How much revision should your teenager be doing?

The actual, unnuanced, answer

The most common question I get asked is how much revision should my teenager be doing?

Whether parents are asking when their teenager should start?

Or how many hours a day they should be doing?

Everyone is looking to external sources to validate what the right amount of revision is.

And predictably,

I always give very nuanced and contextual answers.

As of course it completely depends on the student.

However,

When I was trying to fall asleep last night, I realised I do have a straight up answer to this question.

And rather than sitting on the fence,

Or giving an overly lengthy answer setting out all the permutations,

This answer is pretty simple and I would say objective.

Now you might not like this answer in and of itself for your teenager,

As rightly everyone’s situations are different.

But the idea of this newsletter is to give you a foundational answer that you can then adapt for your circumstances.

So let’s get into it.

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My Answer

The following are the steps a student needs to take in order to find out how much revision they should be doing in a specific subject.

For the purposes of this I will use Maths as an example.

Step 1

Objectively assess what level you are working at in maths by doing at least one (bonus points for 2 or 3) full maths papers in exam conditions.

For a subject like maths or science it does not matter that you have not studied all of the content, whereas for a subject like English or History you may want to do a paper or a series of essays on a topic/module you have studied.

Step 2

Work out how many marks you need to go from where you are to where you want to be by the end of the academic year based off the most recent grade boundaries.

I would increase the number of marks that you need by approximately 25% (this can be a smaller amount at the 7-9 level) to account for paper variance.

Step 3

Work out how many marks you need to go up by each month in order to achieve your end of year target.

I would aim to be at your target at least a month, if not two months, before your exams.

Step 4

You revise for however long it takes to get there.

Yes, I am still in favour of having a revision plan,

But ultimately,

The work isn’t done until you have made the progress that you need to make in the set amount of time.

This is why I like minimum revision timetables.

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This approach has multiple benefits:

-        It gets the student obsessed with the exam, rather than learning facts/content for the sake of it.

-        It incentives them to work more effectively and in a more focused manner.

-        It gives the student agency as they know the length of their revision is determined by the rate of their progress.

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A week out from the conclusion of each month the student should do a new full paper in exam conditions that either you, the parent, or one of their tutors/coaches holds them accountable to.

If they are not where they need to be,

The next week is going to be a heavy week of revision.

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I hope you all have a great week ahead,

Best wishes,

Joel