Grade Transformation Blog

Grade Transformation Blog

No.1 in Transforming Students’ Grades

Posts filed under Goal setting

How many hours should students spend studying?

I recently got this question from a student:

“How much time would you recommend I should be spending on my study each evening or overall each week?”

Now, before I tell you my answer, you might be thinking,

“Well it depends. I mean, what year group are they in, what sorts of subjects are they doing?”

And you’d be right.

There is more to this than just plucking a number out of the air.

BUT although yes, students will be spending more time on homework, revision and study as they move up through high school, these details are really NOT important.

Find out why (and what IS important!) in this video (or scroll down for the written version!) 🙂

 

 

Wouldn’t it be great if there were some magic formula that stated:

X hours + Y pages of notes = Grade

Unfortunately,

(Because you KNOW I love specifics.)

this Q is (sadly) reeeeally *not* about the numbers.

Yes, students will be spending more time on homework, revision and study as they move up through high school, BUT…

We could spend hours on ‘study-type-activities’ that are keeping us ‘busy’ but aren’t actually productive in terms of

  • the learning of content,
  • retention in revision, or
  • preparing awesome essays or assessment pieces.

For example, I’ve seen so many students spend waaayyyy more hours than they needed doing research for an investigation.

I’ve seen way too many students revising in ways that are not anywhere near as effective as they could be, and I’ve seen students waste days and days, not just hours, diligently drafting, editing and re-writing reports and assignments that could’ve been cut down massively if they’d had a clear and proven strategy to start on the right path and be able to craft their response more effectively.

 

In other words, it’s quality over quantity.

 

It’s about students gaining and honing the techniques, knowledge and strategies to work efficiently and effectively.

To minimise wasted time and stop doing any unnecessary tasks, and *still* gain the same (or better!) grades along the way.

This is why there are some students who work all hours of the day and night, yet still struggle to get the results they really want, and perhaps are capable of, and others just seem to breeze through getting A’s effortlessly.

Now, that might be a bit of an exaggeration of extremes, but it’s definitely the case that it’s more about efficient and effective study techniques and revision strategies than it is about the number of hours slaving away over textbooks.

 

>> If you think this could help someone else you know, please share or like this post ?

>> Oh, and leave me a comment below to let me know your thoughts on this ⬇

 

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Posted in Goal setting, Homework, Mindset
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2 Things to Focus on

How can your teen best level-up to meet the demands of their current year?

I’ve had a few emails come in since my video where I pulled back the curtain on Term 1 results and shared the fact that it’s not uncommon for students to drop back a little in terms of results and grades from where they were at the end of last year – Parents asking for advice about how students can best level-up to meet the demands of their current year.

So I want to share with you 2 key focus points for your teen to level-up their study and meet the greater demands of their current year level.

 

Here are 2 key focus points for your teen to level-up their study and meet the greater demands of their current year level

Because – ‘What got them here, won’t get them there’.

Meaning, what got your teen a C grade in Year 9 for example, WON’T get them a C grade in Year 10.

Likewise, working the same hours and putting in the same effort as they did in Year 10, won’t get your teen the same results in Year 11. And so on.

Here goes!…

Focus Point One:  Producing work of a higher QUALITY.

One way to do this is to improve their QWC – quality of written communication. This is a large focus of my Write Like an A-Grader training, with elements such as creating more sophisticated sentence structures, using more technical and a wider range of vocabulary, and strategic proofreading and editing.

 

Focus Point Two:  Producing work at a higher COGNITIVE SKILL level.

And if you want more info on what I mean by that, then be sure to come to one of my future webinars, where I explain command words, Blooms Taxonomy and how it all relates to assignments, exams and marking criteria, in detail – because this is such a crucial element to students’ achievement – but one that very few students or parents are fully aware of.

But for now, I can tell you that to produce work that engages and displays higher cognitive skills, your teen needs to not only respond accordingly to any high level commands, but they also need to create opportunities to work at that level.

That might be when they choose a topic for an investigation, when writing their own thesis statement, or when selecting a genre for a piece of extended writing. They should be looking for ways to operate at the analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels rather than keep themselves stuck in description and basic explanation mode.

 

If your teen can put into practice just a few of the many techniques and strategies that go into these 2 focus areas then they’ll be making progress towards meeting the demands of their target grades of their current year level 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Assignments, Essays, Goal setting, Homework, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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Pulling back the curtain on Term 1

As we round out Term 1 your teen has likely had back some assessment results to think about, or noticed along the way that the expectations on them and their work have ramped up a little.

This week I’m digging deeper into what’s going on behind those results and experiences at this specific time of year.

 

As we closed out Term 1 your teen has likely had back some assessment results to think about, or noticed along the way that the expectations on them and their work have ramped up a little.

I’ve had a couple of parents write in to me trying to either figure out why their son or daughter got a certain result that was a little below their expectations or commenting on the fact that their teen has struggled to get to grips with some of the tasks they’ve been faced with, despite going ok with things the year before.

 

Well, this situation is very closely linked to a blog video I made a while ago called ‘what got you here, won’t get you there’ and you can CLICK HERE to check it out 🙂

 

So, let’s say that at the end of last year, a student was performing at a particular level in a particular subject. That was after a year of teaching and learning at that year level’s requirements and standards.

And right now they’re working at the criteria and standards a year above that and with only having had one term of being taught and of learning at that level.

So they have another 2 thirds or 3 quarters of the year to still master these standards and climb up the criteria levels. Of course, the faster they can do that, by working on their exam technique, the quality of their written communication, and developing the learning techniques that are most effective for them personally, the better.

 

So, if your teen has been disappointed by any early results so far, or a little taken aback by new expectations, then hopefully these reasons will help them understand why this might be.

And of course, if they’re doing great, (that’s awesome!) they can still use this video to help them continue to level up throughout the year.

 

See you back here next week, and until then, let’s make this a fantastic week 🙂

Katie

 

P.S.  If you know anyone who might find this blog useful, please feel free to share or forward it 🙂
#sharingiscaring 😉

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Posted in Goal setting, Mindset, Results
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Director Role!… What to improve and HOW to do it

A movie director will tell the actor the exact thing they want them to do differently in the next take.

It’s then top of mind for the actor and they can make the necessary adjustments or additions to make that next take even better.

Your teen needs to do the same with their study.

There are specific ways to determine their ‘Director’ focus points and my freebie download (HERE!) will help them keep these top of mind so they give a better ‘performance’ each and every take -oops! – I mean TASK 😉

 

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Posted in Goal setting, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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How to get really, REALLY good

To become *really* good at something, what should you do?

Maximise your strengths?

Or work on building your weaknesses?

Well, when it comes to students and their study success,
you’ll be glad to know that I DO have a definitive answer for you
and I share it in this week’s video 🙂

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Posted in Goal setting, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies, Uncategorized
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100th video celebrations!… How it happened

This is the 100th blog video I’ve made and posted and emailed out to the world.

That’s 100 tips, tricks, insider secrets shared, advice and sometimes just thoughts and reflections on all things related to getting your teen happy, smart and successful.

It’s a huge accomplishment and certainly gives cause for a mini-celebration

#partypoppermoment

but it hasn’t actually felt like or been a huge great project to be completed.

How we got here has been by ‘baby-steps’ and it’s a great way to tackle many ‘mountains’ that students face.

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Posted in About Us, Goal setting, Mindset
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What NOT to do to achieve those goals

Last week I shared my one word intention for 2018 (well, actually it was two words, but hey).

And this week I’m sharing one of the strategies we can all put in place to help us achieve the goals we set for ourselves.

In fact, it’s not something to put IN place… it’s actually something to STOP doing

(yay – no extras to go on the to-do list!).

Find out what it is aaaaand 2 simple ways to help us to stop falling into this trap!

CLICK HERE to check out my ‘One Window Rule’ video!

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Posted in Goal setting, Mindset, Techniques & Strategies
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Happy New Year! (And my two words)

Happy New Year!

While I love the energy and potential a new year represents, I’ll be honest and say that I’m not really into New Years resolutions.

I AM big into planning, and setting goals – but the whole concept of new year resolutions just has such a bad reputation for big bold goals the one minute, then seem to be broken within a couple of weeks, so I just kinda avoid the whole thing!

 

But here’s a little challenge I have taken to the idea of.

Firstly because it really makes us think.

And secondly because it ISN’T associated with just one promise.

Watch this week’s video to see what I’m talking about and my intention I’ve set for the year ahead.

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Why your teen might be feeling unmotivated

 

Think for a moment –

How do you feel when you put time, effort and energy into something, only to be rewarded with…

a disappointing outcome.

If you’re anything like me, then there’s certainly those feelings of disappointment and deflation at not getting the reward you were after. But I also think there’s a couple of other things at play here too.

Watch this week’s video to discover what they are.

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How to Maximise ‘Return on Effort’

ROE = Return on EFFORT.

I see so many students with a depressingly low return on effort and over time, I’ve identified the two main reasons this is happening.

I share them in this week’s video with the solution to doing something about it and the strategies to maximise your teen’s ROE!

 

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Posted in Goal setting, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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