20 mins every other day with a big session the day before.

For a small topic that they've just covered in depth in class?!

There wouldn't be enough material to even spend that long.

BubblesBuddy · 23/01/2019 15:10

My DD boarded and in Y7/8 they had around 20/30 minutes per subject. Test revision might be a homework or not. She would not do much extra because she was busy with after school clubs and activities so a quick read of notes before the test would suffice. However she seemed to have a good memory and always did well. If you need to work like stink in Y7/8 it will be harder later on! Much harder!

Lonecatwithkitten · 23/01/2019 17:20

Year 7/8 I let her live or die by her own decisions regarding revision, but expressed disappointment to low effort grades. In year 8 parents meeting there had been messing about in one subject and chatting DD found herself being torn off a strip in front of the teacher and told that I had not brought her up to be so disrespectful. After that she pulled her socks up and put in the effort in all her subjects ending year 9 with top effort scores even in subjects she was giving up. She is now set to gain a good set of GCSEs for her, works hard and revises well with input from me.
I firmly believe they need to be self sufficient and learn their own motivation.

pointythings · 23/01/2019 20:31

Different people need different intensities and repetitions of revision - there isn't a one size fits all.

In general I would say that a child in Yr8 is going to be less likely to be self-motivated and mature about homework and revision than an older child. Both of mine matured seemingly overnight in Yr 10 and I haven't had to prompt either of them to revise or do homework since.

Epanoui · 23/01/2019 21:50

DD is 12 too and extremely conscientious and motivated. She would do two or three sessions of ten minutes or so over two weeks for something like this. There is not that much actual content in a Y7 forces topic so I really don't think there is much need for days and days of revision unless you personally know you will struggle with the content and/or have a poor memory.

I did sit her down and explain to her that three sessions of ten minutes will mean she is likely to remember more than one long cramming session the night before as repetition is really helpful for memory and bless her, she has taken it on board.

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