Year 7 end of year exams

7 replies

mumto3boys · 15/05/2009 19:56

We found out today that our son has exams the week after half term. They will be starting their revision on monday and need to revise (obviously!) next week and over half term.

I assumed they would have exams, but have only been told formally, by letter, today. DS is in a right mood that we will be 'making him' revise, even though the letter is saying they all need to. The world has ended, it is his life, none of our business, usual strop etc etc.

Now the thing is, if I just send him off to revise, he probably won't know where to start. Is there anything useful I can do to help him revise, any websites or papers etc?

If he doesn't do well, he will be all woe is me, but at the same time, he can't be bothered to revise. Effort is not his strong point and I think he assumes he will just know all the answers when he gets in there!

To top it off we are away over half term so revision that week will be limited.

Any help very greatfully received.

OP posts:

chibi · 15/05/2009 20:02

the bbc bitesize website is always worth a look www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

magentadreamer · 16/05/2009 07:34

Does the school have a subscription to mymaths? My Dd has found it useful when revising for her half termly maths tests. Plus her school has a subscription to linguascope - which helps with languages. I found another site which is free to use after 4pm weekdays and at weekend - www.whatt2learn.com - this has lots of games to play in a range of subjects - eg labelling volanoes.

foofi · 16/05/2009 07:40

I too found out yesterday that dd has exams the week after half term, and she is away during the half term week, so won't have much chance to do revision. She's only got Maths, English and Science, so out of those Science seems to be the one to concentrate on revision-wise.

seeker · 16/05/2009 07:45

But remember that you can only do so much. Make sure he's got the resources he needs, show him the BBC Bytsize thing, get him some new notebooks/indexcards/pens (or is that just girls?) make the time available - then it's up to him. Sounds hard, I know, but sometimes the "learning by doing" here is doing less well than you want.

mumblecrumble · 16/05/2009 11:11

I men this with the greatest of tact and respect. He is very young If they've only given him 2 weeks surely they don;t expect you to mega stress cram. It sounds like they will introduce him to revision ideas at school. Maybe they will share these with you.

Usually year 7 exams exist to see how kids are doing and settling in, make sure hey are iin the right groups and to get them used to the revise and exam system. Usually revision just takes over homework and they get less homework so he will not have any less (hypothtically!) free time. What about sitting with him and showing that if he does (for xample) an hour from 4 - 5 revision he them has the rest of the evening etc etc to play etc.

I'm sorry he seems really worried. Am teacher but think It will be very different when our dd gets there!

I would seriously suggest to you that if you have any worris at all you should chat with his form tutor. Seriously at this stage, assessment is about monitoring and helping him rather than judging him and him learning that" somtimes you do less well than you want"

BBC bitseize is brilliant but designed for 16 year olds so take care with it. Ask his tutor for appropriate and fun resources.

Original poster

mumto3boys · 16/05/2009 11:35

Thanks for all your ideas. They have mathletics but i'm not sure that it has any revision stuff, will take a look.
Problem is, they are on 'pathways' - top middle and bottom for all subjects together, not just one. So if he does badly due to no revision, he could go down to bottom. He's already in middle even though he was top 3 of 90 children at primary level, partly I think because he has levelled out ability wise, but also as he is very lazy - he gets it from me unfortunately!

OP posts:

scienceteacher · 16/05/2009 18:21

OP, your DS is getting revision in school? That is very generous.

We have school exams after half-term also. The homework I will set next week will be to revise the whole year's work for their exams. I will provide them with a list of topics, and instruct them to go through their exercise books and textbooks. I don't really expect them to do anything online as their exercise books and textbooks are sufficient.

Flip