DD overwhelmed by end of unit tests year 10

[helpinghetty]

DD has multiple tests coming up in the next few weeks. They all require lots of revising and are quite full on content as she’s not the type who can just read through something and memorise it. She’s starting to feel really overwhelmed and has been in tears a lot. How can I help her keep calm and revise effectively without getting too bogged down?

It wasn't that long ago that I was in the same position. I was very studious and took exams very seriously.

I would get her to decide which exams matter the most to her, and get her to prioritise those in terms of studying. Also, make sure she takes regular breaks. It will ultimately help her to concentrate and focus her time.

I also used to take herbal calming sweets/drops to help me focus.

Good luck to her. Such a stressful time in her school life xx

We home-educate and ds is currency sitting IGCSE exams. He has anxiety, SEN and ADHD. I decided to do the worrying for him. I set up a revision timetable and sourced revision materials and books and give him daily tasks to complete. And do a lot of cheer leading and encouragement.

This works for us and “frees” his mind to focus on the revision and not getting bogged down in the organization and planning.

Would you sitting down and helping her draw up a revision timetable help? Maybe she will realize she does have time to do all the revision so this could reduce her anxiety. Or maybe you will see she does not have enough time left so can help her to focus her efforts

By the way if she is visual try you tube for revision videos. We have found some excellent ones and use them to make mind maps etc

Agree with the suggestion of a timetable. Anything at all to help get organised pays real dividends. A tidy filing system. Colour coding. Using different coloured highlighting pens for different purposes etc. spend time getting everything lined up, then the actual revision part becomes less daunting.

Does she have an effective revision method that works for her? Spider diagrams, explaining things verbally to someone else, flash cards, mind maps?

I believe studies suggest the optimum revision time is around 20 mins, after that you lose concentration. It's good to take a 5 minute break doing nothing (not even looking at phones) except maybe getting a drink or going to the loo before starting the next 20 minute block. Could you help her come up with a revision timetable of small blocks? Once she has a plan, hopefully it will feel less daunting.

Thanks for the really helpful replies. She has 5 tests next week and has already done lots of revising so knows more than she thinks but is starting to panic now. I’m going to suggest she does 20 minute bursts which I think will really help her calm down.

If she's already done a lot of revision, maybe making flashcards on her phone to practice whenever she has a few mins will help. Not just to remind her of the subject but to remind her that she actually does know this... It might help to boost her confidence if you do some flashcards with her or get her to explain things to you to consolidate her knowledge. Having involvement and feedback from someone else that she is doing well could help with her anxiety.

Both of my sons used flashcards. It was a great way to show them how much they knew when they can see the pile of correct ones. Then they could ignore those and concentrate on memorising the others.

End of topic tests in year 10 are a great way to make sure they understand the GCSE content and if she prepares revision resources now ie flashcards or mindmaps then she can utilise these later for her year 10 mocks and all her year 11 exams.

Revision isn't reading something and hoping it goes in. You have to come up with a method that works for her and then test that method. YouTube videos are a great resource, lots of teachers upload stuff for their class. Ds1 was watching a teacher who had 27 subscribers, not his teacher, he now has 1.7k subscribers!