Students and their parents are now about two months into the new academic year, and the early rush of getting adjusted has likely settled down into something of a rhythm. This means that you might be turning your attention to one of the inevitabilities of school life - examinations. All parents can agree that the earlier your child starts preparing for his or her exams, the better. But is it too early to be thinking about preparing for your child’s examinations in February? Well, yes and no. While it is true that you can’t prepare for topics that have not been taught yet, a good exam preparation strategy covers many other facets that both parent and child can work on at any time. At the same time, a balance has to be struck to avoid overloading your child with too much work and expectations in the early going. Here are some exam preparation pointers from The Learning Lab that you and your child can consider.
1. Set goals and start working towards them
Setting realistic goals is an important part of the exam preparation process because it gives your child something concrete to work towards. Goals should be realistic in the sense that they are neither too ambitious nor too relaxed, and pegged closely to your child’s strengths and weaknesses. In other words, students should be working towards their “personal bests”.
A 2021 Australian study of more than 60,000 high school students in New South Wales found that setting self-improvement goals was associated with significant gains in all students’ perseverance, aspirations, and positive homework behaviour, across different abilities and social backgrounds. If your child has already set his or her academic goals at the start of the year, now is also a good time to check in on his or her progress and momentum. This is important as children tend to find working towards long-term goals more difficult than adults. And although we are talking about exam preparation here, it’s a good idea as well to have a combination of “hard” and “soft” goals for your child’s holistic development – “hard” goals are results-oriented and based on a target score or grade, while “soft” goals could involve acquiring a new skill or good habit.
2. Review current and past years’ work to assess strengths and weaknesses
Another helpful step that parents can take is to evaluate where your child’s strengths lie and where he or she needs more help by reviewing current and past years’ work. This can be done regardless of the level your child is at, and at any time of the school year, with the possible exception of Primary 1 where students might not have encountered many assessments yet in the first half of the year.
The identification of strengths and weaknesses helps to refine your child’s examination preparation strategy, because it has bearing on your child’s goal setting and also shows which subjects, topics, or question types your child most needs to focus on. You should also consider consulting your child’s teachers for advice, guidance, and insight into what your child’s academic needs are, and to do so at regular intervals so you can stay on top of your child’s progress.
3. Adopt strong study habits and the right mindset
Exam preparation involves more than just memorising content and knowing how to answer questions. Strong study habits such as having the discipline to set aside time to regularly revise and understand past material help students build a more solid foundation in the long run.
Studies have shown that while cramming can prove effective, investing the time to fully understand lesson material at lower levels has a knock-on effect in subsequent years, enabling students to absorb material taught at higher levels more quickly and resulting in improved academic performance. The importance of inculcating a sense of curiosity and love for learning as part of a growth mindset also cannot be overstated, as these are key qualities for motivated and independent learners.
4. Avoid burnout by pacing yourselves
Finally, parents and children should bear in mind that it is still only February, and that there is a lot of the school year left. While you may be understandably anxious, excited, and champing at the bit to get cracking, you should also be aware of the risks of “too much, too soon” and burnout which apply to any endeavour which involves considerable preparation.
When an athlete is preparing for an important competition, for example, he or she does not immediately start with all the most intense exercises and the heaviest loads, because the body simply cannot cope, and he or she might get injured. Nor can the athlete maintain the heightened mental state of competitiveness and confidence key to optimal performance all the time. Instead, it’s often wiser to ramp up slowly over time both physically and mentally. Your child should stay disciplined, but also remember to rest adequately and do the things he or she enjoys.
A Different and More Measured Approach to Exam Preparations
So is it too early for exam preparations? Well, yes and no. While it’s surely too early to be making the dash to the finish line (i.e. the year-end examinations), there is still a lot you and your child can be doing in the meantime to build momentum and a strong foundation.
At The Learning Lab, we place equal emphasis on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of education for our students, and this is borne out by our holistic education philosophy which focuses on both content mastery and the acquisition of key skills.