Good Morning Folks
My son is in year 10 at school and will be having end of year exams in a few weeks’ time. He seems to do his homework and a bit of revision every evening, but looking at his recent grades, I am not convinced that he is fully concentrating on revising the material that the teacher has taught.
I have advised him to write down things so that he can remember them for longer. However, he continually insists on just reading the subject material from his exercise books and says he can just as easily remember the material learned this way. I have even suggested to him to learn a topic or paragraph and I will ask him questions regarding the material learned so to that I am convinced that he is understanding the subject. He is totally against that idea and says it is like being back at school. He seems to have an answer for everything, and I don’t know if it is his age or phase he is going through. Most of his grades are usually average or just below average. He seems to get the idea that if he studies harder and gets good grades then I will somehow benefit from the hard work and effort that he has put in. I have tried to explain that getting good grades would eventually help him to get into a good university and increase his prospects of getting a good career/job. However, that type of talk goes in through one ear and out through the other
Can someone please advise how I go about resolving this problem?
Have you spoken with the school? Does he struggle in certain areas for example? I would lay off a bit at home and try to work with the school to get advice on supporting him at home. Our education system is (in my opinion) somewhat shambolic these days and puts our children under so much pressure to perform. In the main they are just learning how to pass exams so that boxes can be ticked off.
Your child is so young to be put under too much school pressure and it might be better to find out where he excels and what he enjoys and see if you can encourage some out of school activities to tie in with that and keep him engaged?
Some children simply do not thrive in mainstream education but also an exam result is often not representative of a child's abilities, particularly at Primary School level.
My son for example, has some mental health problems and consistently 'under achieved', mainstream education has not suited him at all but he is very creative and is thriving in an environment where vocational study forms the main basis of his education.
Good luck
Hi Yoda
Many thanks for your useful advice.
My son is 15 years' old and in year 10 at school, so I don't think he is that young.