How To Encourage My Child To Revise

Nobody likes exam time, it can be as stressful for you as a parent as it is for your child, whether you’re worried they’re not making enough effort or you’re concerned because they’re freaking out about having too much to get through.

Here are some ways you can encourage your child to revise without butting heads with them.

Help them to plan

It’s a good idea to sit down together and create a schedule for what they’re going to revise when in order to cover everything they need to in time for each exam.

Having a plan will help those who are overwhelmed with how much they have to get through to see that they do have enough time to study. It will also motivate those who keep putting their revision off by making them see that if they don’t follow the plan they’re likely to run out of time.

Teach them different revision techniques

There are a lot of different revision techniques that can be used, so help your child to find one or more that suit their way of learning.

Some will find flashcards useful, others may prefer doing past papers, while others still might like to do mind maps to help them understand concepts.

Teaching your child that there are a variety of different ways to learn, absorb information and practice solving problems will be invaluable to them if they don’t know where to start and find themselves just staring at their textbooks.

Children nowadays are often more motivated to work online than on paper, so using online resources may be just the thing they need to encourage them to revise.

Remove distractions

You can also help by ensuring that your child has a place to study that is as free as possible from distractions.

For instance, having to revise in the dining room where they can see the rest of the family watching TV isn’t going to help them stay motivated. At the same time if they’re shut away somewhere on their own with their Xbox and phone then there’s a good chance that they’re going to be easily distracted from their revision.

Help them find somewhere to revise that’s quiet enough for them to focus without putting too much temptation in their way.

Mobile phones and computers can often be the worst culprit when it comes to distracting your child, so if this is a problem try to find ways to turn their technology into an asset to their revision instead.

There are apps that can help with planning or reward their productivity as well as ones that will intercept notifications for a set amount of time to help them stay focused.

Blutick also has a revision schedule feature whereby you can set up a revision timetable or schedule for your child to receive new daily tasks for a set time period. They can choose the dates it runs and set one to four tasks a day.

Be supportive

Giving your child a hard time about how little revision they’re doing is unlikely to persuade them to do more of it. You’re more likely to get results by encouraging them, helping them when they need it and perhaps offering fun rewards to motivate them.

Even if you’re not able to help personally with a subject, giving them access to past papers or an online tutoring system like Blutick can make a real difference.

If they know you’re prepared to do what you can to support them, they’ll be much more likely to put some of their own effort in too.