Grade Transformation Blog

Grade Transformation Blog

No.1 in Transforming Students’ Grades

Archive for January 2017

Scary Blank Screen Syndrome

Your teen sits down to write their short story/essay/speech/ insert whatever task you like here 🙂

 

And 15 minutes later they’ve not done anything.

There might even be mumblings of:

“I just don’t know how to start”

or  “ I’m no GOOD at writing essays/stories/speeches – #insert your version here!”
You spend a few minutes trying to give them some encouragement or ideas but then afterwards,

They spend another 10 minutes staring at the screen, wondering

what to write, wondering where to start.

 

I’ve seen it so many times in the classroom and with tutoring students.

 

So I want to let you in on a little secret that has worked wonders for my students…

 

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Posted in Essays, Homework, Techniques & Strategies
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Worries about being ‘super-geek’?

Many parents I speak to who’ve enrolled their child in the 10 Week Grade Transformation Program tell me – “they don’t want their friends to know they’re doing your program”.

Which, by the way – means there are some really amazing success stories that you’ll never hear about for this very reason!…

I get it.

As a teenager – I was wired to be a good kid, I naturally wanted to please my teachers and parents and was brought up to do my best. But I was fairly shy (yes – really) and I definitely didn’t want to put myself ‘out there’. I just wanted to blend in.

But you know, I think there is more to it than not wanting to be labelled a geek by classmates or being laughed at for actually choosing to work hard and achieve good grades.

I think there is an element that is present in all of us that makes us reluctant to share our achievements or goals. Hear my thoughts in the video.

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Posted in About Us, Goal setting, Mindset
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Exams – what are they really testing?

Exams have regularly come under criticism for being an unfair way to test students’ knowledge and understanding of subjects.
It’s certainly true that when it comes to ‘showing what they know’, some students find the exam style of assessment really tough.
My take on it is this:-

Rather than focusing on exams being a way to simply test KNOWLEDGE, or even getting angry at the testing system, we need to look at exams as actually assessing a range of SKILLS that are involved with successfully sitting exams (not just subject knowledge).

If we do that then we are well on our way to viewing exams more positively and constructively.

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Posted in About Us, Exams, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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Those unwanted gifts – awkward!

Have you had to put on ‘that’ excited face at any point recently?

When a gift wasn’t quite what you wanted.

But you don’t want to look ungrateful.

Hopefully not, but chances are many of us have at some point.

But, what’s this got to do your studying and your teen?

Well, it’s about figuring out how to give people what they *reeeallllyy* want.

For students, it’s all about what examiners want and NEED to see to award top grades…. and sussing out exactly how to give it to them EVERY time (gift-wrapped and tied in a bow)!

 

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Posted in Exams, Results, Revision, Techniques & Strategies
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