High performance revision is a skill that anyone can learn.
Or how students can boost their performance by doing less work.
Yes we really mean it, revision doesn’t always mean more and more hard work. Most of the students that come to us for coaching are in fact ‘overworking’. For some, the idea that it is possible to ‘over-work’ in the run up to exams makes no sense whatsoever. However, many students are doing just this and bringing down their overall exam performances as a result.
These are the revision and exam tips and techniques that students have given us. This is their advice and what has worked for them:
Exam Preparation:
“Visualising myself in the exam and imagining myself doing well and handling anything that comes up. I did this again and again and it really helped when I got in there!”
“I didn’t listen to other students when they complained about how much work they were or weren’t doing. I knew that non of that really affected me.”
Feeling stressed changes our thinking. This is important to remember when we are trying to help students who are under pressure.
Parents can help by:
How can parents best support their children during exams?
▪Seek to understand your child’s problems
▪Your understanding of their problems enables your child’s understanding of their problems.
▪By listening we create a ‘thinking environment’.
▪By listening you enable them to think for themselves.
▪By enabling them to think for themselves you build their confidence.
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Perfectionism is a trap. Being perfect does not work! In our work with students we have known this for a long time and a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has provided further evidence Continue reading
This technique is the complete opposite of the ‘mark a minute’ advice that students can sometimes be given. Feeling that you have to score a mark a minute usually does one thing – ramps up your fear and anxiety as soon as you get into the exam. You feel that you need to be scoring marks instantly – from the first few moments and if you are not – then you are already behind!!! Continue reading
It’s Easter and for many students this can be a high stress period, whilst gearing up and getting into revision. Continue reading
Stress is something that we can all relate to. It pervades our lives and can build in such a way that we don’t even notice it developing. Often we are highly aware of short-term stressors but can, in fact, be unaware of how highly stressed we have become over the longer-term. It becomes part of the air we breathe, part of the way we think and part of our background experience – which makes it difficult for us to spot. Continue reading
What is academic success?
This is a fundamental question which students have to resolve for themselves as they go through their education. All too often the focus becomes highly oriented around achieving high grades in course work and exams, with little real acknowledgment of the stresses that a student might be facing outside of their academic life. Continue reading
