Supporting your child’s learning:Exam preparation – everything you need

to know

THURSDAY 2ND MAY 2019

• What are some of the recent changes to the exam system and what are the implications for our children?

• What do we know about how the brain works?

• How does this knowledge help us to understand the most effective ways to learn and revise?

• What is happening in school to prepare students for their Year 9 & 10 exams?

• How can we best support our children at home?

Jake and Jenny take the same subjects.

Jake took his exams in 2016: 18 exams in total, 24 ½ hours.

Jenny will take her exams in 2019: 23 exams in total, 33 ½ hours.

A 37% increase in time spent in exams.

Jake completed coursework for most of his subjects; Jenny has very little coursework to do.

Jake took some of his GCSE exam components at the end of his first year. Jenny will take all of her GCSE exams at the end of the two year course.

Jake re-sat his Btec examined component 3 times until he hit his target grade; Jenny is only allowed to re-sit it once.

STUDENTS NEED TO UNDERSTAND AND REMEMBER

A HUGE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION

IN A WIDE RANGE OF DIFFERENT SUBJECTS

AND BE ABLE TO RECALL IT OVER A SHORT INTENSIVE PERIOD OF TIME

Year 9 and 10 exams key information

Year 10 and Year 9 ‘Early’ mock exams 3rd June - 14th June

Year 9 exams 10th May – 17th May (English Maths and Science)

Revision homework activities - already started

Additional revision tasks

Year 10 and Year 9 ‘Early’ booklet of revision topics

Looking ahead….

Pink sheets: results, skills & knowledge gaps, parental feedback

Year 10 summer homework

Year 11: homework/revision timetable from September

Year 11: ongoing spot-checks of revision activities

Year 11 mock exams: November and March – always followed by pink sheets

UNDERSTANDING + REMEMBERING = KNOWLEDGE

The human brain has enough memory to hold three million hours of television.

We have on average 70, 000 thoughts per day.

On average, the brain needs to be exposed to items 4 times before transfer to long-term memory happens.

Every time we draw on a memory we increase its strength and extend the longevity.

Learning is a persistent change in long-term memory.

Forgetting and retrieving is an important part of the process of moving from working memory to long-term memory.

Cognitive overload

I went to the market and I bought ….

Everything in the environment is competing for students’ attention.

Cognitive overload

Interruptions slow learning and increase our chances of making mistakes.

It is very important to limit distractions

Reducing cognitive load

Be concise

Stories and images seem to require less hard thinking to enter the long-term memory.

Reducing cognitive load

Effective revision is NOT

These are just the first steps

Effective revision …..

is an active process

requires recall of information from memory

takes effort

“We must start with the assumption that students will forget what they have learned unless they take deliberate steps to remember.”

Students can feel discouraged when they feel they have ‘forgotten’, however once information has been learned it will be re-learned with less effort.

Because retrieving information requires mental effort, students may feel like progress is slow but this is when the best learning is taking place.

Time spent building deep long-term memory through spaced and mixed repetition will lead to deeper understanding , swifter recall and greater retention.

What did you learn today?

Students are regularly being set tasks in class and to do at home using the techniques we are going to discuss which rely on recall.

Posing questions about the content your child has studied is an important part of encouraging recall.

Use prompts/clues if needed to encourage your child to recall the answer themselves

Questioning

The Black Death lasted from 1348-49 in England.Evidence suggests the plague began in China. The plague arrived at Melcombe Regis in Dorset in June 1348It resulted in an estimated 20 million deaths in Europe . With no knowledge of how infection of the Black Death spread, there were some unusual theories as to how it was caused such as wearing pointed shoes, a punishment from God or the movement of the planets. There were 3 types of plague. Pneumonic Bubonic Septicaemic. It is believed to have spread quickly as a result of poor living conditions. Modern historians, however, have discovered Medieval people washed and exercised. Many towns had bath houses.

What year did the plague arrive?

How many people died?

Can you name the 3

types of plague?

When your child has completed a piece of homework, question them about what they have learned to further encourage recall.

Mind maps

Transferring material into a different format strengthens connections in the brain.

These can be created from their class notes.

Text mapping

Most mountain ranges are millions of years old. They are made when two plates beneath the Earth’s crust collide, causing the land to buckle and rise. Any land mass that rises 1,000 feet above the surrounding area is considered a mountain.Some mountains are caused by volcanoes spewing lava over and over again. The lava cools and hardens and builds up to form a mountain.

Chunking

19725671806

47946109154

These numbers will be a lot easier to recall if we try and remember them in chunks rather than as single digits.

Story telling / mnemonics

Story telling / mnemonics

Turnip Lamp Flag Tree Jellyfish IronLetter Tractor

Quizzes

Mix up the topics

Quiz your child or if they are working alone, encourage them to say the answer out loud or write it down.

Challenge grids

As a regular part of their revision, students can create themselves challenge grids from their notes.

Brain dump

Your child should choose a topic and write down everything they can remember about it.

It is important to check their notes afterwards to see what they have missed out.

Any gaps in the information they recalled, should be the focus of future revision.

Flashcards Flashcards are for students individual use

Flashcards

First aeroplane Invented by the Wright brothersFlew in 1903First flew in North CarolinaThe first flight lasted 12 secondsThe longest flight was 255.6m

Who invented the first

aeroplane?

The Wright brothers

When did it fly? 1903

Where did it fly? North Carolina

How long did the first flight last?

12 seconds

How far was the longest flight?

255.6m

A flashcard that is too cluttered can create an illusion of competence. Students will see the information and recognise it but they don’t necessarily know it. One item per card is a more effective way to check their ability to recall.

Test yourself in both directionsPotassium K

Flashcards

Recall

‘an aged beautiful gentleman with white hair’ a a b g w w h an _____ beautiful gentleman with white hair

an _____ beautiful ___________ with white hair

an _____ _________ ___________ with white hair

an _____ _________ ___________ with white _________

an _____ _________ ___________ with ________ _________

an _____ _________ ___________ with ________ _________

an _____ _________ __________ ______ ________ ______

Mini whiteboards

Mini whiteboards

‘The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city’

Draw itorReduce it down to first letters and repeat. T F S S O T W A T D CorSlowly erase one word at a time and continue to repeat. The _____ still slept on the wing above the drowned city.

Talk to your child about the quote they are learning.What does it mean? What else would they say about it in the exam?

Past papers / exam questions

Hypercorrection

Encourage your child to focus on what they got wrong, and actively write down the correct answer in order to strengthen their power of recall.

Errors are a vital step in shaping their future revision

Spacing

Revisit key content swiftly after first exposure and then with increasingly long pauses.

Students need opportunities to process content multiple times.

Interleaving

The most effective revision involves mixing up the content we are trying to recall.

Interleaving Blocked Mixed

FractionsFractionsFractions

AlgebraAlgebraAlgebra

GeometryGeometryGeometry

FractionsAlgebraGeometry

FractionsAlgebraGeometry

FractionsAlgebraGeometry

Exam papers are the ultimateinterleaved task

“Students need to practise both what they are not yet good at and what they are already good at.”

“When information is quickly acquired, it is quickly forgotten.”

Cramming = quick learning and fast forgetting Retrieval practice = deep learning and retention

Creating the right environment for working at home

Encourage your child to complete revision / homework early morning or straight after school

Late night work should be avoided

Creating the right environment for working at home“A rested brain is a productive brain”

Discourage your child from late night revision sessions and instead get your child to opt for an early night.

“Don’t skip sleep, study smart”

Research conducted at the University of California'Sacrificing sleep for extra study time is counterproductive. Academic success may depend on finding strategies to avoid having to give up sleep to study, such as maintaining a consistent study schedule”

Creating the right environment for working at home

Ensure that your child has somewhere quiet to work so that they are able to focus.

Quiet

Well lit

Warm

With a clock/watch near by

Places in school: library from 8:15, after school until 4:20

Lunchtime study rooms

Creating the right environment for working at home

Any distractions such as music and technology will cause a distraction and make thinking and remembering less effective.

Research suggests that having technology available during revision can…

Lower concentration

Negatively effect sleep patterns

Reduce memory

Make sure your child removes any tempting technology. Research recently found that the mere presence of a phone was enough to distract students from their studies.

Revise together

Use flash cards to do quick fire quizzes to test learning once your child feels confident and ready to give it a go.

Ask your child to teach you about something they have been revising.

Ask to see their revision / homework

Revise together

Use flash cards to do quick fire quizzes to test learning once your child feels confident and ready to give it a go.

Ask your child to teach you about something they have been revising.

Ask to see their revision / homework