Teenagers & Studying

valco

Hi, could anyone give me some advice on the amount of time a 14 yr old should spend studing the weekend before his mocks.
I am in a battle with my son who thinks it's enough just to do his homework which took about 1 hr today and spend some time tomorrow studying. He wants to play his xbox which he wasn't allowed to do all week. I want him to put in about 2 hrs study time today and tomorrow. He had yesterday afternoon off from all school work, after school he spent time at movies with friends and at a youth club last night. Am I, as he puts it 'being unfair'. He is my eldest so I've never been down this road before and would appreciate any advice offered.

Chuchoter

I think minimum 2 hours a night plus homework. Not all the time like, just the week or two coming up to the mocks. And make sure he is doing lots of exam questions with marking schemes, not just staring at the book. My brother is nearly 14 (he's in 2nd year) and he's atrocious at studying. Maybe if he doesn't study and gets bad mock results that will scare him into studying for the real deal in June.

miss no stars

valco wrote: »

Hi, could anyone give me some advice on the amount of time a 14 yr old should spend studing the weekend before his mocks.
I am in a battle with my son who thinks it's enough just to do his homework which took about 1 hr today and spend some time tomorrow studying. He wants to play his xbox which he wasn't allowed to do all week. I want him to put in about 2 hrs study time today and tomorrow. He had yesterday afternoon off from all school work, after school he spent time at movies with friends and at a youth club last night. Am I, as he puts it 'being unfair'. He is my eldest so I've never been down this road before and would appreciate any advice offered.

If he's a smart boy who doesn't fail exams he's doing enough. It's only the junior cert, doing homework should be enough with the occassional exam question thrown in. In fact, when I was coming up to mocks, teachers would set exam questions as homework. Get some perspective on it (I mean that in the nicest way possible!) He's only 14 and it is only the junior cert.

Btw, one thing I found that schools do not teach is how to study; they're full of advice on mind mapping and stuff like that which only works for a few kids. It might be worth sitting down with him and finding out exactly how he goes about studying and making some suggestions as to how he can increase the effectiveness of his study - that way he can increase the amount he does usefully without actually increasing the time he spends doing it.

Fox McCloud

To be honest you cant put random times on the amount of study he should be doing without any idea of how he studys or what he needs to learn before the mocks. I know it would be nice to see him with his head in his books for 2 hours a day, but it might not even be necessary. In the Junior Cert homework may be sufficient for some. Before exams he would definately want to be doing some revision but at this stage he's just dont alot of the material so it might be still fresh in his head.

Then again, he may just not care too much or be lazy. Its easy to fight against doing study when you fighting against someone(i.e. you in this situation). But if you give him the responsability of scheduling his own revision and study then he only has his own head to fight against, it becomes alot harder to avoid what he know what has to be done.

You should sit down with him and ask him how he's getting on, does he think he's doing enough at the moment to pass, what does he want to learn from the mocks, how does he think he will do in each subject. Its ok to fail a mock exam or two, but if he fails everything it does indicate that hes not doing enough work at all. Try and figure out between ye if he has any problem subjects/areas and ask if he wans help with them or to focus on them for the next month.

Its important to be self motivated for any success so its important he learns to take responsability now. Treat him like a grown up and he'l act like one. Offer him treats like his favourite dinners during exam time. Treat it like a special time when he gets to be a responsable young man in charge of his future.

Another thing which other people mention is to learn how to do exams, it is a skill on top of studying lots. Understand the marking system, read the paper well, never leave out a section that counts for marks, ALWAYS ANSWER THE QUESTION ASKED! They cannot give marks for an answer that does not address the question. His teachers have probably gone through all this with him but just in case they havent..

valco

Thanks for all the advice, very helpful and much appreciated

dimiec

Hi Op

I would suggest that you and your son work out a timetable of study together. I have done that with my son, I work full time and a lone parent so I can't sit on him to study all the time, anyhow we set up a special study area and he got me to type up the days of the week that he will study (every day except Friday, everyone needs a day off) and he slotted in 30 mins on two subjects a day, kind of doing a little but often form of studying. I got him to select the subjects and times because he knows best what his needs are, plus he develops some responsbility. Now he doesn't always stick to it but he tries. Try and see how that works and like what other posters said, just sitting staring at books for 2 hours a night may not be the most effective strategy, develop something between you (it may also need revising as you go along).