There aren’t many short-cuts available to your teen when it comes to study. They’re going to get out what they put in. But, there is something you can help your teen with that can improve their grades MASSIVELY. Not only will this change help your teen keep up to date with their homework, it will help them study consistently throughout the year. It will make their exam study far more manageable, less scary, and more effective. To help your teen jump up at least one full grade in their … [Read more...]
How Much Study Should Your Teen Be Doing?
Like so many of my blog posts, the question I’ve posted in the title doesn’t really have an answer... But, it is an extremely good question to ask nonetheless. Should your teen be studying as soon as the school year starts? Is this what straight-A students do? Or do they only need to study when exams are looming? When they do study – how much should they do at a time? There’s no one answer for every student. Everyone studies differently So there can be no set rules that will tell you how … [Read more...]
How To Get Your Teen To Study
Do you feel like you’re fighting a losing battle every time you try and motivate your teen to study? Do you have the same fight over and over again? Have you gotten to the point where you simply don’t know what to do next? You’re not alone! Lacking motivation to study is by far the biggest problem for teens at high school. How can you show your teen the importance of trying their best at school? Well, it’s not by nagging. That’s for sure! Your teen needs to understand WHY it’s … [Read more...]
Sam’s Cautionary Tale: Why It Pays To Get Good Grades
Generally speaking, the single biggest cause of teens’ underachieving at high school is their inability to think long term. And by long term, we mean life after high school. The brain’s frontal lobe is an important region – it controls decision making, problem solving, purposeful behaviours, and emotions. Yet it doesn’t fully developed until we reach our early to mid twenties. This is why, even though your teen feels all grown up, their ability to plan ahead, think long-term, and … [Read more...]
The Truth About Getting Fantastic Exam Marks
You are your own worst enemy. This couldn’t be truer when it comes to studying. A study published in Psychological Science showed that a student’s self-belief is just as important, if not more, than IQ. So many students sabotage their own chances of exam success before they even start. Why? Because - as corny as it sounds - they don’t believe in themselves. A great expression, often used to describe our instinctual gravitation towards behaviour that minimizes risk, is the lizard … [Read more...]
Why Your Teen Is Lying To Themselves (And To You)
Most students are really good liars. Actually, so are we! And so are you. Humans are all so good at lying in fact, that we’re capable of convincing even ourselves of our lies to the extent that we outright believe them! The most common lies include: I don’t need to exercise more; Having that piece of cake won’t matter tomorrow; I don’t need to talk to my husband/wife about how stressed I really am; I couldn’t possibly change career directions at this stage in my life; I don’t have time to … [Read more...]
Ways to Keep Your Teen’s Brain Working Over the Summer Break
Hopefully your teen is thoroughly enjoying their summer break right now. Exams are behind them, and the new school year isn’t even on the radar yet. But we hope that they haven’t switched their brain off completely. Three months is a really long time for your teen to not be focused at all on learning. This article is all about the things that you can do for your teen that will make their eventual return to the classroom not seem like a complete shock to the system. Plus they may even return … [Read more...]
Why The Classroom Doesn’t Cut It For Your Teen
You may be familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 Hour Rule”. In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell claims that the common denominator of those who are ‘successful’ is that they’ve spent at least 10,000 hours developing/practicing/polishing their skill. 10,000 hours equates to approximately five years full time work at 40 hours a week. That’s a lot of hours. But are we really surprised by this claim? It’s not rocket science. People who spend a lot of time doing something … [Read more...]
You’re Not Alone – The most common high school struggles
Last week we asked you what your teen struggles with most when it comes to school and studying. We want to say a big thank you to everyone who wrote in. We were thrilled by the number of you who got in touch and shared your story with us. Perhaps not so surprisingly, the vast majority of questions had something to do with motivation. Well... really lack thereof... Other common questions brought up the topics of stress and time management. We hope that our responses shed new light on … [Read more...]
Good Grades Are Only Part Of The Equation For Life Success
Today we’re going to talk about something a bit different to our normal study skills-based articles. We want to take a look at the bigger picture. Perspective is important. In a way it’s not ‘news’ to us, but we’ve come across a really interesting article on the findings of Christy Lleras, a professor of human and community development at the University of Illinois. Her findings highlight the pivotal importance of ‘soft skills’ in determining a high school student’s higher academic … [Read more...]