Helping Parents Help Their Teens
This year NCEA celebrates it's tenth birthday. Yet the exam and marking structure of it still remain a mystery to many parents. Which is totally understandable. It's absolutely nothing like School Cert and seems to have undergone changes every year since it was implemented. However, once one becomes familiar with NCEA - as we are - a few solid patterns emerge. One of these patterns is … [Read more...]
Earlier this week we talked about what tutoring is for and what it's not. The crux of the article was that in order for your hard earned pennies to pay off, your teen can't treat tutoring sessions as homework or study time. Furthermore, tutoring isn't cheap! You’d hardly expect a $5/hr tutor to be amazing. So if you do decide to get one for your teen, you want to make sure they’re … [Read more...]
In this article we’re going to talk about the most valuable study tool for your teen this year. Subject Maps eliminate all of the major problems teens struggle with during exam study. They will save your teen huge amounts of time They will give your teen a 'study roadmap' to follow when studying They will ensure your teen studies the right stuff, and ignores the surplus … [Read more...]
This week we're delighted to share an article written by Professor Ellen Bremen. In this article she shares her experiences as a parent as well as a professor with us on how to encourage great study. Ellen is a tenured professor of Communication Studies at Highline Community College. She is dedicated to helping students develop better relationships with their teachers and professors with the … [Read more...]
Studying IS making study notes. At least that’s what students tell us when we ask them what studying involves. We agree that, in most cases, making study notes should be what your teen spends most of their time doing while preparing for exams. It’s our belief that it doesn’t matter what your teen’s predominant Learning Style is, study notes are a must for everyone sitting written … [Read more...]
Multi-choice tests can be deceptively tough. Despite their seemingly simple format, they should definitely not be your teen’s cue to switch off and forget about studying! Multi-choice tests and exams are actually far from one-dimensional. At times multi-choice questions (MCQs) can be pretty straight forward, but it’s been our experience (particularly at tertiary level) that they … [Read more...]
For many teens, exams are just a big annoying disruption to their social life. Instead of planning their study time carefully, they find it extremely difficult to knuckle down - even when their exams are only days away. Procrastination. It gets us all. But it seems to be a particularly rampant disease amongst teenagers faced with upcoming exams. We want to share something with you … [Read more...]
Hopefully your teen is using these tips to build their Study Formula. This means they’re figuring out what study techniques work specifically for them. A Study Formula is basically a study routine. We want your teen to get in the habit of using the same study techniques every time they sit down to study. Once their study habits are set, studying becomes a whole lot easier. As your … [Read more...]
Effective studying is all about routine. This is why we go on and on about how important it is for your teen to have a ‘Study Formula’. [We talk about Study Formulas lots in our ebook: Too School For Cool] Your teen will develop their Study Formula as they get better at studying. It's the set of study techniques and processes they'll eventually use every time they study. Meaning, … [Read more...]
Sitting exams isn’t fun. And preparing for them can be even worse. Sometimes a little bit of pressure can spur your child on to study, but once this pressure starts turning into stress bad things happen. Here are 5 of the most common stress-causing complaints from students leading up to exams, and our solution to each one. 1. I’m not going to fit everything in Many students feel … [Read more...]
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