Is it too late right now to make a difference? If your teen is in Y9 right now then you might be thinking hmmm, maybe end of Y10 things need to get serious.
If they’re in Y12 then maybe it’s more like hmmm – End of term, end of year?
Final minutes of exam?! (Joking) 😉
Or maybe you’re thinking they may have already missed the boat? That it’s too late to make any significant difference to their results or approach to their study and exams…
Watch the video to find out.
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.
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.
So, New Year is upon us and this means lots of talk of goal setting, planning and leaping ahead full steam into 2017.
(And I LOVE planning)
BUT… before we dive in to NEXT year it’s also important to reflect on the year just gone. To smile about and celebrate the successes, and acknowledge the parts that may not have quite gone to plan or weren’t so great.
So that we learn from our experiences.
And can consider how to use those lessons to overcome similar hurdles next year.
Why was it that those disappointments happened, why those goals weren’t achieved? What was the success factor in the goals that WERE achieved?
I’m here – in full festive spirit – and thought I’d use CHRISTMAS to produce a little summary and some of the key strategies I’ve been sharing this year.
When I started out on creating the 10 Week Grade Transformation Program I knew that what I was teaching worked wonders in raising students’ grades and I wanted to share it.
However, what I didn’t see coming was all the other amazing stuff that happened for these students and those close to them as well.
Normally, copying out is a big no-no.
(E.g. copying out chunks of text from a text book, copying out notes for revision.)
It’s a ‘passive’ activity that requires little cognitive brain action.
However, there is ONE way it can be used effectively.
And this is definitely something your teen could do over summer to give themselves a head-start for next year!
It’s easy to fall into the trap of Waiting until X to do Y…
The truth is, if we waited until the PERFECT TIME (or what we perceive as the perfect time) to do something, we may never do it, and therefore never reap the benefits of it.
You know, when it comes down to it, all their study, all their hard work….
It’s not about the grades that get printed on your child’s piece of paper at the end of Y12 or any other course completion.
That might sound a bit bizarre coming from someone like me!
But really, it’s actually about what those grades or that result represent.
Why would anyone walk out of a room excited, after getting a D grade on a response they worked hard on?
Here’s what happened to turn a not-so-great result into an oh-so-good learning experience….
