Chicken & Egg
Why teenagers decide they don’t want revision coaching
As 2025 is now upon us,
ILS has entered into its 5th year of coaching students in effective revision and mindset techniques.
And whilst I am genuinely grateful that we get to work with so many students who have been let down by the education system,
Many students who I know we could have helped,
Tell their parents that they do not want to pursue the coaching,
Before they have even tried it.
And I know why …
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What usually happens
One of my team will have a great conversation with a parent.
They agree with us that the education system, rather than the teachers themselves, have let their teenager down.
The system is not set up to help their teenager, specifically, thrive.
And they are not looking for a tutor.
They are worried that their teenager has no clue how to revise.
Either they are doing little bits of revision that the parent suspects is ineffective (if they are even actually revising when they say they are…),
Or they can’t even be convinced to start revising in the first place,
As they are too overwhelmed to even know when to start.
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We explain that this is our typical student and as long as you can get them to our introductory session, leave the rest to us,
We think you will be pleasantly surprised.
They agree to set up an introductory session as they don’t have much to lose (we only charge after the first session if the parent wants to continue with the package),
But then we receive a message a day or two later,
Telling us that they couldn’t convince their teenager to give it a go.
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The Problem
Here is where the chicken and egg analogy come in.
In order for a teenager,
Or anyone for that matter,
To be motivated to revise,
They need to know how to revise.
However,
In order to be motivated to learn how to revise,
They need to be open to the idea of revision.
The problem is,
For many students,
They are not open to the idea of revision,
Until they know how to revise,
And thus that there revision will be effective.
And such the cycle continues.
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This is basically a constant, vicious, loop.
The essence is this.
With anything in life,
We aren’t going to be as motivated to do it,
If we don’t know how to do it to a standard that we think will make a difference.
But we are often not going to be willing to learn how to do something to that standard,
Unless we believe and know that we are capable of doing it to that standard,
But we are not going to know if we can do it to that standard until we open ourselves up to learning how to do it.
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The point of this analogy is to explain why there is so much scepticism and hesitancy from students.
The education system has made so many students feel lacking and/or ‘unintelligent,’
And whilst students are dealing with everything else that comes with teenage life,
Its difficult to find the motivation to open yourself up to trying something new,
That you either haven’t been able to do in the past,
Or you haven’t even attempted to do as effective revision has felt like a impossible task.
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I don’t have an ‘answer’ to this problem.
It all comes down to taking that first step.
Which ultimately only the person can really decide to take.
(Perhaps with a little bit of a push, when we know it is in their best interests).
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I hope you all have a great week ahead,
Best wishes,
Joel