Executive Director Tony Mcdaid

education resourCES

Executive Director Tony McDaid

St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School

Head Teacher Fiona Mullen MSc BEd

Our ref:
If calling ask for: / Pupil Support Teacher
Phone: / 01355 574110
Date: / 28 March 2018

Study Advice for Parents and Pupils.

It’s time to block out the world and get down to it!

Provide your child with a room that has no distractions (and where you can monitor their progress!) the kitchen or dining room are especially suitable. Bedrooms often have too many distractions and are quite rightly seen as place to relax.
With your child, agree a study timetable for the two weeks of the spring break.
Do not plan to ‘rest’ the first week and study the second week, unfortunately, too often the ‘rest’ lasts the full 2 weeks.
Divide the day into 3 sections: morning, afternoon and evening and encourage them to choose a combination of two from the three for study. For example, if they work morning and afternoon, they should relax in the evening.
Importantly, your child should plan to meet friends, go out or do whatever leisure activity they enjoy. They need to relax and recharge their batteries.
This is not the time for simply reading over notes or copying out notes. Instead, become familiar with exam technique through using Past Papers.
Your child should attempt past paper questions as timed exercises, without notes.
Pupils should access marking schemes to correct their work and identify the specifics they need to focus on.
Pupils should revise these specific topics by breaking whole units down into smaller, manageable sections for each study session; this is less daunting.
Past paper questions can then be attempted again, following the same procedure. They will see an improvement in their performance and become familiar with the range of questions.
Pupils should keep a record/ diary/ log of topics they are revising to track that they cover the whole syllabus. Otherwise there is a danger they may miss out on one or two topics.
Once the above strategies have been employed, if there are questions that your child cannot answer or topics with which they are having difficulties, your child can write these down and ask their teachers to help them, after the holiday.
Don’t dwell on what they can’t do – this will be addressed in school.
Your child will attempt most past paper questions 3 or 4 times before mastering it.
Parents can monitor revision everyday by looking at the answers your child has written, they can do plenty in 3 hours!
You will both see their improving performances; such success further motivates pupils.
Focus on what they can do and what they will do next.
Help pupils to remain motivated by talking to them about what they are studying, and highlight that good performance in the exams has a very positive impact on their future.

Depending on how your child learns:

Continue to study for longer periods with few breaks.
Work in frequent intense bursts with more short breaks.
Most pupils find revising in 20 minute periods appropriate. More than that, they may become distracted.
Taking regular 5 minute breaks will make their revision feel less pressured.
Use headings and bullet points to organise ideas.
For essay based subjects such as English, History or Modern Studies write all your ideas into a draft structure then practice the essay.
Remember, if your child is ‘studying’ on the computer for more than 15 minutes, they are doing something else!

How to overcome mental blocks and re-focus young people:

Let them take a break, perhaps a few minutes but longer if necessary.
Do something completely different for a while, so their brain can work on the subject subconsciously.
Your child has 5 or 8 subjects; a change can be as good as a rest. The brain often draws unexpected answers from apparently unlinked activity.
Covering two to three topics at any one sitting is a good way to cover everything.
Encourage exercise to release pent up adrenalin and energise their systems.
Good sleep patterns are invaluable- make sure that they are in their beds at a reasonable time;there should be no phones, ‘Facebook’ or games to the wee small hours.

While pupils are not learning new information, the holidays are a time to consolidate what they have already learned. Used wisely, pupils return for the final teaching and learning, confident and secure in what they can achieve.

Good luck!

Resources:

This letter is available on the school website, along a copy of the template of the Study Timetable which has been issued with this letter.
Many departments have revision notes and questions that pupils can access on the school website.

The SQA website is an excellent resource:

The SQA website has many supportive aids to study which you can access such as: MyStudyPlan - Mobile study plan app for learners. There are tips for effective study and candidates can build their personalised study timetables onto their phones.
Past papers and specimen papers with marking schemes are to be found on the SQA web site.

Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you have any queries or if we can help further.

How do I study?

The three most common styles of learning are:

Visual learning

If you find it easy to remember visual things like charts and diagrams you’re probably a visual learner. Useful tips for visual learners include:

Writing down key concepts on little pieces of paper
Mind-maps, using colour to highlight important things.
Colour-code notes.
Draw diagrams and sketches to help you to remember points.

Auditory learning

If you’re an auditory learner, you’ll prefer to hear the topic that you are studying.

Try reading your notes out loud.
Record yourself reading the key points in yournotes then listen back to the recording.
Revise with other students by discussing thetopic you’re studying.

Learning by reading and writing

Some people learn more efficiently through reading and writing.

Read instructions or books and tend to rememberthings when they write them down.
Copy out your notes or reading them silently.
Rewrite key points using different words orwriting them down from memory.

Exam de-stress: Summary of things to remember:

THINKING strategies: remind yourself of the challenges that you have encountered in the past and coped with. Tell yourself that you can cope again. Keep things in perspective: the exams are important but not the be all and end all. Doing your best is as much as you can do. Turn negative automatic thoughts into positive ones: if you’re thinking ‘I can’t do this or ‘I’ll never pass this exam’ you can instead be telling yourself ‘This is hard for me but I’ll do my very best’ or ‘I can pass this exam if I avoid getting too stressed and keep focused’.

RELAXATION strategies: remember that you can try the things that work for you. Examples include: working on your breathing; using an App for relaxation techniques (i.e. Mindset, Calm, etc.); lying down and listening to music; reading; exercise. Find what works for you and use it when you can. Remember that feeling a little stress or pressure can be a positive thing in helping to give you the energy and motivation to focus on studying.

BALANCE: it’s important to keep a balance in life even when you are entering a phase that might be quite stressful. So when it gets close to exam time, you need to make sure that you still get enough sleep (for most people that’s 7-8 hours a night). You should also make sure that you have good eating habits: not overeating or missing meals. Drinking plenty of water is a good idea, while avoiding too many sugary and caffeine drinks. Keep in touch with friends, so that studying for exams doesn’t become overpowering. Remember to take short breaks during your study sessions.

EXAM DAY: Keep calm and tell yourself that getting too stressed might affect your performance. While getting to the exam venue in plenty of time is important, avoid getting involved in any panic talk with other people waiting to enter the exam hall.

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10.00-10.30 / Reading / Reading / Reading / Reading