EXAM TIPS
Surviving the exams
With GCSE and
this is vital because it helps to maintain a constant
supply of energy to the brain. A homemade yoghurt-
A level exams
fruit smoothie is a great option as they are full of
antioxidants for the memory.
students should be encouraged to avoid fizzy
upon us, Craig
drinks and high-energy snacks and not to skip the
first meal of the day as this will hinder academic
Halsall offers
performance.
snacking on a handful of nuts and dried fruit
some advice to help you
provides iron and magnesium, essential to proper brain
function. Omega 3 also helps the brain to function.
Encourage students to drink plenty of water. this will
guide your students through
help stimulate blood circulation, making them feel
more alert and ready to retain information.
the final revision period
Be confident – don’t stress!
students tend to compare their progress and techniques
urinG tHE run-up to their with their friends. it is worth encouraging them not to
D
exams, it is vital that students take too much notice of what others are doing, as this
make the best use of the time will only cause unnecessary stress. Promote confidence
allocated to help avoid cramming in working at their own pace, in the way they think is
everything in at the last minute. best for them.
Here are some proven revision
tips to offer your students.
Track progress and reward
students should keep track of how much they have
Planning time
achieved and they should set goals and rewards for
Encourage students to make a revision checklist and a achieving them.
revision plan to ensure they have enough time to cover
all the topics that may appear in the exam.
Leave a trail of notes
it is important to reserve time for reflection in the Displays of key revision notes, posters and timetables
plan – it is more valuable than you might think – so around the house, for example on the fridge and the
promote more thinking and less note-taking.
Preparing revision space
encouraged to find out what time of day they work bathroom mirror, can aid visualisation techniques and
inspire your students with the sMArt theory. Advise your students to have all the books, revision best. they should also find their best way to remember help jog the memory.
revision targets should be: specific, Measurable, guides, lists of recommended websites, and stationery things. As everybody is different, this could be using
Achievable, realistic, and time-bound. they need before they start so they can knuckle down. mind maps, colour co-ordination, bullet points, or even
Practise
this means planning ahead and working out how the area they are working in should be clutter-free a voice recorder. Make sure your students know the importance of
they will set out their revision and how they will with no distractions. it is also very important to point Also, listening to relaxing music in the background practising past exam papers. this is the part of the
measure their progress. out the importance that adequate lighting can make to can sometimes help the revision process; but always revision plan that most frequently gets dropped. not
Although many students need a lot of motivation, effective revision. remind students that loud music normally equates to only is it essential to practise writing to time limits, but
it is important they do not overdo it. strongly distracting music. it is important for students to familiarise themselves with
recommend short periods of revision – absolutely
Devise your own revision style
the wording and context of exam questions. SecEd
no longer than 90 minutes without a break, although inform students that not all of them will effectively
Eating properly
recommend the optimum revision period should be 45 revise using the same methods. the most important meal of the day is a healthy • Craig Halsall is from Justin Craig Education, which
to 60 minutes. Although most teens avoid mornings, they should be breakfast containing a balance of starch, protein and fat. specialises in GCSE, AS and A level revision courses.
Notes and jottings Independent thinking
State-sponsored child abuse An Ofsted for parliament?
My first teaching job was in an all boys’ school 8 – it’s an information-packed monthly publication “ACCOuntABiLity” HAs become very much Most universities now have well developed conference
in Deptford. i was one of the first women to work which features specific topics each month. the mantra of the present era. As i have written in facilities and holiday-letting programmes and they
in such a school and it was what would now be this year’s topics, for example, include Mexico, this column before, independent schools are held to make every effort to ensure that their campuses are
described as a “very challenging environment”. Legend of King Arthur, Great inventions, and account by the government in many ways, and myriad fully used in and out of term-time – funding is a major
Having come from a girls’ grammar school via Charles Dickens. Each issue also features things to regulations are not confined to the state maintained issue in every stage of education, fee-charging or not.
a gentle, mixed Church of England teacher training do, relevant puzzles, letters from readers and, best of sector. What then might be achieved by an additional
college, it was a huge culture shock for me to learn all, there is no advertising. However, independent schools also have to satisfy investment in education of £96,750,000 in one year?
at the Deptford chalkface that, yes, boys are very it’s all perfectly accessible without being dumbed another very powerful group – the parents who What is the significance of this figure you may ask?
different from girls. down or giving in to what sue Palmer calls “the are paying fees. naturally, many parents in both Well, it is roughly the total amount that
Enter sue Palmer’s fascinating, if worrying, new culture of cool” – quite an achievement and education sectors take a great deal of interest was paid to our MPs in expenses in the
book 21st Century Boys, out this week (Orion, it deserves to be supported. An Aquila in their children’s education and the schools year 2007/08, the last year for which
£14.99). Having given everyone who subscription costs £40 per year for a which they are attending, but the attitude details have been published.
works with, or worries about, children single magazine a month, but there are of some of those who are paying fees has the lowest amount claimed was
quite a shaking with her 2006 Toxic special offers for schools wanting always been more distinctly robust. £47,737 and the highest £187,334,
Childhood, she now turns her attention more copies. see www.aquila. it is not unknown for parents to but only 13 MPs claimed less
to “how modern life is driving them co.uk assume that the fact that they are paying than £100,000. taking the
(boys) off the rails and how we can fees should guarantee high grades for average as about £150,000 and
get them back on track”. i recently met some staff from their offspring, and any shortcomings multiplying this by 645 MPs, we
And she’s as forthright as ever. swalcliffe Park school in will be the result of poor teaching rather reach the staggering sum of almost
she calls the effect of our insistence Oxfordshire and it’s on my list than a lack of application or aptitude on £97 million.
on forcing small boys to do too much of schools to visit when i can find the part of their child (i hasten to add that i teaching the politics element of
too soon (even before the age of five) a date. A charitable trust, swalcliffe am not referring to any parents at my current our general citizenship course to a year
and our tests-and-targets culture “state- is approved and registered by the school here!). 10 group two weeks ago, i asked them
sponsored child abuse”. Department for Children, schools now that we have tuition fees at how many MPs they thought there
she is fiercely condemnatory too of the and families as a non-maintained universities, a more consumerist attitude were in the uK parliament.
over-exposure of children in general, but special school. is becoming manifest in the higher fifty was the first suggestion,
boys in particular, to screens of all sorts it provides residential education education sector too. some 600 students 100 was thought to be about right by
and to commercial forces which ruthlessly and care for 57 boys aged 11 to 19, reading economics and finance at Bristol most, but the idea of 645 seemed quite
market material goods at them. whose “educational and social welfare university have made a formal complaint preposterous to these young people
“the milking of children is needs cannot currently be met within about the decline in tuition and the (and the lesson took place before the
constant,” she says. And it’s partly why, a mainstream school”. i have carefully increase in fees, claiming: “since 2006 whole expenses furore had actually
by the time they reach secondary school, quoted that half-sentence direct from the university has charged more and gathered pace).
many are well on the way to becoming swalcliffe’s prospectus because the delivered less.” People often talk about Britain
“lost boys”. Lack of good mothering, too sensitive wording is so commendably far they cite reduced teaching hours, having a first-class or world-class education
little play and physical activity, and poor diet from the usual damning vocabulary used to essays being marked by undergraduates system. Certainly we have some first-rate
are also to blame. describe such youngsters (as i quickly learned rather than lecturers, the withdrawal of small universities and some of our schools, not
it’s a very well researched book with plenty in Deptford all those years ago). tutorial group teaching, the size of lecture least the independent ones, are justifiably world-
of pretty inarguable evidence. from a secondary i was very impressed with the three staff i groups of up to 300 students, and the reduction of renowned. But quality comes at a cost. A high
teacher’s point of view it will help you to understand met from swalcliffe, who promise that the care they examination time. Will this be the first of many such quality education system is a vital key to the future
why your boys are as they are. And understanding a provide is child-centred, non-confrontational, caring, rebellions? health of our society and our economy.
problem is half-way to solving it. the ever-practical supportive, and integrated. But the work is, literally, i recently attended a meeting at Oxford university. Perhaps it is time to reassess where our country’s
Ms Palmer provides pages of “what we can do” remedial. And notice that it’s a boys’ school, so we’re i was struck by the amount of physical development priorities lie and for all people and institutions funded
suggestions at the end of each chapter, including back in sue Palmer territory struggling to repair the taking place in the city. We were addressed by by the taxpayer to become equally accountable.
specific ideas for teachers. damage done by society to young males. if only we representatives of the university who explained the so should an Ofsted be established for parliament
could prevent rather than cure. various areas of expansion, including research and – and what would it be called?
talking of trying to keep them away from screens more commercially linked activities.
and advertisers, have you seen the magazine Aquila? • Susan Elkin is a freelance education journalist and the university is a huge business and the largest • Marion Gibbs is headmistress of the independent
Aimed at eight to 13-year-olds – so lots for years 7 and former teacher. employer in the area, as are many other universities. James Allen’s Girls’ School in London.
SecEd • May 21 2009 
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