EXAMS have started!
While pupils are writing their finals, it is wise to keep up the motivation – it’s too easy to think the need for hard work has passed.
Cindy Glass, director and co-founder of Step Up Education Centres, said: “Kids need their parents’ support now.”
Top exam tips
- Stress and anxiety can overwhelm a pupil and make giving up seem to be the better option than suffering to the end.
Help your kids understand that they need to do their best.
- Encourage her or him to keep working on past exam papers.
Organise goals that are achieved after a amount of work in a given time. This will give your child a wonderful sense of achievement when each task is completed.
- Remind your children that adult life requires them to deal with unpleasantness. As with any skill, the better they get at dealing with it now, the better they’ll be at dealing with it when they’re older.
- Explain that the first 10 minutes of any challenging activity is the worst. After the first 10-minute mark the task gets easier – you get on a roll!
- Exams teach your child how responsibility works. Adults can encourage and support them but no one else can do the work for them.
- Make sure that your child’s learning environment is clean and tidy to study.
Keep the noise levels down, speak positively, encourage their effort and praise any progress they make.
- Try and have something to look forward to once the exams have been completed.
Arrange a movie evening, a day at the beach or the promise of enjoying her or his favourite meal.
But this needs to be a reward for the hard work that was put into the exam process.
“All children want to achieve, whether they admit it or not! Don’t give up because the rewards will be worth it!”
