Helping with GCSE revision

[pollyparker]

My son is doing GCSEs in May. He has good intentions but when it comes down to it is getting distracted by screens. He does most of his revision on the computer (very poor handwriting so uses laptop to write in school. Says he needs Internet to revise) so unless I stand next to him it's difficult for me to monitor. Also, he is prioritising getting in screen time over doing a good job on his homework.
He is on track to do well in most subjects, but is in real danger of failing English, and not achieving the A-grade he needs to do maths A-level.

Has anyone tried Cold Turkey or any other means of blocking distracting sites for certain periods during the day?

He wants to be independent but

Not been in this situation but wanted to say he really really doesn't need internet to do gcse revision. I got 10 A* using the Letts revision books and rewriting my notes. Will he have a keyboard in the exam

I would print everything he has written in class. If he manages an hour of revision, give him 20 mins screen time.

Sorry, pressed "post" by mistake. The only other thing I wanted to say was he wants to be independent but he isn't always making the right choices. It would be great to hear what others are doing about screen time rules as the GCSEs approach.

Thanks Penhacked. He does use a keyboard in exams. His writing is illegible even to himself.

He should be making notes, flash cards for key vocabulary and mind maps. At this stage, it sounds like the internet will just be a distraction. I would help him make a realistic revision timetable and get some CPG revision guides.

If his handwriting is poor - he could use an app like Quizlet to make flash cards and a mind map app.

Another vote for quizlet.

And he can make quizes for his freiends and vica versa.

Get him to break his revision down in to 20 min blocks. Maths and English he should be doing every day, the other subjects he should be doing an hour or so, again in 20 min blocks.

Get past papers and marking schemes and get hi to do the questions with no internet - switch the wifi off if you need to.

Get some past papers and get him to 'BUG' the questions.

BUG - box, underline, go back and tick.

So if the question is, 'Explain the causes of the French revolution' he needs to put a box around 'explain' - can be done in highlighter, then he underlines key terms to us in his answer, so French Revolution and causes.

SO far he does not need to use a key board.

The 'G' is to 'go back and tick' so as he is writing his answer he ticks all the underlined words.

He could do the BU and then instead of writing the answer verbally give his answer to you and then you both check with the marking scheme.

There are already good tips posted! I agree with working in 20-40 minute blocks. He can't sit at the screen all night - only for one block, he should change it up a bit

Sashh - great tip with the BUG and toomuch thanks for the quizlet idea. Exam technique is killing ds atm, all his hard work is wasted because he keeps screwing up in the exams. Fortunately he isn't Year 11 and has time and is determined to correct his technique but it's so frustrating to see him work so hard and fail to get the results he wants.

Bensyster make sure he is really familiar with the command words in exam questions so that he provides an accurate and focused response to the question.

Thanks Toomuch Geog teacher is currently trying to drive this message home - for e.g. when the question asks to explain don't describe! It seems that exam strategy has become even more important than it was 20 years ago....

2 accounts on his laptop, use parental controls:

• Account A for school work, open 8am-6pm. All social network sites / games etc. blocked on it.
• Account B for fun, open 6pm-10pm with the access he currently has.

We effectively had this for DD1, but it was 2 laptops.

Or revision done downstairs if using the computer?

Most GCSE revision does not need the internet.
It needs revision guides and printed out past papers.

My son goes on games from 7-9 most nights. Revision happens before then, downstairs at the breakfast bar. Teachers happily give out past papers for most subjects. My maths and BBC botesize are the only 2 online revision sites he uses and he uses that downstairs.

My son installed Cold Turkey himself last year to wean himself off gaming during his GCSE's.
Found it very successful.

Was back gaming online again by the end of June, but he did get good results.