It’s easy to stay busy doing things that make us feel productive.
Often, students get good at disguising these ‘distraction activities’ as something that still feels study-related.
Making a beautiful-gorgeous cover page perhaps 😉
But the key to higher grades with less stress is your teen figuring out the specific tasks and places to put their effort, that will really move the needle in terms of results, rankings and grades.
Here’s what these tasks are likely to be (and what they aren’t!).
It’s easy to stay busy doing things that make us feel productive.
In the good old days it used to be things like putting your CD or video collection in alphabetical order.
As a teenager it was (and I’m guessing still is today), cleaning up your bedroom.
[I know, I know! ‘Not such a bad thing Katie’ you might be saying – but not so great if it ‘s just as a distraction activity for something they really should be doing. Like that English essay or Maths investigation] 😉
We also get good at disguising these distraction activities as something that still feels study-related.
Making a lovely cover page for that Maths investigation perhaps!
But the key to higher grades with less stress is your teen figuring out the specific tasks and places to put their effort that’ll really ‘move the needle’ for them in terms of results, rankings, confidence and grades.
So this could be:
- Practicing some past paper Qs, rather than writing out notes from the text book.
- Working on extending their analyses in their English essay rather than finding another reference for it.
OR, thinking…
- How many sources do they really need for that History inquiry? Would they be better off adding more depth and detail to evaluating the sources they already have?
In other words, they need to identify the tasks that’ll boost their results, not just give them some more the ticks on their to-do list.
They should also consider training and learning that’ll really help across the board – which will be universal to all subjects and serve them across different subjects.
For example:
- honing their paragraphing skills, their range of vocabulary and the sentence structures in their writing,
- developing exam technique skills,
- studying past paper mark schemes and chief examiner reports and retrospectives.
The trouble is that these are jobs or activities that rarely appear on any to-do list, but are SO important to boosting grades and confidence for students.
I’d love to know… Scroll down and leave me a comment – what are the things that would move the needle most for your teen AND what are the activities that are keeping them feeling ‘busy’ but aren’t necessarily giving them the biggest pay off?
Until next week, let’s make this a fantastic week 🙂
Katie
