6 tips for parents to support their children through their exams

As our Year 13s and Year 11s begin their study leave and start to prepare for their International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) exams, we are sure some of our parents might wonder what they can do to help their child through this challenging time, to support their wellbeing and overall success. Luckily our Advice, Support and Counselling (ASC) team has shared 6 top tips to help your child persevere during exam season. 

How might exams affect your child? 

Exams are a stressful time for any young person. Mood swings and signs of stress may occur during this period. You may also want to look for any other signs that your child may be struggling, including poor sleep patterns or a change in appetite or behaviour.

We have put together some practical tips for how you can support your child’s well-being, including creating the right physical, mental and emotional environment for them to study and rest. 

1. Getting a good night's sleep - for the whole exam period! 

Poor sleep negatively impacts your logical reasoning, creativity and memory - all skills your child will need to do well in their exams. The National Sleep Foundation recommends teenagers get around 8 - 10 hours of sleep per night. Although many students prioritise cramming before a test over sleep, this strategy is actually shown to negatively affect exam performance. In a 2021 study, researchers not only found that most students slept less before a test, (and 10% reported not sleeping at all), but they also found that the students who slept longer actually ended up with higher grades overall.

Another study by King and Scullin (2018) incentivised extra sleep by awarding extra credits to students who slept 8 or more hours, for five consecutive nights prior to their exam. The results showed that the extra sleep, and therefore less time spent studying, came at no cost to their overall performance. While those students who also showed a better quality of sleep performed better than those who did not.

So can your child just sleep well the night before and cram the rest of the time? The research says no. Sleep quality and duration over the month or week before the test were found to correlate with higher grades, however, there was no relation between only getting a good sleep the night before and better grades.

To ensure a good quality of sleep, your teenager needs to go to bed at a regular time and limit caffeine intake in the afternoon and evenings. 

2. Creating an optimal study environment

It is hard to stay focused when there are so many distractions surrounding us. While using technology to study can benefit your child, it can also create plenty of distractions and opportunities for procrastination. Thankfully there are plenty of focus apps that can help your child stay on target and eliminate distracting apps and websites. Check out some examples here. You could also try the Pomodoro technique which involves breaking work down into manageable 25-minute chunks with mini-break in between. This method has been shown to be especially effective with students with ADHD. It’s also important for the physical environment to be quiet and tidy to ensure your child can concentrate and think clearly. 

3. Balancing study, rest and play

It is important that you make sure your teenager has opportunities to play sports or pursue an artistic activity like drama or music. Also, encourage your child to spend time with friends and family to support their well-being. Staying active not only supports your child’s mental health but can actually improve cognition, memory and learning. Check out some productive revision break ideas here.

4. Space

Alongside an optimal study space, students need to have the mental space and freedom to work in the way that suits them best. Not all people learn in the same way and they should see what works for them personally, rather than trying an approach that doesn’t feel right. You might want to ask your child how they want to structure their day and encourage them to do what works best for them while supporting them to hit their goals. If your child is unsure which strategies might work well for them, you can suggest and support them with some of the methods below:

Retrieval Practice

You will remember more if you practise retrieving ideas from memory. Make sure you work to recall the main idea, relationships between them and examples, not just definitions. 

• Put away notes and write down everything you can remember before checking

• Use flashcards to recall key ideas. Try to make links between them.

• Use past papers, but only check your work against the mark scheme after you have finished

Spaced practice & interleaving

Start planning your revision time so you have time to forget. This makes you “dig out” that key idea again, making you think about the material and practice recalling it. This is a great way to reinforce the idea in your long-term memory. 

• Spread your revision over time so you mix up different ideas - 5 hours on one topic spread over 2 weeks is better than 5 hours all at once

• Try to make links between key ideas from different topics

• Make sure you re-visit topics frequently, particularly those you find more challenging

• Avoid “cramming” - it will feel like you remember more, but you will forget it very quickly

Allow time for focused and diffused learning

• Remove distractions when studying - don’t just turn your phone off, put it in a different room

• Allow time for your brain to consolidate your learning. Anything that allows your mind to wander is good. Go for a walk, paint, visit the gym. Looking at your screen engages the brain in different ways, so watching a film or checking your Instagram will not work. 

5. Get some fresh air 

As we all now know, staying indoors for long periods of time can have detrimental effects on our wellbeing. Encourage your child to get some fresh air at least once a day - this is a great way to unwind and refresh. 

5. Celebration

Plan a celebration for the end of your child’s exams. Not only is this a key motivator for them and something to look forward to, but it also reinforces the message that getting through the exam period is an achievement in itself. It reassures your child that you will be proud of them no matter what happens, and in turn takes off a bit of that added pressure.