Grade Transformation Blog

Grade Transformation Blog

No.1 in Transforming Students’ Grades

Posts filed under Essays

3 Magic Words Your Teen Needs To Use More Often

Often comments and feedback on a piece of work will be something along the lines of ‘give more detail’.

Or the marking criteria for a task will have wording something like ‘detailed analysis’ at grades A and B.

BUT (there’s always a but, isn’t there!) students are often a bit stumped when it comes to knowing HOW to give more detail.

It is NOT simply about writing more information.

This just often turns into waffle.

So how does your child get more detail in their answers?

 

Well it’s easy when your teen uses these 3 magic words.

(I even got stickers made up with them on!) 🙂

 

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The Art Of Asking For Help (without annoying the teacher AND to get the most useful response)

There is an art to students asking for help when they’re stuck.

If I had a dollar for every time I hear ‘I don’t get it’ then I’d be a millionaire – well maybe not quite, but pretty close!

It’s basically a cop out statement.

 

Not only is it almost impossible to respond to (where do you start with that, aside from just repeating the task/question?), but it also means the chances of your teen getting the most helpful answer are pretty slim.

There is a way your teen can ask for help when they’re stuck without annoying you/or their teacher AND get the most useful response.

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How To Get Your Teen ‘Un-Stuck’ (without doing it for them!)

All too often at the first sign of uncertainty or confusion, many students will immediately ask for help from the teacher or someone sitting next to them or a someone at home when it’s homework.

 

It’s as if they expected every single concept to “click” right away – and when one didn’t, they immediately go into panic mode.

 

This is the behaviour of toddlers. It is not what a student in high school or college should be doing.

 

They need to spend some time persevering with the task at hand and trying to figure it out for themselves.

But, how exactly do they go about trying to figure it out?
How do you GUIDE them into working things out for themselves WITHOUT doing it for them?

Well, that is where my ‘6 Steps To Getting Unstuck’ come in 🙂

 

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Learning From The Mistakes Of Others

The idea of ‘failing forward’ means that it can actually be a positive, to ‘fail’ or make a mistake (and do so many times over) as long as you are learning from it and moving onwards and upwards in some way as a result of what you’ve learnt.

Good advice.

But what if there was something better?

There is a way to move forwards, onwards and upwards without actually having to fail first.

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How To Help Your Teen Deal With Disappointing Results

I admit it, I’m a sucker for a great motivational speech and inspiring quotes – I have some of my faves on the walls of my study and even in my wardrobe! (So I get to see it every morning and night) 🙂

 

But how do you use inspiring stories and people in a more practical way?

What DON’T they tell you in the little snippets of ‘failure to success’ blurb we read?

 

The CRITICAL step is often missed out of these super-inspiring-summaries.
And it’s this step that will is going to massively help your teen.

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The Multi-Tasking Myth!

I’ve always prided myself on my multi-tasking.

I loved the idea that I was getting more done in less time (who doesn’t want to gain more time, right??!)

Recently I participated in a workshop led by a guy called Alex Mandossian. He’s a productivity coach, among other things (and extremely successful!)

He’s what I learned in that workshop (including a bit of a fun activity for you to try out!) and what it means for your teen 🙂

And you! (Don’t we all want to get more done more easily?!)

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Does Listening To Music Help With Study & Concentration?

There has been TONS of research done on this question!

And there is a resounding yes… BUT only for a particular type.

Otherwise, it’s a big, fat NO…  (Sorry kids!)

Good news is, hours upon hours of these ‘brain-engaging-chooons’ can be easily found for FREE (watch to the end of this video).

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Key Take-Away Lessons From Marking 1416 Exam Papers! (QCS Video Diary – Part 5 – Finale!)

Wowsers!!
1416 papers later, here is my final round up/summary/review… of the big lessons and key take-aways from 2015 external exam marking.

Enjoy! (And learn!)

I’m going for a good walk (faaaarrrrr too much sitting at a desk in a marking hall), then a good, strong cuppa and a biscuit.

Ok, probably (definitely) more than one biscuit 😉

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Make it easy for examiners to give you marks! (Diary of a QCS marker: Part 4)

“So, exactly how many markers look at my exam paper?”

“What if they mark it wrong?”

“If the markers use mark schemes, surely it doesn’t matter how I give the answer – as long as the info is in there somewhere?”

Questions that I KNOW students have pondered many a time – now t’s time to get the answers along with THIS GOLD NUGGET:… How you can fairly ‘influence’ the examiner marking your paper to give you marks (yup! watch below – and to the end!- to find out).

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Exam Marker Training – How it can help students (QCS Video Diary: Part 3)

What training do external exam markers go through?

What are the mark schemes really like?

How does YOUR CHILD’s paper get analysed, scrutinised and dissected?

As I complete this year’s training (after having already done recruitment testing and training!) I’ll tell  you exactly what gives us the knowledge we need to get on and mark 🙂

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