Heads' Tips - revision & exam time

How to help your daughter – Heads’ tips for exam time:

• Start revision in good time. Help her write a clearly structured revision plan which includes time out, treats, fresh air and exercise. Ensure she knows she won’t perform to her best if she’s exhausted.

• Check your daughter’s revision focus is on the subjects she is weak in. Many girls will start with their best subjects and leave the weak ones till the end.

• Use Post-Its. Try different coloured ones as reminders about vocabulary, formulae, quotes etc. Display them on mirrors, doors or around computer screens.

• If she is stuck or seems bored, encourage her to use a different method of explaining ie orally or in pictures/diagrams rather than writing more notes. Using different methods uses different parts of the brain.

• Remind her to seek help/clarification from her teachers at school. We want to support your daughter too!

• “The way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time”- get her to break revision into small chunks. It is better to do 30 minutes successful revision than plan 5 hours, feel overwhelmed and fail to start.

• Revision means re-looking at her work. To move knowledge into long term memory your daughter needs to re-look at it at least 5 times.

• For public exams, remind her to read through all the exam questions and answers she has done in the last 2 years. This is very helpful short term memory revision close to the exam.

• Ensure she reads her exam timetable carefully and gets to the examination centre in good time. There is nothing worse than arriving flustered or entering the hall after the exam has started.

• Remind her of good examination technique: once in the exam room, read the questions and instructions carefully; what exactly is being asked? Be selective – just because you have learnt lots of information about a topic don’t throw it all in. Be precise, controlled and relevant – make it easy for the examiner to reward you.

• Rather than banning her use of the computer and mobile encourage her to negotiate a communication contract with her friends where they all agree which 20 minutes they will all go online/communicate with each other…………and make her stick to it!

• Encourage your daughter to relax before bedtime so she sleeps long and well.

And some Heads’ tips just for you

• You know your daughter better than anyone. Does she need a push or does she put herself under quite enough pressure and simply needs reassurance from you?

• Encourage her to do her best, especially if she is young, and then celebrate/treat her at the end of exams. That way she’ll know you are really pleased with her for doing her best regardless of her results. You can always celebrate again if her results are particularly good.

• Reassure your daughter that she should aim to be the best she can be and not aim for perfection. You will love her whatever she achieves.

• “Be prepared for the fact that your daughter will have suffered as noone has ever suffered before when preparing for the public examinations.” Girls can tend to feel more pressure and anxiety than boys, and to get it all out of proportion. Reassure her, take as many pressures from her as possible, and just be there to love and support her.

• Look after her really well – provide good meals, stock up with her favourite snacks, make her hot chocolate, and encourage her to take breaks. On no account go away and leave your daughter to look after herself – she needs to focus on her work and you need to look after her.

• She may be irritating during this period – expect grumps and moans, high moments and lows, but bite your tongue. You’re the adult.

• Be upbeat! Your daughter has enough stress of her own and cannot deal with your anxiety too. Even if you feel desperately concerned that she is working too hard, or not working enough, you must avoid showing this worry. Your role is to be a bedrock of stability and optimism – she will be inspired by you if you do.

• And when she has driven you to your limits: take a deep breath, lower your shoulders and have a glass of wine!

For more advice on revision and exams read our related articles containing innovative tips to help build her confidence and a guide to useful websites and revision guides:

Heads’ Tips – a guide to revision guides
Heads’ Tips – more revision ideas

With thanks to the Heads and staff at the following schools:
Bolton School (Girls’ Division), Dame Alice Harpur School, Holy Trinity School, Howell’s School, Llandaff GDST, Ipswich High School, Northampton High school, GDST, Roedean School, Royal School Haslemere, St Albans High School, St Andrews School Bedford, St Catherine’s Bramley, St George’s Ascot, St Margaret’s School Bushey, St Mary’s School Calne, Stonar School, Sydenham High School GDST, Withington Girls School, Woldingham School