End of year exam revision tips

For many students, the beginning of Term 4 is the build-up to end of year exams. Whether your child is approaching full exams for the first time, or is a seasoned student, this is the time of year where their hard work comes to fruition.

We often find that students need support from their parents to develop effective and sustainable revision skills, so here are our suggestions to help your child feel and do their best on exam day.

Emphasize the importance of exams and assessments without causing undue stress

When discussing your child’s school performance, we encourage you to set healthy, challenging expectations for your child so that they take their studies seriously. However, for many students, exams and assessments can provoke so much stress that it actually inhibits their ability to learn and perform tasks. If your child is showing signs of apathy or anxiety about their exams, it may be a good idea to discuss the situation with them and find positive coping strategies.

Help your child gather information about their exams

Less experienced students may be unaware that there is usually a lot of information about their upcoming exams available, and that this can make their revision easier and more effective. If your child needs help with this, guide them in searching for exam information in any school or class materials, including portals, and contacting their teachers if none is available.

Many assessments also have rubrics and past papers available online. For students doing NCEA, we suggest using the Student Assessment Hub as your first port of call. Cambridge students can access materials via the Cambridge IGCSE Subjects website, among other sources. Sample papers for the IB Diploma Programme exams are provided on the official IB website, and marking rubrics are usually provided too.

Help your child identify useful areas to revise

Students can often find there is not enough time to thoroughly revise everything on the curriculum before exams. What’s more, all curriculum topics may not be in the exam. If your child is inexperienced with revision, help them to go through the different tasks, knowledge and skills they will need in their exams, and identify the areas that will be most important to work on. These could be areas they are weak on, or which are very influential on their overall mark.

Encourage regular, spaced revision sessions

Students may be tempted to wait until the night before an exam to study, or cover a subject in their revision only once. We suggest students instead have regular, spaced revision sessions across the exam revision period. This allows them to remember more content, and increase their practice of necessary skills. If your child struggles with organisation, scheduling revision may help them to make more effective use of their time.

Provide accountability for your child’s revision tasks

As adults, we know that it can be difficult to follow through on difficult tasks when no-one is watching. Not all students require accountability to complete their revision, but if they do, something as simple as a checklist on the family fridge, or a check-in with you at night, could make the difference.

Model reflection on how your child’s revision is going, and adapting when needed

Learning is not often a linear process. Revision can bring up unexpected questions, confusions, and failures. We encourage you to model responding to these in a productive way through reflecting and problem-solving. This also reinforces your child’s self-efficacy and resilience.

Keep supporting your child’s hydration, nutrition, and sleep

Finally, make sure to keep supporting your child to drink water, eat well, and get enough sleep during their build-up to exams. Just as with stress, exhaustion, deyhdration and insufficient food can actually inhibit learning and performance. Some students may need reminders to sleep, while others may benefit from having convenient snacks and drinks available while they work.

Focus Education NZ