I have a 15 year old daughter, just going through year 10 exams. Its probably the first time there has been a really full on week of exams and she is struggling. She is academically OK, so I suspect has had an element of "cruising" through previous tests/exams and thought this week would be easier than it was. She didn't do much revision until close to the exams, and was clearly relying on cramming. This worked for the first couple of days but today she has definitely gone to school hugely underprepared for a physics exam today. Three more exams after that over the next couple of days. We don't want to say anything this week but probably next week we do need to talk to her about how to be better prepared in the future (year 11 GCSE mocks will be before Christmas) I'm just not sure how to approach it?
I see how easily she gets distracted - she will end up binge watching whatever series she is into. She is starting to realise that and therefore has been coming downstairs to do revision the night before the exams. But she will need to learn some self discipline for future exams. She has an Ipad and a phone. At one end of the control spectrum we could say we just take away all access to them until she has done school work/additional revision. At the other end of that spectrum we would expect her to manage that herself. I don't want to treat her like a small child, and I suspect the answer is to ask her what she wants. She does, like many teenagers, have a slight habit of pushing back on any "helpful" suggestion we might make - and the more we "suggest" often the more she resists. We've had many conversations in the past where I gently suggest doing some revision and she says she will do it "later" and it either doesn't happen or happens with minimal effort.
I feel I'm too soft on her a lot of the time, and sometimes I will admit it will be to avoid a conflict. I "sell" it to myself as the fact that she has to learn from her mistakes but there is definitely an element of conflict avoidance going on in my head! Should I be tougher? Restrict access to Ipad until after school work is done (she will immediately say she needs it to access inline learning resources which has some truth in it)
I know none of you know her but I would be really interested to hear how much involvement other parents have in their teen's school work. She is an only child if that makes a difference!
Thanks