Have you ever had that thing where you’re walking down some stairs and you think there’s another step but there isn’t and you kinda get a bit of a jolt and a shock?

It’s the same reason why students sometimes mis-read a question, or mis-interpret an essay title or the focus of an inquiry project.

Let me explain what’s going on and what we can do about this ‘caveman’ (or cavewoman!) brain of ours.

(Yep, we allllll have one!)

Our brains are always trying to predict the future.
We’re programmed that way as a survival technique.
Historically we needed to pre-empt any danger in order to avoid it and to work out where our next meal was coming from.

So our brains still do the same thing today but of course instead of this instinct focusing on danger or food for survival, they do it for the things that help us survive each day as a modern-day student.
Like surviving that Maths exam.
Or getting through that English essay unscathed!

Our brains look for and try to create patterns or systems of recognition.

So for anything that looks similar in any way to something we’ve seen or practiced before, our brain will apply that previous experience to that new situation.
It want us to be able to quickly make sense of it.

But when it comes to exams and assessments, this can be detrimental if students aren’t ready and able to dissect the wording with fresh ‘non-caveman’ eyes so to speak.

Because if they’ve done practice questions in revision, or written an essay in class on a specific topic, then chances are, when they see a similar question in the real exam, or an essay on the same topic, even if any of these are worded differently, their brains will naturally try to make this new question or title fit the previous one.

To be able to continue a pattern or to make something NEW, more FAMILIAR.

To keep things SAFE.

But the danger of this of course is that students may then interpret the question incorrectly or even misread it altogether.
Or they may miss the real focus of the essay title and although they’ll write accurately about the topic, they won’t necessarily have the appropriate level of discussion or structure to their writing.

This is one reason why students sometimes have that experience of feeling like they’ve written a great response, but the result isn’t what they hoped for.

Now of course, this isn’t to say that students shouldn’t practice example or past exam questions.
That is a GREAT way to revise and prep for exams 🙂
And it certainly isn’t an excuse that’s gonna get them out of writing that English essay either!
But it IS a reason why students need to learn and practice and hone their skills in dissecting every exam question for the specific command and demand of that question AND become really skilled in things like identifying the topic and focus of any essay title or question.

So that they don’t fall into that pattern of recognition and prediction that our ‘caveman brains’ have so cleverly designed for us, but in this case, unfortunately doesn’t necessarily work so well for us.

This skill of dissecting the question, identifying command words and know exactly how to respond to them is just one of the 3 key secrets I’m revealing in my online Term 1 Parent Information Event. So if you’d like to grab the essential insider dissection skills for your teen, then be sure to >register for it for free<.
TIP! – This Term 1 Event is for one week only, and spaces at each session are limited, so be sure to register now.

Let me know in the comments…
Have you ever read something, and read what you THOUGHT it said or was going to say, only to realise you made a mistake?
Has your teen ever mis-read an exam question?
If this situation resonates with you or your teen, then please share this blog post with other parents and students AND go register for the Term 1 info event!

And until next week, let’s make this a fantastic ‘Term 1 Event Week’!.

Katie 🙂