The lead up to exams can be an extremely stressful time for young people, and in turn for worried carers. It can seem difficult, sometimes impossible, to help a stressed-out teenager. As a parent, it can be really tough to feel like you can’t help your child, but there are things you can do to help alleviate some stress.

Encouragement

A lot of exam stress comes from the pressure to succeed. You may not feel that you as parents are pressuring your child to succeed, but often teenagers feel the pressure from school, their peers, and within themselves.

Aiming for top grades is a great goal for teens to have – it can help them get into the A level courses they want to undertake, into the university of their choice, or into jobs and apprenticeships. For some students, these goals will become too much, and they become focused only on this end result. Doing this can lead to less effective revising, and panic in exams, which in turn can damage potential grades.

Try to remind your children that the way to achieve these goals is putting effort into steady revision. It can help them to hear from you, that you will support them no matter the outcome, and that what matters is they do their best.

Time Management

Teens are often told at school to draw up revision timetables and stick to them. This can be great for a lot of students, but some can struggle. You can help by sitting down with them and talking through how much time they should be scheduling in. Remember to help them schedule breaks for snacks, and get out for some fresh air. Even though revision needs to come first, getting out to see their friends or play sports, in moderation, will actually help them not to overload themselves.

Healthy Eating

We all know that teenagers aren’t always the healthiest eaters, but keeping their energy levels up without relying on sugar and caffeine is far better. Keeping healthy snacks in the house will encourage them to pick at those, rather than resorting to crisps and sweets. Drinking lots of water is important but can be boring. Try encouraging them to drink sparkling water, and/or adding fruit flavouring, for a healthy but tastier drink.

Sleep

Most adults are well aware that stress can affect our sleep, and it is exactly the same for teenagers worried about exams. One thing that can help is to find your child a place to work which is clearly dedicated to work, and preferably away from their bed. Bedrooms are full of distractions, and studying in bed can start to associate bed with the stress of exams. Creating a quiet space can help your child to focus on their work whilst there, but when they move away, they can feel like other places are more relaxing.

Get My Grades

Get My Grades is a great revision tool, with the main subjects all in one place. After selecting an exam board, students will have access to specific content relevant to their exams. All of our concepts are broken down and explained step by step, so that students gain all of the knowledge they can to feel confident at every stage. Parents can also access Get My Grades, so that if your child says they are struggling with an area, you can easily see how they are getting on in different topics, subtopics and concepts of each subject. This will allow you to set them revision tasks in areas they are doing reasonably well in, to encourage them when they feel down, or set them tougher tasks when they feel more confident!

A Get My Grades account gives your child access to:

A huge range of resources and online textbook content, arranged into units, topics and subtopics.
Over 75,000 practice questions of varying types, like those on exams - not just multiple choice - written by experienced teachers.
Instant feedback after each question, with student-friendly mark schemes and explanations.
Automated tracking, so that you can see where they are doing well and where they are struggling - which you just can't get from a traditional textbook or revision guide!

Get My Grades subscriptions cost just £9 per student per month, or £75 per student for access for the year - with all our subjects and qualifications included, including many of the most common GCSE and IGCSE courses.

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