Helping Y8 DD revise

[TheLasrStraw]

Y8 DD is top set in everything and predicted all 7-9s and would never dream of not doing a homework to a high standard.

But when a test is coming up, I help her revise by testing her. Otherwise she wouldn't spend enough time on going over her notes again and again. She then gets high marks, usually around 80%.

Her note taking has really improved but how can she learn to test herself?

Testing her is not how I want to spend my free time! She likes it as it helps her identify what she doesn't know.

My parents has very high expectations of my school work but would never have even touched my books.

Let her do it herself. And let her mess up.

She won’t get top marks, and it doesn’t matter as she’s in Y8. And then she’ll work out what she needs to do to retain the information needed for a test.

I have dc in Y11 and Y10 and we agreed when they started senior school that it was up to them how hard they worked, and how well they did: they’d have more choices in life if they got better results at school, but their success was up to them not me.

She already messed up on a few marks on a test in Y7. The answers were in her exercise book, just plain facts, no understanding required. It meant she got "Less Than Expected".

So that's why I started testing her to make sure she had read all her class work.

And now she really likes being top of the class and being known for being smart.

Wow I would come across this vompletely differently. I would tackle the need to be seen as top of the class. I would massively step back from testing her . You may be inadvertently piling on pressure for her to feel "top."

It really isn't healthy. When she loses marks or isnt top it will really hurt her self image if its built on being top - the answer isnt to keep cramming ridiculously but to accept not always being top... and that's easier learnt in yr8 than when older.

She needs to know messing up a few marks is okay.

They learn from messing up. Learning how to revise is a big life skill they need to learn for themselves at secondary school. You can help her with strategies but helping her in this way won't benefit her in the future at all.

Absolutely.