When revising for an exam or prepping for an oral presentation or speech
(because – yes it is VERY easy to tell when a student doesn’t really understand what they’re presenting in an oral assessment)
there’s a very simple ‘test’ to see if your teen really understands a concept or really knows about a topic. (Plus a sneaky little sub-test too!).
Find out what they are and how your teen can use them!
When revising for an exam, or even prepping for an oral presentation or speech (because – yes it is VERY easy to tell when a student doesn’t really understand what they are presenting in an oral assessment) there’s a very simple test to see if your teen really understands a concept or really knows about a topic.
Here’s the test:
Can your teen teach you about the topic by teaching you or telling you all about it?
(Or if they’re not up for that, and I get that they might not be – then the alternative is that they could record their explanation – like a podcast to teach others about it – and the added #bonus of this is that they then have this recording as a revision resource to listen to later).
But the key thing is, can they talk about it without their notes or their script or the textbook?
If so, great!
(Hold out for my little sneaky sub-test coming up in a second) 😉
But if not, then they don’t really know it yet and need to go back to learning and processing.
Because it’s very easy to think that we’re taking in information and understanding it when we’re reading about it, even if we’re answering Qs about it from a textbook.
But often, when the content stimulus or resources are removed, it can become difficult to vocalise or convey that information when we’re relying only on the knowledge and understanding we’ve retained and digested in those whirring brain cells.
To be able to process it into a different format and in a way that others can understand is a TRUE test of OUR understanding.
And here’s that sneaky little sub-test I mentioned earlier…
If your teen passed the first test of being able to fluently talk about and teach you the subject content, then just to ‘double-triple’ check, ask them a few tightly related questions about it.
For example, if they just explained how circulatory system works, ready for their Biology exam, then ask them something like – “OK, so the de-oxygenated blood, how does that become oxygenated again?”
Something that isn’t just a pure repeat, but makes them re-explain something in a slightly different way or with a different focus.
So that’s the test – the test before the test if you like! – to check whether your teen really knows their stuff.
Leave me a comment below and tell me how you could use this with your teen 🙂 and until next week, let’s make this a fantastic week!
