The written exams are here, but you shouldn’t panic, nor should you neglect your child’s well-being. In all things, there must be a balance, and following a good schedule can help maintain your child?s health for the long term.
Here is a list of dos and don’ts you should pay attention to in order to ensure that balance exists:
- Don’t Cram
You shouldn’t force your child to cram five hours (or more over the weekends) of exam assessment for seven days. Cramming all that information into your child’s brain for five hours per day is only going to make him forget about it in the long term and is ultimately ineffective. Instead, space out the revisions by organizing five hours of studies into one hour per day (and maybe a little more over the weekends). By carefully picking out the key areas that your child should study, you could easily manage a lot of content into a single hour.
By studying this way, your child’s long-term memory bank would be able to better process all the new information he needs to absorb regarding areas he should improve on and how to use the right formulas for the proper math questions.
- Do Help Your Child to Stay Calm
And should your child become as anxious as you might be reading this, help him to stay calm. Remember, panicking helps no one, and getting upset over spilt milk – or in this case, wrong answers for assessment papers – is both unproductive and damaging. Remind him gently to try his best and praise him at the end for the hard work. - Do Provide Your Child Ample Sleep
This is one of the reasons why spacing out your child’s revision is crucial: he needs rest to process the information. Between coming home from school, having dinner with you and studying for exams, your child doesn’t have a lot of time per day to rush through three to five hours of revisions per weekday, and rushing through revisions for that matter is not effective either.
So as a parent, you must prepare ahead of time the most efficient method of studying for your child while also ensuring that his body gets the healthy amount of rest a growing child needs. Think of it as playing the role of a manager for your child.
Preparing for exams can be a challenging time, especially when the exams have started, but maintaining your child’s physical and emotional health would not only ensure a better life in the long term but also help his brain build more efficient memorisation habits free of the stress that comes with poor health. Good luck with your endeavours, parents.