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Posts filed under Exams

Exam Rehearsal is Critical

It’s long been accepted in education that ‘teaching to the test’ is NOT the most effective way to great grades.

Plus it’s also not really possible these days.

Exams and the curriculum are designed so that it just doesn’t work.

And this is a *good* thing as it means students have to be taught in a more holistic way and are required to actually understand the content, rather than learn and rehearse it parrot fashion (like so many of us used to do!).

Memory flashback happening right now – reciting and memorising German verb tables – arrrrgh!!!

But that doesn’t mean that students can’t prep and practice for tests and exams.

There’s a much more useful and transferable skill and process: ‘TRAINING for the Test’.

 

In other words:

  • Getting familiar with the format of the exam to be sat.
  • Being clear on exactly how to tackle it strategically.
  • Having go-to strategies to address different types of questions and a toolbelt of techniques to write top-notch responses.

…So that the ‘unknown’ of an exam is no longer daunting, (partly because those ‘unknown elements’ are minimised).

And the fact that many students still AREN’T being trained in exam technique is a little bit crazy – or at least I think so – and is of course why I’ve made it my mission to help as many students as possible with this.

Because we wouldn’t go to an interview without having rehearsed our answers to possible questions they might ask us , and researching what will likely impress them (AKA – things that I should definitely try to include in my answers!) 😉

No TED Talk presenter would turn up not having practiced their talk or knowing what rules or expectations or guidelines they’ll need to follow.

And if we had our driving test coming up, we’d not only know exactly what manouevers they could ask us to perform, but we’d have practiced those exact procedures many, MANY times and have a clear strategy to follow for each, like lining up the wingmirrors for a reverse park or having specific steps for a three-point-turn.

 

And yet SO many students go into exams having learnt the subject info but not having clear strategies, steps or techniques to perform at their best.

That’s like going into a dance competition having read a ton of books about ballet but never actually having danced. Or going into a boxing match having watched hours of matches but never having been coached and trained in the ring yourself.

Being able to perform brilliantly and knowing exactly what the judges are looking for is a whole other world, right?!

 

So make sure your teen isn’t just relying on their subject knowledge to help them achieve success in their essays, exams and assignments.

They need practical strategies and go to tools, templates and techniques so that they can produce answers and responses that align with the wording of essays, tasks and exam questions AND with the mark schemes and rubrics.

Be sure to check out my upcoming ‘Exam Special’ webinar with loads more practical and in-depth training on this. (Look out in your inbox or on the Facebook news feed for registration info next week!).

And until next week, let’s make this a fantastic week!

Katie

 

 

 

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Sketch it in crayons

Practicing exam responses and testing knowledge using past or sample exam papers is an EXCELLENT way for students to prepare for exams.

And if they don’t know where to find these, my GTZ Members can find quick links to all the state exam boards, their past papers, mark schemes or chief examiner reports in the Grade Transformation Zone Member Area 🙂

However, it can be a pretty intense exam prep activity, and when your teen’s feeling exhausted, perhaps mid-exam-block, BUT they still *need* to be doing some productive work to prepare, then here’s an alternative, slightly ‘lighter’ way to tackle this.

And just quickly – I can’t take credit for this. I got the idea from Steve Collis who, at the time was the Director of Innovation at SCIL – the Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning, and he once said ‘if you can’t sketch it in crayons, you don’t understand it’.

It wasn’t meant to be a profound statement,  but it struck a chord with me and so here’s one of the ways I took this and made it into a practical strategy….

 

Instead of writing a formal full answer to each question on the practice exam paper, have your teen try to draw a response. This can be fun, but also pretty challenging (in a more light-hearted way)!

But it’s that extra challenge that makes it really effective 😉

 

Because the fact that your teen is having to convert their knowledge from text format into a visual form, means that their brain is doing an extra step of processing of that information. And more processing means more retention AND easier, faster retrieval when it comes to getting that info back out, from brain to paper in the exam hall.

Plus, it  highlights any knowledge gaps. Because you can’t sketch something you don’t know or understand.

 

Now, a quick ‘Captain Obvious’ note here – obviously this is not something to do IN the REAL exam – this is just a suggestion for revision and exam prep, when they need a bit of a break from the really hard core revision, but still want to or need to be productive.

Ok, that’s the disclaimer done 😉

Scroll down and leave me a comment to let me know if your teen fancies giving this a go!

And until next week, let’s make this a fantastic week!

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If it’s not PROCESSING info, it’s not PRODUCTIVE

Many students right now will be in revision mode for Semester or half-yearly exams, or soon to be.

And most of these students will be revising in some of the least effective, in fact often totally useless  ways.

Here’s the bottom line:

Revision has to be ACTIVE rather than PASSIVE.

And that means that they have to be doing something with the information they’re revising –  processing it in some way. Here’s why, as well as some practical suggestions on how 🙂

Many students right now will be in revision mode for semester of half-yearly exams,

(or at least they should be), so I thought this would be a good time to share one of

THE . biggest . mistakes

I see students making in their revision.

(I know my personal coaching students will be so bored of hearing me say this, but I realised I actually haven’t hammered on about this publicly that much, so it’s time I did!)

Here’s the bottom line:

Revision has to be ACTIVE rather than PASSIVE.

I have a whole Catapult module dedicated to the specific strategies and techniques to make revision ACTIVE in my 10 Week Grade Transformation Program, but just getting to grips with this concept will be a huge step in the right direction for many students and parents for now.

By active I mean that they have to be DOING something with the information, processing it in some way.

So, no, reading or highlighting notes is NOT active 😉

Processing means transferring the info from one format to another and here’s why it’s so important:

Digesting the information and then making a decision about how to recreate it in a different format means that our brains have to have understood that information, not only proving to themselves that they ‘get’ the content, but also – this is much more likely to make it stick.

At the most basic level – this could be condensing full notes or text book info into colour-coded revision notes.

To do this effectively, students have to process and make decisions about which words and info are most important and decide which colour to use depending on the type of info it is.

For example is it a key word, a case study example, or is it a definition or is it a process?

But even better are techniques like converting text and notes into a mindmap, categorizing examples into a table, or turning a flowchart process into notes.

And I would advise, when time is getting tight, as it often does during revision

(unless of course, they use my reverse-engineered revision planning system!, also in the 10 Week program 🙂 )

that students are better off revising less information actively, than more information passively.

Because what’s the point of reading through 3 whole text book chapters if none or very little of it sticks or can be retrieved in the exam?

It’s waaaayyyyy more beneficial to get through just the key points of the 3 chapters, but know those really well and have them easily flow from brain to paper in the exam hall.

 

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Does your teen REALLY understand the subject content?

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!

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Competing with Classmates

I vividly remember being sat in a History class and listening to a classmate read out her response to a question that we’d all just been sat quietly answering.

My overriding thought was:

“How does she *write* like that?”

Accompanied by thoughts of

“I can’t write like that.” and

“Well, that just isn’t me – I *don’t* write like that”.

But, if I’d realised back then that I just needed to know and enact some simple yet effective strategies and I could’ve definitely written as well as or even better than Suzanne – ‘A-Grade’ – Baker! 😉

It’s wierd the things we remember right?

For example, I can vividly remember being sat in a History class and listening to a class mate read out her response to a question that we’d all just been sat quietly writing out answers to.

Now this occurred over 20 years ago now and yet I can still remember where I was sat in class and I can remember the other students’ name even though she wasn’t a particularly close friend of mine.

(It was Suzanne Baker, if you’re wondering) 😉

But what I remember MOST of all were the feelings I felt and what I was thinking .

My overriding thought was:

“How does she *write* like that?”

Accompanied by thoughts of

“I can’t write like that.”

and

“well, that just isn’t me. I *don’t* write like that”.

Interestingly  I WASN’T thinking – “I wonder how I can write like that?”.

It’s kinda crazy, the limits we put on ourselves isn’t it? 🙁

 

So , there I was, feeling a little in awe, (and a little bit nervous in case the teacher were to pick on me next to read out mine – which didn’t happen, thank goodness!)

but on reflection, what’s most interesting now is that – I was, well,  just… resigned.

Resigned to the fact that, that just wasn’t me.

I simply accepted that I didn’t have the confidence or skills to write in such a sophisticated, high quality way. I figured it was just some sort of natural gift.

Of course, I know NOW (after over a decade of teaching and national and state exam marking, including specifically FOR Y12 state writing tests (which I never would’ve believed I’d be doing if you’d asked me back then!))  with absolute certainty, that it isn’t about who you are or how much of a natural you are at writing.

What it IS about, is essentially putting on a bit of a show or performance for the marker, by putting into action a set of specific techniques, some simple strategies and tricks, so that you can craft amazing responses in whatever genre or style a task demands.

 

For example, in an analytical essay:

Students should be using longer compound and complex sentences, using fully expanded wording and technical vocabulary that gives a formal and official feel and will give the impression of a confident competent student who really knows their subject and how to convey it clearly.

But then for a blog, a feature article or a persuasive speech:

A more casual writing style is needed, which is achieved by using more colloquial language and contracted words (like it’s instead of it is). Plus it’d be good to use a few short, sharp sentences, perhaps sprinkled with a bit of purposeful repetition as well for impact 🙂

 

The point is, students need to write in the way the task and criteria demand and there are simple tips, tricks and techniques to do that. 

They don’t need to be a natural writer or a wizard with words and they certainly don’t need to slave over grammar books or read novels cover to cover to catapult the standard of their writing.

If I’d realised this back then, aaaaaaannnd known these key strategies (and of course, how to enact them and when to use them), I could’ve definitely written as well as or even better than Suzanne Baker 🙂

 

And if you’d love your teen to have aaaaaaalllllll the steps, strategies, tips techniques and tricks to writing like an A-grader, then CLICK HERE to check out my ‘Write Like and A-Grader’ Training.

It’s where I give your teen everything they need – all the tools, explanations, tutoring and examples of how to apply them, so that they become one of those students who can write with confidence and sophistication (and has those skills for.ever.)!

 

 

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Faking it!

We are all told so often these days: “Just be yourself, do things how YOU want to do them”.

But for students, when it comes to their writing style in assessments, they need to do the exact OPPOSITE if they want to achieve their best possible marks.

Discover why I struggled with this myself as a student and why students need to be okay with feeling like a ‘fake’!

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4 Necessary skills to prevent the need to hit ‘delete’

Last week I talked about the importance of knowing what to leave out or delete when it comes to assignments and essays.

(And yes, that can mean having to press ‘delete’ on THAT amazing sentence or cool quote).

So how do we stop that little heartache from occurring in the first place?

There are three key skills (plus a sneaky fourth!) that your teen needs, and I’m sharing exactly what they are in this week’s video.

And here is the link to my FREE Writing Tips Mini-Series that I mention in the video 🙂

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Do this *now* to ensure no nasty surprises on exam day

Keen students often want to get ahead early on in the year, because they know things are going to get ‘full-on’ later down the line.

Yup! They will!

 

Here’s one simple, practical and important action your teen can take *now* to ensure there are NO nasty surprises on exam day and  put themselves in the best position for when things start getting crazy busy!

(TIP: It’s ESPECIALLY good for students in Year 10-12!)

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The most important part of your teen’s success

The Burj in Dubai is the world’s tallest building.

So what’s one of the most important parts of the building?

The thing that everything else depends on to stand tall and stable?

Find out in this week’s video 🙂

Because, no matter how hard students study and revise, if this essential element isn’t there, there’s just no way they can construct a tower of subject content or an impressive set of results.

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What you DON’T want to happen [Video Diary – Final Day!]

In Referee Marking we go through and mark all the scripts a third time, that were given two different grades by two different markers in the original marking.

It’s not been hard to see why they were given different judgements  and I reveal the reason why

AND how your teen can avoid this happening to them in the final video in my Exam Marker Video Diary 2017!

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