Year 11 Study Guide: Student information You have been, or will be, completing pre-public exams in your subjects. This is to help your teachers and you to recognise problem areas for each subject, and to give an indication of your Most Likely Grade (MLG). Ideally, you would like your MLG to be the same or even above your target grade. This means your teacher thinks you are on the right track for your ability. However, you will need to continue to put in 100% effort to achieve this grade. If your MLG is below your target grade, take the following steps. -
Ensure your attendance is as high as possible (aim for 100%!). Every day off means missed learning. Catch up if you miss work from trips/shows etc. Ask your teacher for specific advice about how to reach your target grade. Attend the relevant revision sessions. Use the attached guide to help you plan your time. Use home learning time to revise or complete extra work. Ensure you are putting in 100% effort for each lesson you have. Ensure you’ve had a Connexions interview to ensure you are looking at appropriate choices for next year (ask your tutor if you need one).
Of course, the above suggestions are important for any student, whether or not your MLG is the same as your target grade, as grades are not maintained without effort. This guide will give you some ideas about how to approach exams and revise, whilst also trying to suggest ways of managing the workload. This guide, and the regular Raising Achievement Newsletter from the school, will explain what WE can do to support you. However, ultimately you need to ensure you don’t end up like the picture below by ensuring that YOU are doing all YOU can.
Some of you found your June pre-public exams and subsequent assessments stressful, but learning to cope with this stress NOW is important because very shortly it will be the real GCSE exams. However, we can’t wave a magic wand and make the exams disappear and give you all A*s! So you will have to accept some facts, and that will help you come to terms with the next few months: This WILL be a busy time. We cannot change the fact your exams all come at once. This WILL affect your social life. Sometimes we need to make sacrifices that will allow us to reach the bigger goals. Sometimes revision will have to come before going out or having fun. This WILL be a stressful time. You care about your grades for your future, so you’ll want to do well. This will make you feel stressed. However, the world of work is often the same and so learning to accept that you have responsibilities and priorities is a very important life lesson. Remember that a little bit of stress is a good thing. It means you care and are motivated to achieve. You don’t want to become tired with it, but you want it to spur you on.
Use MAPS to stop stress from taking over!
Manageable Chunks Break down what you have to do and by when. It’s important to know the big picture but you can approach it a little bit at a time. Your teachers may have already done this for you by spreading out controlled assessments and modular exams. Now you will need to do it with your home learning and revision. Do a little bit of revision every night to spread it out and make it manageable. Ask for help Your teachers, your Head of Year, Mrs Willis, your tutors – that is what we’re here for! If we can’t help you, we’ll ask for someone who can! Your parents/carers/families all want to help you too, so if you need them to quiz you for a test the next day, or to practise your speaking and listening with you, ask them and they’ll be happy! They may not be able to help you with all those complex maths problems, but just talking it through with someone can be really helpful so don’t underestimate them! Plan and Prioritise You may end up with 2 exams on one day, or coursework that is all due around the same time. So learn to prioritise and do things in the order they are needed. If a piece of homework is due the next day, then that has to be done. Then do the revision that’s due for the end of the week. Your list will constantly change so one recommendation is to get a whiteboard where you can rub things off and move tasks around as priorities change.
You could try drawing the following table on your whiteboard: TO DO ASAP (TONIGHT)
TO DO TOMORROW
TO DO AT WEEKEND
TO THINK ABOUT
Or try a weekly calendar for yourself: MONDAY’S LIST
TUESDAY’S LIST
French revision for test tomorrow
See cousin for her birthday.
Copy up notes for History (due Thurs)
Copy up notes for History (due Thurs)
Look at SparkNotes for Macbeth
Look at SparkNotes for Macbeth
Sometimes, events like this will come up. So include them in your calendar and plan around them!
Look at how on some days tasks don’t get done and they ‘roll-over’ to the next day. It’s okay to be honest that you can’t do everything all at once, as long as you meet the deadline e.g. on the above example, by Wednesday History would be the priority. Try not to leave everything until the night before as this can cause stress, but also accept that sometimes we don’t get much time to get things done. Sleep It is important that you rest and don’t burn out, as otherwise you will not be able to function the next day, and that will affect your lessons and your learning. Do not stay up until midnight revising. If you’ve planned and prioritised, you should have left yourself enough time to avoid last minute cramming. Of course, you must look after yourself in general, so eat well and drink lots of water too.
If you have taken control in the ways suggested above, hopefully you’ll be able to manage your stress by yourself (go back to ASK FOR HELP if you are still struggling).
So now that I know I need to revise, how do I do it? Revising can be as daunting as the exams themselves. We’ve tried to list some key bits of advice here, but you must do whatever works for you. Some of you won’t know what that is yet, so try out different techniques for weekly class quizzes and see what has the best results. If you have revised for hours and hours but have still not got the result you think you deserve then try something different, or go back and ask the teacher for further help and advice. The January pre-public exams will be the perfect opportunity to try out these techniques. General Revision Top Tips You have lots of subjects to fit in, so we will be giving you revision timetables so that you can organise and prioritise your time. This may involve using your lunchtimes as well as after school but you may as well use all your time well while you’re here! Year 11 Revision Card – Your Passport to Exam Success
Must attend Should attend Could attend
Option Option Option English English Maths 1_____ 2_____ 3_____ Language Literature
Science
So this could be filled like this (NB these are just examples – see the Raising Achievement Newsletter for correct times of sessions):
Must attend
Option 1: Media Monday lunch
Should attend Could attend
Tues after school
Option 2_____
Option 3_____ Friday after school
S+L support Tues 8am
English Language Monday after school Wed lunch (only until 17th Feb)
English Literature Tues after school
Maths
Science
Thurs lunch
Wed after school
Monday lunch
Steps to Success: Setting yourself up for revision Step 1: Know what you have to revise and by when for each subject. Revising means ‘re-looking’ so you should already have learnt the information in class – you are just trying to remember it and thinking about how to apply it for exams and assessments. Step 2: Create your revision timetable (use the timetable card given to you). Step 3: Organise your revision space. Have your highlighters, pens etc ready for you on a desk or table so that you don’t waste time searching for them. Make sure this place is quiet and allows you to focus on revision. Step 4: Tick off subjects from your overall list. This will feel great when you feel secure that you know something!
Steps to Success: Doing the revision! Practical Idea 1: Look at past papers and ensure your revision is helping you head towards being able to answer those questions Practical Idea 2: The main idea of revision is to DO something with the information – otherwise you won’t remember it. So change something, create something, teach someone! Practical Idea 3: Mind Map the important points for each unit. This means you have gone through all the information and condensed it into something manageable and memorable.
Practical Idea 4: Revise in short chunks – no more than 20 minutes at a time. Then rest/ do something different. Then go back to revising. Practical Idea 5: Don’t waste time struggling. Note down anything you are finding hard and then go back to your teacher to ask for help. Practical Idea 6: Use post it notes; they’re just more fun than paper! Put little snippets of key information on them. Practical Idea 7: Use online resources. www.getrevising.com www.gcseguide.co.uk
www.positivelymad.co.uk www.gcse.com Remember that your teachers will have the most up to date course information, so ignore anything on these websites that is not relevant for you now. Practical Idea 8: CRAM!
Subject Revision Each department will let you know their revision timetables. These are also published in the Raising Achievement Newsletter. There are lots of online resources, and each department will probably have these on the VLE for you already. DON’T IGNORE THEM!
The Future! These websites are all for helping you with preparation for university applications. Year 12 and 13 will obviously be heavily focused on further study but for those of you who want to look ahead to help plan your sixth form choices, the following sites are a good place to start: www.UCAS.com – course/university information www.futurelearn.com – offers the opportunity to complete short courses to show dedication and develop skills in an area you’re interested in. These improve university applications. www.ted.com – interesting wider reading looking at a range of topics. Knowledge of current debates etc improves university applications.
Year 11 Study Guide: Parent/carer information We know that all parents and carers want the best for their children and want to support them however they can. The regular Raising Achievement newsletter provides information relevant to the time of year at which it is sent. For example, it will give the most up to date revision information and key dates. We publish this on the school website in case the paper copies cannot be found in students’ bags and blazers! It can be found under Parents > Newsletters > Yr11 Raising Achievement. This booklet will provide more general information about how to support students, particularly during Yr11 exams and assessments. Supporting your child through the pressures of exams There is a lot of pressure on children and young people to do their best and get good results, and the stresses and strains of school life can sometimes get on top of them, and they can find it hard to get on with their school work and homework. Exam stress in particular can cause problems with eating, sleeping, anger and anxiety levels. If a child is already experiencing emotional problems or mental health difficulties, exam stress can be the last straw. Exam time is a major cause of stress for children and parents and carers. Parents get anxious about how much their children are working, whether they are looking after themselves, and whether they will get the results they need. Children are often stressed, anxious and irritable, and can have trouble with eating and sleeping. Some children and young people may become very stressed and anxious and may be very reluctant to go into school, or even refuse to attend at all. Tests and exams, including GCSEs, can be a challenging part of school life for both children and parents. But there are ways to ease the stress.
Symptoms of stress Some people feel pressure and develop stress symptoms much more readily than others. When someone is faced with increased pressure (in this case at exam time) their body can go into a ‘fight or flight’ response which releases increased amounts of adrenalin into the body. This can lead to various symptoms including •Feeling irritable (increased yelling or crying, swearing, hitting) •Feeling inadequate •Problems getting to sleep or not wanting to wake up •Strongly beating heart, sweating •Chest pains, nausea, trembling •Habits such as nail biting and fidgeting •Indecisiveness, going blank, confusion •Losing touch with friends. What influences how much exam stress someone feels? Exam stress is a natural reaction to too much pressure and can come from a number of sources including: •young people themselves •comparisons with others •wanting to reach ambitious goals •others in the family •peers or teachers Exam study stress is often influenced by the amount of preparation and planning a student has put into studying towards a particular exam and how confident they feel about the material they are to be tested on. Students struggle with exam anxiety for a number of reasons these could be because they expect to cover everything perfectly and set unreasonably high expectations for themselves; they may lack motivation to prepare for exams or may be struggling to understand the work. What can parents and carers do? One of the best things parents or carers can do if their child is experiencing exam stress is to try to be as supportive and tolerant as possible. Reassure them that there are more important things in life and that this is only part of the story. Accept this is going to be a stressful time for the whole family – expect outbursts and try to remain calm. Try and find out as early as possible what is expected of your child, when their exams will be and when coursework needs to be handed in. Try and work with your child and support them rather than policing them. Remember to be flexible around exam time. When your child is revising all day, don’t worry about household jobs that may be left undone or untidy bedrooms. Be clear that avoiding subjects they find difficult will not be helpful in the long run. Reassure
them that if they do not get their expected grades, there will be other opportunities ahead, and they should just do their best. Let your child know you will help them no matter what and, although naturally you want them to do well, you will not think any less of them if these particular exams don't work out. Encourage children to talk to you if they are really worried they haven’t done enough work. Study and learning habits Helping your child to establish effective study and learning habits can help to reduce stress: • • • • • • •
Is there an uncluttered table where they can work? Help them to find somewhere which is likely to be undisturbed. Help them to plan their study schedule early on so that they have sufficient time to study. It can be helpful to develop a clear, realistic plan of what they want to cover in each study session. Can they break it down into small chunks? Encourage your child to find out exactly what the test involves - are there past test papers they can look at to help them understand what to expect? Encourage your child to ask for help or ask their teacher for clarity if they are unsure of something or if they feel confused Help them to make ‘mind maps’ to collect ideas and summarise thoughts - use bright colours to help remember important links Remind your child to take a short rest and move around in between each part of their study Offer help sometimes. It can be useful having someone to listen or practise with
Practical ideas to help your child cope with exam stress • • • • • • •
Encourage your child to stick to a routine of going to bed at a reasonable time, eating regularly and making time to have fun and exercise Help them to cut back on coffee or any other stimulants they may be using, as these can increase agitation. Encourage them to drink lots of water instead Encourage them to take time out when they eat, rather than carrying on with study Encourage them to eat fresh fruit, vegetables, cereals, grains, nuts and protein - they are all good for the brain and blood sugar levels. Encourage them to eat when they get hungry. This keeps blood sugar and hydration levels steady Avoid junk food if possible because it will bring a sudden sugar high and then fall away quickly leaving a person feeling tired Try not to nag as they may be feeling a lot of pressure already. It helps to stay calm and offer support - perhaps offer a cup of tea occasionally or record their favourite TV program to watch later
Relaxation ideas to help your child cope with exam stress • • • •
Always encourage your child to relax before they go to bed after concentrating for long periods of time. Activities such as reading a book or chatting to a friend may help them unwind and sleep better Encourage them to go out for a walk, run or to do some other exercise that they enjoy Relaxation techniques can be very effective if you see your child's anxiety rising. For example, put on some gentle music, get them to lie down, close their eyes and breathe deeply while visualising a calming scene such as a deserted beach Encourage your child to visualise success - this can really help with self-confidence
Ideas for exam day Talk about these ideas before exam day so as not to add to anxiety levels. Suggest to your child that they: • • • • • • • • •
Organise and pack everything that they need to take with them into the exam, the night before Keep away from people who may agitate them before the test or may say unhelpful, anxiety-provoking comments Take time to slow their breathing and relax when they first sit down Read through the paper, underlining key words and instructions. Work out how long they have for each question or section Watch out for the wording of the questions - make sure that they understand and address what the question is really asking Answer the questions they find easiest first, then as they relax more move onto the other ones (by then their mind has relaxed and they are likely to find the work easier) Re-read answers if possible and make any changes that are necessary - cross out notes, correct spelling, check workings After an exam or hand-in, they might not want to talk about it immediately so let them decide Try and plan something nice for when it’s all over – reward them for trying their best, however they feel it went.
Remind your child that feeling nervous is normal. Nervousness is a natural reaction to exams. The key is to put these nerves to positive use. Being reminded of what they do know and the time they have put into study can help them feel confident. Staying calm yourself can help. Remember, exams don’t last forever!
What about after the exams?
After the GCSEs are finished, the students have a long summer before starting further study. We are encouraging them to fill it with something useful! The National Citizens Service came in to do an assembly in November. This is a scheme designed to fill the summer with something useful, fun and great for their CVs. Further information can be found at: http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/ Alternatively, students could undertake some work experience. Ideally this would be in a sector they are interested in working in. It will either help confirm their choices, or will help them see that perhaps this isn’t what they want – and knowing this sooner rather than later can only be a good thing! Students can contact employers directly with their availability.
Students also need to ensure that their sixth form choices will be useful for them in the future. Their Yr11 exam results may also affect their choices as late as August. Looking ahead to the university entry requirements can help students plan their subject choices for Yr12 and 13. The UCAS website is a good place to start for information about universities and course requirements: www.UCAS.com
If you need any further support or advice, please do not hesitate to contact the school.