How to help prepare your kids for exams?

Exams sometimes create a little challenge and stress at home. How blessed would we feel, if we could manage exams well! Yes, you can!! Prepare your kids for exams.  With this children will be able to perform well and parents won’t get frustrated. During exam times children are not equipped to handle the pressure on their own. This leads parents to get even more frustrated than they were. Friction is created at home due to exam pressure.

Parents have a hard time understanding a child’s psychology and way of studying.  They often fail to understand what it is that will make their child study effectively. A little support and guidance is the solution. The gap of communication is dissolved between child and parent. Parents will understand the tactics to prepare their children for exams effectively.

Here are a few insights on how you can help your child prepare for exams.

1. Treat exams like festivals

How do you prepare for festivals? Just like that prepare your kids for exams. There are sweets to be made, cleaning to be done, invitations yet to send, shopping has to be done, and so on. In the midst of all these arrangements, there still radiates an atmosphere of festivity at home. Similarly, when exams are there, we need to create an atmosphere of gaiety and positivity at home. If done so, your child will be able to stay focused. There will be a right frame of mind to study.

2. Exams are a test of children’s preparation, not their potential.

Exams are a test of a child’s preparation. When a question is asked in the exam, the ability of children to recollect a point is tested. APJ Abdul Kalam wanted to be fighter pilot, he appeared for the exams but couldn’t succeed. Later, he ended up becoming India’s one of the most loved presidents ever. His failure in fighter pilot exams wasn’t proof of his low potential.  It just displayed his preparation for the exams.

So, even if children don’t perform well, know that their future can still be bright.

3.   Be cheerleaders, not fear leaders

During exams, there is a lot of pressure bubbling in both, parents’ and chilhttps://wowparenting.com/blog/how-to-reduce-exam-stressdren’s minds. Sometimes, parents have the tendency to create or transfer the pressure onto their children. They often yell at children for not taking studies seriously. In a way, they become fear leaders, where they actually should be cheerleaders.

Cheering up children, motivating them, will inspire them to perform well. Take the stress and pressure away from your child. You will see them aspire to study on their own.

4. Knowledge is permanent. Go behind knowledge, not marks

Prepare your kids for exams but don’t program to study for the sake of good marks. What if we make them study to gain complete and pure knowledge? When children have clarity about topics, they don’t forget it after exams. They store the knowledge, which later turns out to be beneficial in the future. Ensure your child that they are studying to gain knowledge. All the efforts done here is not merely to gain marks.

Children will turn out to be more confident with studies and themselves. At the examination hall, they won’t be shaky and anxious. The confidence built within will help them remember whatever they have studied.

5. Children aren’t competing with anyone else, but their own past performance

One of the greatest signs of an individual is to know where they were yesterday, where they are today. If children understand this, their goal for tomorrow will be clear. They will know where they would like to be tomorrow. Prepare your kids for exams with understanding that they are not studying to beat another person? That they are studying to make their own life better?

With this outlook, children will experience the collaboration of many positive things. In this process, every person who is involved improves a lot.

6. Create a schedule and stick to it

Children need to utilize their time well. Children often get bored while studying. They get reluctant to study at a particular time. There will be temptations now and then to do something fun and keep the book aside. Make your child do it anyway.

Children need to realize, the schedule they are following is the one they created. Now, they have to go through it. They can fine-tune,  improve and change the schedule the next day. Again, when the schedule is created, make sure they go through it.

7. Take enough rest

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. During exams, children have a lot to go through. There isn’t enough time to read every other chapter. Hence, children skip their meals, study late nights. Ensure that your child takes enough rest.

8.   Be wise, revise

Science says that whatever you study, you will be able to retain it’s 10%. But if you revise it once, you will be able to recollect about 50 to 60%. If you revise it the second time, you will be able to recollect more than 70%. Now that is some generous quantity of data that your child has access to.

There are few other points your child can go through:

• Let children choose their personal style of studying. Everyone has their own style of studying or prepare your kids for exams in your style.
• Some like to walk and read, some would rather write and remember, while others might lay down and study.
• ‘Presentation is the key’. Imagine the position of a teacher who has to check around 100’s of exam papers. They have got their kids to take care of, and other chores at home. In the midst of all that, the teacher takes some time out to check the papers. With a good presentation, children are actually helping the teacher.
• Teaching children gratitude for studying. There are thousands of children in the world who don’t have the opportunity to study. Children need to learn the value of books. They need to realize and be grateful for the beautiful future books have to offer them.

Question and Answers

Que 1: Is it necessary to study the entire topic or no?

Ans: In most cases, it is not necessary. However, if the subject is interesting for the child, the child will want to read the full chapter. Moreover, ask the teacher for guidance. They have maximum experience in that particular subject (…and the chapter) and about important chapters!

Que 2: What kind of pressure a child must take, in case he is a sportsman?

Ans: Three simple questions to be answered.

• Are you ready for the sacrifices that need to be made?
• Are you prepared for unfairness that might happen? Can you take it in your stride gracefully?
• What is your backup option?

From the FB LIVE, take up these points – I will compete with myself. I will improve consistently. I will have high expectations for me.