“I don’t want a revision timetable!”
If this is your teenager, the following is the second-best option
Revision timetables are important.
But almost everyone hates them.
Teenagers hate how imposing and rigid they are.
Can their parents not just trust them to do whatever they feel is best?
And parents go through so much strain and nagging to even create the timetable,
When they know that in reality,
Their teenager probably will scrap it and do what they want anyway.
Overall,
It is often a disempowering process for everyone involved.
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The Best Case
I have previously written about how to create a revision timetable that actually works.
In my opinion,
They need to be minimalistic,
Flexible,
And they are significantly improved when there is some type of external accountability and reward structure in place.
I remain a big believe that 99% of A Level, GCSE and even University students,
Would be best off having a strategic revision timetable.
The problem is,
It is difficult to force a teenager to do anything,
And for that matter,
It may well not be in their best interest to force them to create a timetable under such opposition.
So, the following is my idea of a compromise,
Between the student who doesn’t want a timetable and the parent who knows that a timetable would in theory help them to do more consistent, strategic and accountable revision.
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A Retrospective Revision Timetable
A retrospective revision timetable satisfies the teenager’s need to feel like they are in control,
Whilst still providing accountability and oversight over what they are doing.
It works like this.
At the end of each day,
The students writes on their timetable which subjects they did,
At what times (this is important to increase the oversight),
And for how long.
If you want to take this a step further they could even write a few words to recall what they did in the session.
This timetable should be in a public place in the house so there is increased accountability of what they did or didn’t do.
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There is a couple of key elements to actually making this work.
1) Parents, you have to play your part. Your teenager probably doesn’t believe you are capable of not nagging. We know it comes from a good place but the whole point of this exercise is to make your teenager feel empowered and in control. This is not the case if you are giving them the 3rd degree each day.
2) Raise the stakes – I love reward structures. You should have seen my younger brother’s face when mum told him that she would buy him a sushi takeaway at the end of each week if he fulfils the pre-agreed criteria.
What I love about this second element,
And I would be shocked if my brother reads this,
Let alone this far,
Is that the criteria that mum got my brother to agree to,
In return for the takeaway,
Are much greater than she thought he was going to agree to in the first place.
She chucked in bed times,
Multi-vitamins,
And more hours,
And he was game.
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The point of this email is not to say don’t make revision timetables.
In fact,
Please do persist with realistic timetables.
The point of this email is to present another option,
Especially for those students coming right up to exam time,
That can fulfil both the parents and student’s desires,
And potentially get you more than you bargained for.
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I hope you have a great week ahead,
Best wishes,
Joel