Grade Transformation Blog

Grade Transformation Blog

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Posts filed under Essays

2 key steps to breaking down an essay title

A lot of students find it daunting when they are faced with an essay title, particularly if it appears quite general or broad to start with.

In fact, often it is the shortest titles or those that appear to be the most open-ended that are the most challenging (or anything that simply ends with the word “Discuss” – right?!)

So, as someone who loves structure and steps, I’ve developed a system to help students deal with ANY essay title in a clear and structured way that also ensures they access the highest success criteria and marks.

It’s a two-step system and I explain it all in this week’s video.

 

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Posted in Essays, Goal setting, Homework, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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So…How do we fix it?

You hopefully heard me talk last week about ‘the power of unpacking’ and two brilliant questions students should ask themselves or their teachers about their marked assessment tasks.

I had a couple of email requests for a bit more info on this and in particular about the ‘What can I learn from this?’ question.

In other words

  • If it was a good result – ‘how can I replicate this again next time?’
  • Or if it wasn’t so good, then – “What can I do about it next time?”

So here are my key suggestions…

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Posted in Goal setting, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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The power of un-packing!

We all have loooong to-do lists these days.

This means that we are often so consumed with thinking about ‘what’s next’ that we rarely stop to UNPACK – to reflect on or dissect what we have already completed and the results we got from it.

And when we don’t do this, we can be missing out on so much ‘gold’ in terms of feedback that can really help us ‘nail’ a lot of the upcoming items on our to-do lists!

Watch this week’s video to help your teen grab their nuggets of gold, by asking themselves 2 critical questions to quickly get useful information about how to create success for themselves.

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Posted in Essays, Exams, Goal setting, Homework, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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5 Ways being under time pressure in exams affects students’ results

When we are feeling stressed and under time pressure, as many students are in an exam, our brains don’t process or operate as well as they do when we’re calm and fully focused. This means that often students lose marks that they could and should be getting.

BUT being aware of the problems that arise as a result of this means that students can override that stress and pressure to some extent by giving themselves constant conscious reminders to look for and do certain things.

Here are 5 awareness points your teen needs to know so they can override the negative effects of time-pressure in their exams.

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Posted in Exams, Goal setting, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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What got you HERE won’t get you THERE

This is true for most students as they move up through the years, from the middle years into the senior phase and through to uni.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that students have to work harder and harder every year, but it does sum up why students need to develop an awareness of how the demands level-up through the years.

I explain what these demands are and precisely why ‘what got them here, won’t get them there’ in this week’s video – check it out!

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

Let’s face it, positive thinking isn’t always easy….. Especially for students if they’re feeling swamped by homework and assignments or revision. Maybe they’ve just had a disappointing result from a piece of work.

I recently came across an alternative way of looking at this idea of positive thinking. I don’t much like the school of thought that says: “If we just believe that good things will happen, then they somehow magically will”!

If you know me by now, I’m not much into fluffy stuff – I prefer actionable and tangible so this week let me share with you my ideas and thoughts on useful beliefs that may help your teen deal with disappointing results or problems that might arise at school.

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Posted in Essays, Exams, Goal setting, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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Great (hidden!) expectations

“Well in Y7 and 8 he was getting B’s, but as he moved through year 9 and now in Y10 he’s getting Cs and even a couple of Ds”…

This is not unusual and can feel like a bit of a mystery both to parents and to students. It can be a little worrying and disappointing.

So I want to share with you ONE of the reasons some students find their grades drop as they move into the higher year groups, even when their effort levels have stayed the same.

 

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Posted in Essays, Exams, Goal setting, Homework, Mindset, Results, Techniques & Strategies
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Tell me! I’ll do it

Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.

I’ve been hearing this theme in various guises a lot from students recently and I absolutely understand…

In my experience, this is the same for a lot of students.

Once they have the template, or a model answer, or a structure to ‘hang’ their own knowledge on, suddenly all that fog and fuzziness clears and they can move forward with writing their assignment, essay or extended exam response…

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Posted in Essays, Exams, Goal setting, Homework, Mindset, Results, Revision, Techniques & Strategies
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4 mistakes I made as a student

The reason I can so quickly see where students is going wrong, is partly from
over 8 years as a state and national examiner and coursework moderator,

partly from
over 11 years as an award-winning high school teacher,

and a LOT from the fact that I made almost all the SAME mistakes when I was a student.

I didn’t know any better.
And neither (unfortunately) do most students today.

So, I thought I’d share 4 of the mistakes I know I made back then, and now often spend time with parents and students highlighting and working on.

 

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Posted in Essays, Exams, Goal setting, Homework, Mindset, Results, Revision, Techniques & Strategies
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Big rocks in the jar!

Have you ever seen the demo of filling up a jar as if it’s your life – and starting with the small things, and there’s no room left for the big important things?

I was reminded of this analogy recently and I got to thinking – What are the big rocks for happy, smart and successful students?

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