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RastrickGreen

What is the best way to support my 15year olds revision .

Reply 1

{Moss}

Presuming this is as a parent :smile:

There are a lot of things you can do, but it's worth noting that this is very dependent on the child in question. Most teenagers are quite private and want to manage most of their revision themselves, and though it can be annoying if they don't try hard, it's worth remembering that there's not really much you can do about that directly, the most you can do is to just provide general support.
- First thing, make sure they have breaks! Revision isn't beneficial without these, and often teens range from doing no revision to doing it and having no free time left.
- Secondly, in providing mental support. Just asking if they're doing alright is really important, especially during revision when they're going to be more stressed. If they say they're not doing well, see if there's anything you can do to help.
- Thirdly, it can help to check whether just generally you can do anything to help with their revision, e.g. quizzing them with their flashcards. That can be quite useful.
- Lastly, it's worth checking if there's any resources you could get to help them. For example, if they enjoy notes it might be worth (if you haven't already) getting CGP revision guides and workbooks. There are also practice papers out there which they might want to do, and then you could mark to see where they can improve.
Similarly to that, past papers are often used for free, and it might be worth asking if they want you to mark any. That saves them time, often gives a better critique of their work as self-marking can be unreliable, and helps them find where to work with.

Hope this helps! Good luck, hopefully some others will have some more advice too :biggrin:

Reply 2

University of Sheffield Students

Official Rep

Original post by RastrickGreen

What is the best way to support my 15year olds revision .

Hi,

The best way to support someone is going to vary depending on the person. It can also depend on the subject that they are revising.
A few common things though:
-testing them with flashcards
-checking vocabulary or spelling of crucial words
-letting them explain the topic to you as that helps them check their understanding of it

When I was doing my GCSE's my parents used to start discussing various science topics when we were in the car and then I would realise what parts of the topic I couldn't remember and needed to go back over. They also used to mark my past papers (sometimes quite harshly) so that I wasn't being too lenient with marking and not improving because I didn't realise the mistakes I had made, this applies more for questions with longer written answers as it easy to think 'oh I meant that' and give yourself a mark but sometimes mark schemes are very specific and need certain words to be stated and the examiner doesn't know what you meant but just what you wrote. I don't know if they study a language, but we used to have stickers around the house on various items with their name in French so that over time you would just happen to learn the French word. This can also be done with other subjects like quotes from a text for English literature or science and maths formulas.

When revising, breaks are very important, ie doing 25 mins of revision and then pausing for 5 mins, and also making sure that you do other things like sports or reading or socialising otherwise you very quickly burn out and will struggle more with revising. This could be something that would be very helpful to facilitate.

Hope that helps,
Lizzie (BSc Mathematics and Philosophy - University of Sheffield)

Reply 3

University of Kent

Official Rep

Original post by RastrickGreen

What is the best way to support my 15year olds revision .

Hi @RastrickGreen,

I am assuming you are a parent?

Have you asked your child how they would like to be best supported?

GCSEs can be a very stressful time. Here are some of the ways I think you could support your child:

- Ensure they have a balanced lifestyle. Students often forget about other things in their lives and prioritise studying such as eating, moving and hydrating themselves. You could help by making sure they aren't eating and revising at the same time, providing meals they enjoy and encouraging them to walk/swim/go to the gym or do any form of movement that brings them joy. This is especially important if they start to drop hobbies that they used to enjoy.
- Help them with recall if they ask/need. Sometimes I would need a hand, especially with my language subjects, practicing for my oral exams or reciting certain key terms.

These are just a couple of things but you already on the right path by seeking advice from others.

I hope it all goes well. :smile:

Alia
University of Kent Student Rep