Supporting Your Child During Exam Season

Chloe Witherden / 09 May 2023 / Categories: General

With GCSE and ROA exams fast approaching, this article aims to help parents support their children during exam season.

Key Dates

Supporting your child in the lead-up to exams

Below are some helpful tips on how to support your child in the lead-up to exams from Young Minds:

• Work with your child to find what revision style works for them.
• Encourage your child to take revision breaks and find a balance between studying and doing things they find enjoyable and relaxing.
• Make sure they are eating and drinking at regular intervals.
• Encourage them to take some time after revising to wind down.
• Reassure them – reinforce that you are and will be proud of them no matter what happens.
• Remain positive and hopeful!
• Plan a treat or an activity together to mark the end of the exams.
• Set aside one to one time so that they can talk to you about any worries.
• Let them know their feelings are valid and normal, but also offer support and solutions where possible.
• Anxiety is often worst at night, and this means it is useful to encourage a good bedtime routine.
• Work with them to develop relaxation techniques.
• If anxiety and stress start impacting their day-to-day life, seek help from your GP.

Further Support: Young Minds – Exam Time

During Exam Season

Below are some top tips from Young Minds and Place2Be on how to support your child throughout the exam season.

Exam Preparations Practicalities

1. Revision Timetable: Helping your child to plan a realistic revision timetable, which breaks the days and subjects down into manageable chunks, will reduce their anxiety by increasing their sense of control and confidence. It will also help ensure everything is covered.
2. Revision Techniques: Discuss different revision techniques and help your child to identify which suit them best. It could be making flashcards or mind maps, watching online revision videos or talking questions through. If there are topics your child finds particularly difficult, make sure their revision plan targets these. And offer support by listening to a recap or testing them on what they have learned if they find this helpful.
3. Study Space: Do ensure your child has a distraction-free place to study too. This could be a school or public library if there isn’t a suitable space at home.

Encourage Healthy Routines

Routines and rituals can help your child keep healthy habits and can help you ensure your child is getting enough sleep and eating well.

1. Routines and Wellbeing: Sleeping well, eating regular healthy meals and relaxing are important for everyone’s well-being. Encourage your child to stick to healthy routines and to make some time for activities they enjoy – such as exercise, doing something creative, getting fresh air, and seeing friends playing in person or online – as this help reduce stress.
2. Regular Breaks: Revision is most effective when combined with regular breaks, so make sure that your child does step away from their books. You could suggest a cup of tea and a snack, a quick walk or a TV program they enjoy.
3. Relaxation techniques: such as focusing on breathing slowly or shoulder rolling, can reduce stress or help your child sleep if they are finding it difficult to unwind. Relaxation techniques from NHS inform: https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/preventing-falls/fear-and-anxiety-about-falling/relaxation-techniques-to-help-prevent-falls/

Pressure and Perspective

Young people can feel overwhelmed by the pressure to get high grades in exams. It comes at them from school, peers, social media influences and more.

1. Try not to add pressure: Many young people feel pressure to do well in their exams to make their teachers, or families proud. Try not to add to this pressure. Be reassuring, and positive, and help put things into perspective. Remind them that there is more to life than their grades, and their results don’t define who they are. Reassure them you will be proud of them ‘no matter what’.
2. Realistic Goals: Encourage your child to focus on realistic goals of their own, rather than to compare themselves critically to their peers or to worry about expectations other people have of them. This applies both to the amount of revision they are doing and to the results they feel they should get. If they are struggling, focusing primarily on the core subjects (math, English, science) as well as one or two others they enjoy, may reduce stress and allow them to progress to their intended next steps

Is your child struggling?

While some degree of worry or nerves around exams is to be expected, do be aware of signs that anxiety levels may be building. These can include sleep or appetite problems; difficulties with concentration; or physical symptoms such as nausea, sweating or palpitations.

1. Stress: Stress can present differently in everyone. Signs of stress could include not sleeping or sleeping more than usual, losing interest in food or eating more than usual, being irritable, having headaches or stomach aches, being negative, feeling hopeless, or not enjoying activities they previously enjoyed.
2. Talk about stress and nerves: Remind your child that it’s perfectly normal to feel worried or stressed about their exams. The key is to put these nerves to positive use. Talk openly about how you cope with your own stressful situations, so your child has a positive role model for managing their emotions and time.

If you notice your child is struggling, ask them what you can do to help them. If your child’s anxiety is spiralling, encourage them to talk to you, or perhaps to a teacher, about how they are feeling. If you are worried that your child may be experiencing depression or longer-lasting anxiety, discuss this with the GP.

Unwinding after exams

Find ways to help your child unwind after each exam, so they don’t dwell on things they could have done better or differently.

1. Plan a special treat: After each exam, you and your child could watch a film or enjoy your favourite meal together before they start revising for the next test. Planning a special treat and talking about things they are looking forward to after exams can help them feel positive, motivated, and less worried.

Further Resources

CVA Exam Hub for Students and Parents/Carers – All revision, support and resources for exams and ROAs:

Castle View Academy > Information > Exam/Assessment Information > Revision & Support

Article: Supporting Your Child to Beat Exam Stress – Place2Be:

https://www.place2be.org.uk/media/0ttpyr0h/navigating-exam-season-guide-for-parents.pdf

Article: How to help your child manage exam stress – Young Minds:

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/blog/how-to-help-your-child-manage-exam-stress/