Revision tips for GCSE exams

With exams set to be tougher this year, students and parents across the country are wondering how they can best prepare for the tricky summer ahead… but with a sensible approach to preparation, there needn’t be anything to fear.

Here are our biggest recommendations for the coming months:

Don’t panic

Tassomai’s best advice for anxious mums and dads…. don’t panic! It has been a tough year for students and parents alike, so piling exam stress on top of that could be a recipe for disaster. There are plenty of ways to ensure that your child is ready for mocks this year - it’s just a case of making a plan and getting ahead of the game.

Identify areas that need work

Tassomai’s powerful tool “The Tree” is a great overview for parents and students. The Tree is a visual representation of a child’s knowledge and understanding based on their Tassomai usage and the questions they’ve answered.

A learner’s tree grows over time, and can be used to identify topics they are strongest in, and those that need more work. Every learner has a separate tree for each subject they’re studying on Tassomai, which now includes maths and English literature as well as sciences. The greener the leaves, the better they’re doing.

You can see at a glance exactly where their weaker areas are, and use this to plan focused revision, extra reading and practice.

Left to their own devices, students tend to revise the topics where they feel more confident, rather than those they find more difficult. Tassomai’s algorithm is designed specifically to ensure that quizzing practice tackles problem areas, helping students to improve and expand their knowledge. For work outside the app, look at your child’s Tree with them and help them identify which areas would most benefit from extra revision. 

To learn more about how “The Tree” works click here.

Be prepared 

Help your child to make a plan before they start revising, that way you can leave them to have ownership of their own revision, while knowing that they’re on the right path. You can still talk to them regularly about what they’ve looked at today and what they’ve practised, but giving them a clear framework will stop you having to stress on their behalf.

Try a variety of revision techniques - whether that’s condensing notes onto revision cards, self-quizzing on Tassomai or answering and marking practice papers - interleaving of approaches, as well as of topics and subjects, is a sure way to make learning more memorable.

Little and often

There’s a fundamental piece of education research referred to as the Ebbinhaus Forgetting Curve which describes exactly how, if you don’t think about or practise something regularly, your likelihood of remembering it later diminishes over time. Although that seems obvious, it’s amazing to see how few people keep that practice going and keep every plate spinning. 

A few minutes’ quizzing each day can have a colossal effect, not only on refreshing knowledge, but on making it ‘stick’ for longer. Following this measured, sustainable approach with your child will help you to support them in a way that will see them through to the big event with the right mindset, ready to do their best.

Tassomai’s online learning program helps students learn and revise throughout the year, encouraging a “little and often” approach that embeds knowledge and boosts confidence. This way of learning and revising will help your child not just with mocks in the short-term but with retaining information for the rest of the year and through their big exams.

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