Exam revision: my son is overwhelmed – how can I help him prepare for his GCSEs, a parent asks

My son did not do very well in his mock GCSEs [which Year 10 students take], a Hong Kong parent writes. He found it very hard to focus on revision during the school holiday and he seems to be overwhelmed with studying so many subjects. Are there any strategies I can suggest to help him revise?

Summer exams may seem like a long way off but they creep up very quickly. The recent mock exams may have given your son a bit of a shock and made him realise that he needs to knuckle down; but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He has still got time to revise hard and succeed with the right focus and a positive attitude.

Despite there being a range of popular revision strategies, it has been shown that there are only two techniques that are consistently effective for students; regularly testing themselves and spreading revision out over time. It has been claimed by researchers that these techniques work for everyone whatever their learning style. Other approaches such as revision charts and flash cards may only have marginal impact and will not necessarily lead to exam success.

Preparing for exams through self-testing provides the brain with “deliberate difficulty”. This forces pupils to retrieve information from memory, therefore producing a better memory trace, which builds on prior knowledge. Online questions and quizzes are useful in this respect as well as past papers and tests set by teachers.

Cramming at the last minute is less effective than spreading revision out as constant reinforcement of concepts helps cement long-term memory. If doing a music or drama performance, for example, one wouldn’t start to practise the day before.