April 2019 — The Life Tutor

19Apr 2019 by Lucy No Comments

Revision – Why bother?

Exams, Wellbeing

So it’s the end of the week: how have you and your young person been getting on? Is revision well under way or are they having trouble getting started? Today is all about motivation, which can be a challenge for everyone. Each day brings a new start and new ways to procrastinate! The good news though, is that even if they’re feeling like they’ve wasted the week, it’s not too late. You don’t have to wait until Monday to make a fresh start – just Start Where You Are! Go back to the plan, make some adjustment and off you go. The phrase, “Just Do It” might be a sporting cliché, but I find it a useful mantra for all sorts of things, perhaps with a choice word added for…

18Apr 2019 by Lucy No Comments

Insider Secrets of the Exam Boards

Uncategorized

Today I’m going to show you a treasure trove of useful information that you might not have come across before! If your child is doing GCSEs, A Levels or similar, the content they have to learn will be set by an exam board, a big organisation that operates nationally. So that comment I often hear that A levels are harder at some colleges than others is just plain wrong – they’re all the same. Teachers go to the exam board to get the specification – that’s the syllabus that tells them what material to cover in their lessons. Now, did you know that lots of the information on the exam board websites is publicly available? Not just the specifications – there are sample assessments (that’s exam papers with answers) and…

17Apr 2019 by Lucy No Comments

Staying well in the exam season

Exams, Wellbeing

We’ve looked at the “why” and “what” of planning, and yesterday we explored the “how” of revision. But with all this focus on work, it’s no wonder young people and those around them find this a stressful time. So how can we keep our teenagers and ourselves as well as possible during the exam season? Well of course there are two main aspects of health: physical and mental. We all have them, at varying levels, and they’re much more closely intertwined than may people think. Physically, students need to be getting enough sleep (hopefully that’s already in their plan from Monday), drinking enough water and eating the right foods. There’s been a lot written about “brain foods” but generally the normal advice for a healthy, balanced diet still applies at…

16Apr 2019 by Lucy No Comments

How to Revise – strategies and styles

Exams

Yesterday we looked at planning for revision and making sure there’s some fun stuff in the plan too. How did you get on? Is your household feeling any more productive yet? Today I’d like to tackle the “how” bit. When I asked parents to think about their own experiences of revision, many of them said they had no idea how to use their study time, and I think it is the same for a lot of young people now. I know that as a tutor, I have a lot less time than I used to for helping people learn how to revise. It’s no good having a plan to revise at 6pm on a Tuesday if you don’t know exactly what you’re going to do with that time. So how…

15Apr 2019 by Lucy No Comments

Exams – Set – Go! Plan for Success

Exams

Last week, I ran a video challenge over on LinkedIn, with quick tips and ideas to help families prepare for the upcoming exam season. It’s especially important for teens to have some guidance during this unstructured holiday time, so I’m recreating the main ideas here for you this week. I hope you find them useful. Part 1: Plan for Success Today I want to talk about planning. Your kids’ teachers will have told them to make a revision plan. There are lots of ways of doing that, from whizzy interactive tools to old-school colouring in. What they might not have discussed is the “why” of planning. It’s not supposed to be just another timetable to fill the time while you’re on study leave. Why plan? I think there are a…