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13 yr old (not) revising for exams. What do you do?

41 replies

DopamineHit · 22/02/2013 10:54

Our older DD is a very bright girl, works hard, revises hard, does her best. 13 yo DS appears (in contrast at least) utterly unmotivated. Has exams coming up in March and then another lot in May/June.

Coming to end of HT week when he should have been revising. He won't do any revision at all unless he's absolutely forced to. Unless someone is physically sitting with him going through the work with him he simply won't do any. It's exhausting (but tbf mainly for DW who does 80% of it). Feels like we're back at school - thought we'd done all that.

Tried being nice parent / nasty parent - nothing seems to work. What do we do? Just let him flunk? He won't care. He is absolutely not an unpleasant boy - he's polite, good natured, kind, has a nice bunch of friends. He's averagely bright - mostly in middle sets at school. Just won't do a damn thing unless you nail him to the desk and watch him like a hawk.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

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HeathRobinson · 22/02/2013 10:57

Are these mock exams? I asked my 13 yr old a few minutes ago about exams and, apparently, they don't have any until summer. Hmm

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Bluebell99 · 22/02/2013 11:05

My ds is the same and our school had the genius idea of making all the children in yr 9 sit 2 gcse this year and two next year. I feel like I am taking my gcse in German again the amount of input I have had. All my ds wants to do is play minecraft. He is-also 13. My own parents had zero input into my o levels.

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DopamineHit · 22/02/2013 11:52

HeathRobinson - yes they're mocks. Real deal in June. But if he doesn't get the message now nothing will change til June. He's yr 8 btw.

Bluebell - ditto, only substitute Xbox for minecraft. And same as you, both DW and I (and DD for that matter) worked hard and were motivated and needed zero input. DD just needs a bit of guidance occasionally, nothing more.

What is it with the boys? We can't play substitute school teachers for the next three years - it'll drive us nuts. But if we don't he won't get anywhere and won't be bothered. Do they grow out of it? How do you convince / persuade / cajole them into having a bit of initiative to get on with their work...?

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niceguy2 · 22/02/2013 12:52

Does he know what he wants to be yet? See what sort of grades he needs?

A big incentive is to be honest family and yourselves. What had motivated my dd most has been the desire to get a "good job" like me and also loss of FB photos of my half sister at uni going to party after party!

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secretscwirrels · 22/02/2013 13:04

Year 8 doing GCSEs? Hmm.
This is exactly why GCSEs are aimed at 16 year olds not 13 year olds. Early entry not only ensures mediocre grades for all but the very gifted but also pressure on children when they are too young and immature to be sitting GCSEs.
OP I suspect that in 3 years time when he is doing them for real you will see a very different child who is old enough to study for exams.

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HeathRobinson · 22/02/2013 13:14

Hmm, an hour's worth of revision = an hour's work of Xbox?

With a goal that you can see he's reached by the end of the hour.

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HeathRobinson · 22/02/2013 13:15

Ahem - an hour's worth of Xbox. Not work. Hmm

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DopamineHit · 22/02/2013 14:18

Thanks for the replies everyone.

secretscwirrel no, not GCSEs ("mocks" is confusing, sry), but moderately important school exams. He's not doing any early entry stuff at all - it's just standard school exams that all of them take. I totally take the point that he will be a very different person at 15/16, but the worry is that right now he has close to zero self-motivation to apply himself. Does this change as they get a bit older...?

Heath - sure, we apply sanctions like this but he'll just sit in front of his textbook for an hour with glazed expression on his face. Unless we "tutor" him he'll learn virtually nothing. Of course we expect to help him but surely he should have some ability / desire to work by himself without being monitored every second..?

I suppose what I'm really wondering is if this is - if not "normal" - then not exactly unusual for a 13 yo boy, and they get better habits as they get a bit older. Or is it the case that by now they should be able to work constructively and independently most of the time? (our DD certainly could at 13).

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secretscwirrels · 22/02/2013 16:32

DopamineHit ah just end of year exams then. It was the mocks that confused me.

My point was really that yes, they do change. Boys in particular grow up unrecognisably in those 2 or 3 years.
I also think that in year 8 the exams are a measure of what they have learned for the teacher's benefit and not something requiring intensive revision. In year 8 I would ensure homework is done routinely but I would not be heavy handed about punishing for lack of revision.

I have 2 DSs. DS1 needed encouragement and supervision at 13. By year 10 I had no need to interfere at all although I couldn't restrain myself at GCSE time. He got 11 A* / As.
DS2 was exactly like you describe your DS in Year 8. He is nearly 15 now and in Y10. He is getting A* in all his work despite appearing to be so laid back he is horizontal.
I have also always used the carrot rather than the stick.

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webwiz · 22/02/2013 16:57

We used to call DS "Slippery Jack" because he would agree that he was going to do some studying and the minute you turned your back he would disappear back to the xbox!

He's 16 and in year 11 now and he works really hard without any prompting (but of course appearing to be very laid back about it all).

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someoftheabove · 22/02/2013 17:05

Has the school done any work with his class about actually how to revise? If he thinks he just has to sit in front of a textbook to revise, no wonder he doesn't want to do it. A good school will teach the students how to revise, using mind maps and various other techniques, so that what they do revise stays with them. If they haven't done any of this, talk to his teachers and ask that they set aside some time to teach them some revision tips that work.

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MuchBrighterNow · 22/02/2013 17:44

I had the same problem and ended up subscribing to a really good revision web site with tutorials, quizes and exercises all based round the syllabus. It has incentives to working as you can check your score against other users and see how you're progresssing. Adults can check in and see how much and what exactly has been done.

My Ds finds it a much more enjoyable way to revise and his grades have gone up. I don't live in the uk so probably not much use telling you the name of the one we use but I'm sure there's stuff available in english.

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schoolchauffeur · 22/02/2013 18:24

Yes completely normal! My DS was like this all through Year s 7-9. He had some Yr 10 assessments just after Christmas and it was the first time ever he had sat down completely independently and tried to learn the material.

He started too late and didn't do some of the subjects in enough detail, but he has just started to see that when he did put in the work he got some good grades. He is also just starting to have ideas about what he wants to do when he leaves school and is beginning to understand how important the GCSEs are.

He has already asked me to help him improve his revision notes over the Easter break so that when he has exams next term he can crack on with learning and revising the stuff and for the first time ever he admitted he just hadn't worked hard enough. He is now 15 so light does eventually dawn!

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DopamineHit · 22/02/2013 18:55

Thanks everyone - some useful suggestions and encouraging responses here. Maybe we've been lucky having a very bright, able girl who just sails through school and it's coloured our judgement as to what to expect in the early teenage years with a boy. We'll keep persevering with a carrot rather than stick approach. Any further feedback / suggestions very welcome.

(it's not relevant here but it does make you wonder at the fact that boys end up ruling the world - the girls are just miles ahead at this age in every department other than kicking a ball around....)

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timetosmile · 22/02/2013 21:00

He is absolutely not an unpleasant boy - he's polite, good natured, kind, has a nice bunch of friends.

He sounds lovely.

I am currently reading a book about how (despite our best efforts) we want our children to achieve either what we ourselves achieved, or what we failed to achieve and thus are trying to relive our lives through them..interesting..

I think the posters are right though, lots of boys are just not 'into' school at that age and grow up over the next 2-3 years.

I guess it depends how big a deal/how unhappy you are prepared to make DS and DWs wife over it?

disclaimer, DS only 12 so am on this thread to learn really!

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ThreeBeeOneGee · 22/02/2013 21:07

The thing that is working for DS1 so far has been to do some bits and pieces of work that he didn't enjoy, for a low wage.

It seems to motivate him into studying much harder as he is hoping to get qualifications that will enable him to pursue a career that he enjoys and/or pays well.

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bonkersLFDT20 · 22/02/2013 21:13

I am inclined to regard the school exams they do in year 8 and 9 as ones to prepare them for the real thing in year 11 (or year 10 in some cases).This is the time for them to realise that they do actually need to revise.

IF he flunks them all in year 8 then he'll maybe be placed in lower sets. If this bothers him then he'll pull his socks up. If it doesn't bother him then you'll have to try other approaches.

My year 9 son, who is pretty conscientious and high achieving is starting to see the correlation between input and output. He sees some pupils (usually girls) getting higher marks, I ask him to think about how much work he put in and how much they put in. I don't usually need to say anything else.

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CointreauVersial · 22/02/2013 21:18

I could have written your post myself, OP. We have a 13yo DS with two motivated younger sisters.

We have fallen into the "good cop bad cop" routine at the moment, whereby DH wants to stand over him waving a big stick, whereas I would rather let him find his own way, and take on more responsibility for his own success/failure. Neither is working at the moment.

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invicta · 22/02/2013 21:22

Phew, my 13 year is normal. His marks are always alt better when I sit and test him, after he has supposedly revised. If I leave him alone, he doesn't do so well. I had to give him tips about revising. Ie. write summary notes, and he has slowly improved.

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Littleturkish · 22/02/2013 21:24

Good revision techniques I encourage my form to use (so broad- not subject specific)

-record themselves reading out key facts, definitions and terms into their phones to make a podcast
-create a learning mat on an A3 piece of paper, lots of bright colours and boxes of information (great for boys as it splits the key information up)
-write your own quizzes or pose own test questions. For essay questions, write a plan, for test questions (single response answers) make flash cards
-pair matching game for key terms and definitions

  • for English/History/RE where it requires whole text understanding, try condensing ideas down into tweet-size definitions

-key quotation posters around a photo of the topic/subject
-turn a wall in a bedroom into a learning map and let him pin up his revision as it is done to encourage a sense of achievement

Hope that helps!
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DopamineHit · 22/02/2013 22:59

More excellent feedback - thanks again everyone.

ThreeBeeOneGee - we thought about an incentive, financial or otherwise, but decided against it. Surely he should be encouraged to do good work for its own sake and his own self esteem (otherwise he might grow up to be a banker...). Also DD might take a dim view and start demanding back payments....

bonkers - Take your point. I was sort of thinking that these exams are more a dry run rather than the real thing. Just concerned that if he didn't knuckle down now maybe he never would but other posters seem to have different experiences of boys maturing around 13-15, which is encouraging.

Littleturkish - some very good suggestions there. Thank you.

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Theas18 · 22/02/2013 23:45

What are the consequences of not doing well in these exams?

I'm very hands off-nudge then and give them the opportunity to do it (maybe remove distracting technology too) but in let them so lots or a minimum if that what they want....see what grades he gets in his regime and what he should have achieved maybe? Would it shock him onto action for the summer? .

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pollypandemonium · 22/02/2013 23:48

Year 8 exams aren't important as far as I know. Pick your battles, let him be now and start worrying in year 10.

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BackforGood · 23/02/2013 00:01

Absolutely normal. A high % of boys are not wired to be self motivated academically until they are in their late teens, or even twenties. Certainly it would be fairly unusual at 13 / in Yr8 to be at all motivated by 'mock' internal exams I'd have thought.
It's taken until 6th form for my ds to actually acknowledge that he needs to work at things. Sometimes though you have to stand back and let them learn.
ds actually said to me a couple of months ago that he wishes he'd done a bit of work before his GCSEs, and achieved what he'd hoped for in a couple of subjects where he dropped a grade. I actually think it better that he's learnt this lesson now, than have us do everything for him while he is at home, and then fall flat on his face once he leaves home, and doesn't have that spoonfeeding available - be that for University or work

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ThreeBeeOneGee · 23/02/2013 08:21

Sorry, I think my comment might have been misinterpreted. We don't bribe him or give any financial incentives for grades.

He has become self-motivated as a result of his own experiences doing jobs he didn't really enjoy for a wage he wasn't impressed with. He wants to have more choice about what sort of work he does, therefore he has realised he has to work hard and get the qualifications he wants.

Quite a few people end up coming to this realisation. Sadly for a lot of them, it happens after they have already left school, by which time it's harder to study and take exams, especially if you are working full-time as well.

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