How much revision for yr 10 mocks?

[frogsarejumpy]

Our ds has mocks next week and it has been a regular battle to get him to revise. I have aimed for 2 hours a day in the recent holidays and 1.5 hours on week nights, with 3 hours each day this weekend. No idea if this is reasonable/ too little??
He has ADHD so it’s in 30 min sessions with short break and longer break and activity after each hour. He needs to do activities revising and gets easily distracted.
He’s bright and ambitious but also thinks an hour a day should be fine!
What are your DC doing? Any tips on what’s recommended? TIA

Hi. My DD did a little bit over half term for all the subjects then the night before I helped her with more intense revision. This has always worked for her because it is then fresh in her mind. However she did an exam on monday and she had a huge panic attack in the hall and had to leave as all the information she learnt apparently flew out of her head and she wrote nothing!!! I do think revision techniques work different for different children. I think as long as there are breaks in between this sounds about right. I am a bit worried because school have advised my DD to not do any revision this weekend because she has been so stressed out they just want her to relax to give her best next week. She can't cope with the pressure because she revises and it is all there but as soon as she gets into the exam hall she forgets everything and then hyperventilates and thinks she is going to be sick!!

I think it so depends on:

• whether school is revising in class too
• how comprehensive the mocks are e.g. all topics learned up to now, or just a small defined subsection
• how much the child can cope with themselves

My DD1 did around 4-4.5 hrs per non-school day for her y11 mocks and proper exams. Split into 50/30min chunks. However quite a large amount of that was 1-1 with me to help her focus (dyspraxia). I also helped write her revision timetable and we reached agreement on the amount of revision she needed.

My DD2 on the other hand (who has just not done GCSEs) wouldn't have coped with anywhere near that amount as she was so exhausted by school she had no spare brainpower left.

Better to agree less and do it without argument, than aim for too much they can't cope with.

We reached agreement by listing everything they needed to revise, and getting DD to estimate revision time needed for it, and adding it up. Then seeing how many hours per week/day would be needed and how it could be allocated. then when it didn't fit working out where to adjust.

DD1 needed an hour or 2 on science a day, let alone any other subject. But learning it didn't come naturally to her. So one session it was Chemistry: covalent & ionic bonding, another would be Biology: mitosis and meiosis. Definitely don't just say 'revise science'.

I really don't think leaving it until the night before is in anyway a good method for GCSEs. Fine for a simple topic test in KS3, but not GCSEs. There is just far too much content. You need to understand it, learn it, then keep 'revising' on and off to securely embed it into longer term memory. You also need to do practice questions in y11 to ensure you understand how to answer them, and then check answers against the mark scheme.

We found with DD1 that topics that had been properly revised for end y10 or y11 mocks were much easier to revise for the real thing, because they were already partly in her longer term memory, she wasn't starting from scratch.

Knowing you have revised properly and do know the information is in my opinion a good way of helping to keep calm on the day of the exam. Then just before you go in a flick through a few key revision cards or mind maps to remind/reassure yourself.

This is really down to the child's personality and attitude towards learning.

DS (grudgingly) managed an hour or 2 per subject.
DD has a detailed revision plan and has made copious notes, completed multiple practice questions and organised revision sessions with friends (where they actually spend 90% of the time working). She is spending basically every spare minute revising.

It will not surprise you to know that this also mirrored their attitude to learning on an everyday basis. DD is conscientious and likes to do well. DS acknowledged that GCSEs were important but couldn't see the point of doing more than just about the bare minimum before that.
As a parent I think all you can do is encourage and provide practical things. You can't intrinsically change your child's viewpoint. DS is now in Year 12 and is revising very conscientiously for A Level mocks. He just didn't "get" it in Year 10 - partly a maturity thing I think.

Ds2 does 6 hours on a non-school day broken up into 45 minute pieces. This still leaves him over 6 hours of free time every day.

But he is potentially a grade 9 student, he knows that any work he does now will aid him not only in year 10 mocks but also for freeing up time in year 11 as he will have covered it already. Also he watched his brother go through this a few years ago so is aware of the amount of stuff to revise.

His year 10 mocks are a mixture of all content for some papers and selected bits for others. So science is the triple paper but they have just finished combined contents, English lit is just unseen poetry, no books, no poetry, maths is 3 full papers. As I said though his grades are high so he needs to continue to ace it.

Sorry to say that in years 10-13 right now every test/exam must be seen as potentially contributing to the final exam grade, since in the event of any further exam cancellations the teachers will use these exams to justify their allocation of a grade to your child.
I have a child doing these end of year tests also, which would normally be seen as a good practice, a good opportunity to revise, a good chance for the teacher to give an accurate target grade. This year, DC has to take it as seriously as if it were the real GCSEs. It is rubbish and one reason why the mental health of these year groups is very poor and likely to deteriorate further.
Not what you want to hear, sorry. But take them very seriously. Many students 2 years older than your DC are left with GCSE results much lower than they deserved because they didn't try hard enough for end-of-year 10 exams and any year 11 mocks they were able to take before the first lockdown.

Use videos if your DC can concentrate on these better: Mr Bruff for English, Freesciencelessons for science (nice and short for each small section of each topic).
Seneca for online revision - keeps them interested because they keep clicking through the info and questions.
Quizlet for flash cards. Some good D&T ones out there. Apparently some good language vocab ones, but I never found them.

If your school subscribes to Mathswatch, do this on your own too. Questions, with answers, and videos explaining it also.

Thanks all, citcat, poor dd. Teenminus that sounds very logical, my ds also needs as much of my time as I can give him! User at random, my dd is similar, munch more motivated and independent! Nota treacle- wow dedicated! Bojo yes this is exactly my fear! Who knows what will happen.
Ds feels that it’s “all fine now” etc but we never expected last year either!
So far we have done 3 hours today, with breaks and basketball in between .
I’m focusing on a systematic approach as you all have suggested I think, a list of topics for each subject to tick off or turn green for a visual motivator. Planning for the long haul now!
Experienced parents of gcse kids - presuming a small amount regularly over the summer hols us a good plan?

Over the summer holidays, I wouldn't do revision as such but I would do:
a) sorting out any bits they don't understand (especially maths & science)
b) revision notes for all content covered so far (even for stuff that wasn't needed for the y10 mocks)

Year 11 is a marathon not a sprint, they need to enter it both prepared and well rested. This is their last decent length break as dependent on when y11 mocks are they might not get a break at Christmas, and they definitely won't get one at Easter.

I really think exams will go ahead next year.

After the fuss there will be on August 12th regardless of results (too high, too low, unfair on certain pupil types, schools not being consistent) everyone will be wanting exams again.

My child's school has suggested 3 hours per weekday and four hours on Saturday and Sunday

@TeenMinusTests

I really think exams will go ahead next year.

After the fuss there will be on August 12th regardless of results (too high, too low, unfair on certain pupil types, schools not being consistent) everyone will be wanting exams again.

Several of my DC's teachers have suggested there will be a hybrid approach (some exams, some teacher assessment).

The main issue both this year and last year was not that the results were teacher assessed but that there was zero lack of plan for moderation (other than the ill conceived algorithm) so unsurprisingly some schools have given aspirational grades whilst others have moderated results down to make sure they are in line with previous years.

It's extremely worrying that there is not yet a plan for next year. Has nothing been learnt from the experience of the last 2!!?

I should clarify that my DC's teachers don't know any more than anyone else - they are just making educated guesses!

I think they will be very very keen to run the exams, especially for the current yr12 who didn't do GCSE last year. I am hoping that they will adjust things and come up with a backup plan though (why didn't they come up with a backup plan for this year last September after the mess that was last August??!?!) They really need to let schools know about adjustments asap but I expect it will be September like last year, it must be so stressful for teachers I really feel for them.

Hours of revision is a distant dream in this house, he will do short bursts occasionally (usually accompanied by some grumbling). He has worked through the science flashcards which have been helpful but trying to get him to focus on his weaker subjects is very tricky. His exams have started today so I guess we will see what happens!

Thanks all. Ds has felt very overwhelmed with it all this week, I’ve asked for 2 hour study each night then plenty of time to relax - but there’s the euros so I’m very unreasonable apparently! ( he ‘needs’ to watch every match...)
We do 30 min bursts then 5 min break then 30 mins then longer break before next 30 min slot. I’m finding that I need to work alongside him, prompting etc, thinking I’ll be ready for exams next year at this rate!!
It’s very time consuming, and difficult to balance with other teens needs etc.
Anxious about the year ahead ....

I think the Euros could be used as an incentive in some ways.

Schedule the revision around the football - then it shows you are listening to him. He doesn't need to watch the build up nor the post mortems, so that's only 90mins per match+interval. So depending when a match starts he could do some straight after school before a match, or between the two matches. If one day he can't do the full amount he needs to do extra on a day with no matches.

You could even make watching matches conditional on being 'up to date' on revision if you think that would help.

I could have sat most of DD1's exams a few years back (except her 2 MFLs). It's what some DC need.

Having a plan helps reduce stress/anxiety/overwhelmedness as everyone can see what is needed. It helps you feel in control.