Does your child need to prepare for an upcoming exam? You’d like to help, but you’re not sure how to go about it. With these tips and tricks, you can maximize your child’s chances of success, reduce exam anxiety and make exam season a less stressful time.
What Can You Do to Help Your Child Study Better?
Look at Your Child’s Agenda
Looking at your child’s agenda with them not only helps you establish a study plan, but also ensures that they have completed their homework or assignments. Together, create a study schedule and make a note of the evenings when you’ll be studying for an exam.
Write a note to remind them to take their study materials, ask their teacher about the reference materials and the types of exams and questions (multiple-choice questions, other).
Vary Your Study Techniques
Memorizing material is good, but varying study techniques is even better. Help your child review:
- By creating study cards (question-and-answer cards);
- By creating a checklist;
- By filling in a table with the concepts they know well, little or not at all;
- By asking them to explain the concepts to you;
- By creating a concept network with them, in which they link a main idea to important information;
- By using learning resources (online resources), practice questions and practice exams.
Give them regular breaks
Having study sessions with your child is a good idea, but be sure to offer a short break after 25 minutes of study. Suggest a snack, propose an active break to use up some energy, have a chat with your child, or let them stretch their legs.
What you want is to give them a chance to clear their head, so that they maintain a good level of attention.
Make Sure They Get a Good Night’s Sleep
One of your child’s best allies during an exam is sleep. The night before the exam, make sure they get around eight hours of sleep. You always get the best results with a clear head.
Prepare for the Big Day
The day before, make sure your child has all the materials needed for the exam in their school bag. In the morning, prepare a full meal so that your child leaves for the exam on a full stomach.
Be reassuring, remind your child that they’re ready, that they need to read the questions on the test sheet carefully and move on to the next question if they’re having trouble answering them.
Try exam preparation
At Tutorax, our exam preparation service increases your child’s chances of success. With a private tutor, you can ensure that your child has plenty of time to review all the material for the exam, has the opportunity to ask any questions they may have, and benefits from additional exercises and practice tests, if necessary.
The best approach to exam preparation is to practise in advance. To help your child succeed in exams, practice, support and maintain a healthy lifestyle. That way, you’ll be sure to guide your child along the path to academic success.
The Day Before an Exam: 3 Essential Tips to Help your Child
You’ve been preparing your child for their exam for a few days now. You make them review, you take short breaks, you vary the study techniques and practise the more difficult notions.
Tomorrow is exam day. Should you review one last time? Are there any counterproductive things to avoid? Here we reveal three effective tips for preparing your child the day before their assessment.
Review One Last Time
After several days of revision with your child, you know which important concepts are well understood and which need to be reviewed. The day before the exam review the more difficult concepts with your child.
Review in a quiet, distraction-free area;
Have a short session;
Vary your study techniques (question-and-answer cards, revision sheets, mind maps, create small comic books, etc.);
Take breaks.
Above all, don’t push your child too hard. The day before an exam, your child can’t perform miracles and memorize all the material.
Send Them to Bed Early
A good night’s sleep not only allows your child to perform at their best, but also helps them manage stress better.
Help Them Put Things in Perspective
If your child is nervous about taking an exam, reassure them, invite them to think about solutions to their fears (e.g., dividing questions or exam papers into manageable chunks) and remind them that you have confidence in them.
By following these simple tips, you’ll help your child set off confidently for their exam, maximizing their chances of success and guiding them along the path to academic success.
However, if you would like a tutor to help prepare your child for the day before the exams, one of our tutors will be happy to help at this crucial time.
Interested in exam preparation?
Does your child need to take a certification exam? Does he need help preparing for an online exam? Are you looking for an exam training program (technical training)?
At Tutorax, our exam preparation service increases your child’s exam performance. With a certified tutor, you can ensure that your child reviews all the material for the exam and reduce their exam stress with effective strategies.
With realistic goals, study tools and great revision techniques, our tutors can help increase your child exam performance. Whether they’re an elementary school student, a secondary school student or a college student, we can help.
Exam Failure: Understanding and Helping Your Child
On the day of the exam, your child proudly announces that everything went well. Happy, you both move on. A week later, the verdict is in: failure. But what happened? What should you learn from it? How should you react?
To help you understand the possible causes behind a failure and the lessons to be learned, it’s important to look beyond the exam mark. Take a deep breath and let’s look at the reasons behind exam failure.
What Are the Causes of a Failed Exam?
What could be behind the failing grade in an exam? Did your child’s results also vary in previous years? What factors can influence any chance of success?
A lot of stress: Ask your child’s teacher if they froze in front of the task. Was the child overstressed? Did they forget everything under stress? Did they try to find any answers? Did they make careless mistakes? Did they use extra time to answer a question?
Poor study technique: Has your child tried to memorize everything by heart? Did they take breaks between study periods? What were their exam techniques? Did they have the right preparation materials? Did they have a study plan?
Lack of sleep: Did your child pull an all-nighter to study? Did they fall asleep early? Did they suffer from insomnia? Did your child go into the exam feeling rested and at the top of their game?
Lack of preparation: Did your child only study the day before the exam? Did they forget they had an exam? Did they forget to study? Did they postpone studying until the last minute? What was their time management technique? Were they even studying in the exam hall?
A significant event: If you or your child is going through a difficult period (moving, separation, grief, mental health, etc.), it’s normal for this type of event to have an impact on his or her studies.
There are many other reasons for failing an exam, but whatever the reason, take the time to clarify the situation with your child and discuss it.
What’s Behind a Failing Grade?
Sometimes it’s no big deal. But other times, it reveals some important things. First, it’s important to know that an exam measures your child’s understanding of a given concept.
Following this logic, if your child achieves a mark of 45%, it means that they understand almost half of the questions on the exam. By analyzing their answers, review with them the material that they have not understood either, to avoid falling behind.
You also need to ask yourself whether your child has understood the question correctly, or whether they need to work on their comprehension. Children often don’t answer or write the correct answer to a question if they haven’t understood it.
If this is the case, write to the teacher and ask questions. What type of exam was it? What was the pass rate? What was the fail rate? What was the exam components? Is your child entitled to another chance?
What does the teacher recommend? Did they notice anything in their analysis of the results or in class? Ask about the school’s resources. Would your child benefit from tutoring?
What To Do If your Child Fails a Test?
Failure is as difficult for the parent as it is for the child. Here are a few tips to turn the situation to your advantage.
- Let’s downplay the situation, failing an exam is discouraging. But does that mean the end of the world? No. Work together to find solutions and ways of preventing it from happening again.
- Stay calm, it’s normal for you to take your child’s academic success to heart, but raising your voice or reacting emotionally won’t change the situation. Your child is probably beating himself over the head, so talk to them calmly so you can understand.
- Reassure them, especially if your child finds failure hard to take. Ask them what they would tell one of their classmates if they were in the same situation. Ask them to think about a previous failure: how did they overcome it?
- List your child’s successes, good answers and efforts during the exam session. Make as many positive points as possible.
Try Tutoring
If you’ve noticed that your child is falling behind or needs help in a specific subject, there are lots of resources are at your disposal: tutoring, homework help, remedial assistance or exam preparation.
By enrolling your child in one of these services, you can ensure that they receive tutoring tailored to their learning style, overcome their lack of confidence and experience renewed success.
Failure is a learning opportunity, so teach your child to bounce back by discussing the situation with them, assessing the possible causes and, if necessary, getting the help they need. If your child holds the key to their own success, you’re their locksmith.
FAQ Exam Preparation
How Can Parents Support their Child In the Lead-up to Exams?
Look at your child’s agenda;
Vary your study techniques;
Give them regular breaks;
Make sure they get a good night’s sleep;
Prepare for the Big Day.
How to Prepare your Child for Standardized Tests?
Here are 9 ways to prepare your child for an exam:
- Make sure they have all their revision material;
- Practise different study techniques;
- Study together in advance;
- Teach them to analyze questions;
- Let them relax;
- Reassure them;
- Help them visualize;
- Make sure they get a good night’s sleep;
- Make sure they eat breakfast.
How do I Calm my Child Down Before a Test?
Two words: reassure them. Remind them that they are ready, that they are well prepared, that taking a break is also part of the preparation and that studying too much won’t change anything.
What Do You Say To a Child Before an Exam?
You’ll pass!
You’re well prepared, be confident!
What counts is your effort, not your grade.
Or anything else you feel like saying.
Does my Child Have Access to Electronic Devices for Exam Purposes?
With the exception of students who need to work with assistive technologies such as WordQ, students generally do not have access to electronic devices when taking an exam.
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References
BARRIAULT, Lucie (2016). Que peuvent faire les parents lorsqu’un enfant vit un échec?. Réseau d’information pour la réussite éducative (RIRE) http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/2016/06/parents-enfant-echec/