We have a neighbour next door that is heard frequently shouting at her teenage son to study for his GCSEs. She bans him from moving around the house, insists he spends hours in his bedroom and then of course finds him doing something else and thus the screaming begins in earnest. Studying for exams and tests is boring. There isn't a magic solution to memorise facts or numbers, you just need to read, re-read, write things out and eventually it should fix into your long term memory.
We have a neighbour next door that is heard frequently shouting at her teenage son to study for his GCSEs. She bans him from moving around the house, insists he spends hours in his bedroom and then of course finds him doing something else and thus the screaming begins in earnest. Studying for exams and tests is boring. There isn't a magic solution to memorise facts or numbers, you just need to read, re-read, write things out and eventually it should fix into your long term memory.
With children or teenagers that get bored easily you need to get involved. Set older children a study time of 40 minutes on a specific subject/module. Give them a timer, set it and then tell them at the end of the 40 minutes you will test them. If they do well enough they will then earn 30 minutes doing something that they want to do... the pc, the PlayStation, anything that they want. Setting a timer for an activity of less than an hour is meaningful as children cannot concentrate full on for much longer than that. With younger children the time of studying should be no longer than 15-30 minutes depending on their age.
The promise of a reward encourages them to complete the task and having you test them is really helpful. It is quite difficult to test yourself and quite dull. Different study techniques work for different children and of course different ages, but for bored teenagers who find staring at a book mindless, the above ideas may actually get them a little more motivated. The result is a less stressed parent, less stressed teenager and possibly much improved examination marks.
With children or teenagers that get bored easily you need to get involved. Set older children a study time of 40 minutes on a specific subject/module. Give them a timer, set it and then tell them at the end of the 40 minutes you will test them. If they do well enough they will then earn 30 minutes doing something that they want to do... the pc, the PlayStation, anything that they want. Setting a timer for an activity of less than an hour is meaningful as children cannot concentrate full on for much longer than that. With younger children the time of studying should be no longer than 15-30 minutes depending on their age.
The promise of a reward encourages them to complete the task and having you test them is really helpful. It is quite difficult to test yourself and quite dull. Different study techniques work for different children and of course different ages, but for bored teenagers who find staring at a book mindless, the above ideas may actually get them a little more motivated. The result is a less stressed parent, less stressed teenager and possibly much improved examination marks.
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