A Parent's Guide to Study Time

It’s hard to navigate revision and make sure your children are working behind closed doors. You might see your child putting in the hours, or at least this is what they are telling you they are doing - but is their time spent effectively? Any curious and inquisitive parent might have at some point stumbled upon the idea of the learning style to aid memory retention.

It’s a neat concept stemming from multiple intelligences research implying that we as individuals have our own best way of learning, linked to our strongest type of intelligence. It could be visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, etc.; indicating that for some mind maps will be enough while some need movement to learn. 

Unfortunately, despite a wide acceptance of the idea within teaching circles and beyond, it failed to be supported by its limited research, still, it continues to roam the internet as a neuromyth. 

If the learning styles are not the solution, what is out there to help us decide how to revise effectively?

I hope that the few tips below will give you a few ideas on how to best support your child with their revision:

1. Multimodal Revision

The neuromyth of learning styles suggests that people learn better when they solely use their particular modality. Evidence does not directly support this idea. A multimodal approach (using a variety of techniques) works better for retention and engagement purposes.

Imagine your revision techniques as the essential components of cooking a meal—each method is like a unique ingredient, spice, or cooking technique that elevates your overall dish. Relying solely on one method is akin to a chef who can only fry an egg, it won’t suffice when they need to be poached for an eggs benedict.

A master chef understands that the art of cooking lies in versatility. Consider the examiner as a discerning food critic. Just as a critic savours a dish that bursts with balanced flavours and thoughtful presentation, they’ll recognise answers crafted with a full spectrum of understanding of the topic. Variety ensures you’re well-prepared to “serve” your best work, regardless of the question.

In other words, students should avoid putting all their eggs into one basket! Diversify the revision and use a variety of modalities i.e. Read, write, listen and draw diagrams about each topic or move around as you revise flashcards. This variety enhances knowledge and memory retention while being less likely to create boredom. 

It is still good to have a preference but remember to shake things up now and again. This is a good way for a parent to get involved in the revision, quiz your child, and ask them to teach you something about the material they are revising. 

2. Active vs Passive Revision

The difference between active and passive learning is like watching football on television and actually playing it.

Often the go-to strategy for many students is just re-reading their notes. For revision to be effective we need to engage with the material to be learned.

Flash cards are a good start but only really suitable for short answer questions and definitions, for more complex questions mind mapping or creating diagrams and tabulating the information is helpful, as mentioned earlier, getting involved in revision is going to activate it and strengthen the memory pathways. 

You can challenge your child to explain to you some ideas while you ask them follow-up questions for clarity. This will have a much greater impact on understanding of the material than passive re-reading. 

Research indicates that there is a significant improvement in retention between just studying to a combination of studying and testing. The study once and test-test-test method is associated with the greatest improvement in retention. So active revision – use the knowledge to be learned and apply it in practice for the best results 

3. Planning

Revision cannot be haphazard. Making a plan with solid boundaries is essential especially when preparing for a big exam session. Start by mapping what is already happening, school time, hobbies, free time, and how much time there is to play with. 

When this has been drafted, see when are the points at which your child can revise. If your child has a very busy schedule it might be that you need to reconsider some of those activities to fit revision at a reasonable time. When planning this schedule - considering what times of the day someone works best is crucial, leaving revision until late at night if your child is an early sleeper is not going to work for some. 

If your child is a night owl and regularly stays up till later it might be a good revision time for them as long as it is focused. So choose the time of the day wisely, and experiment if need be. 

Another important consideration is how you plan the sessions themselves. Too long might bore and be too tiring lowering the effectiveness, shorter bursts of activity with breaks in between sessions might be more suitable for some, such as in the well-known Pomodoro method. 

Set goals for a given revision session and tick them off the list once achieved. Others, particularly those who ruminate might benefit from longer sessions as they might take a bit longer to get going. Try different strategies to find the best approach, it matters. 

The active types might benefit from syncing revision with gym/ training time, your child might feel really invigorated after your training session and work better after a workout when their body might be tired but the mind might be buzzing with activity.

4. Concentration and Focus

A key to a good revision session is focus. It will not work if a phone is pinging next to the revision space, this is obvious, but even silent notifications on the screen are distracting. This is a particularly important consideration in the world of revision apps. 

The spaced retrieval applications which make effective use of this technique so much easier are effective and provide good motivation for the students through competition and rewards. However, if the other functions of the phone are not suppressed at the same time they may lose their charm.  

Now about music. Everyone is plugged into headphones these days almost non-stop, headphones serve as a good way of reducing distraction, however, what plays through them matters. Music with lyrics is going to have a detrimental effect on concentration and focus.

Choosing something wordless may increase concentration by blocking conversations and external noise, which is particularly handy if the revision space is public. So experiment with different genres like classical, (it doesn’t need to be Mozart) and see what works best. 

Although a good old pair of ear defenders might just do the trick, absolute silence might be what works. The space itself matters too, ensure it is not too busy, TV off and no flashing lights otherwise distracting noise and visuals will keep you from the task at hand.

5. Retrieval is Key

As mentioned several times already retrieval practice is crucial to success. To put it simply - remembering the information and saying it out loud or writing it on paper. Your child needs to practice encoding something into memory and then trying to remember it, without this training, the brain either just gets rid of the information (as it’s not useful) or loses the ability to associate it with a recall cue. 

Either way, the “use it or lose it” principle applies here. Regular retrieval practice is key so your child must not shy away from regular quizzing although, repetition is not something overly exciting. Spaced retrieval practice involves extending the time between the retrieval sessions gradually, some mobile phone apps can help with this, alternatively, if you are good with a ruler a Gantt chart might do the trick. 

6. Perseverance, Balance and Rewards

There is such thing as too much revision, as with anything balance is important. Depending on your child’s age they will need a good 10h of sleep. This is important, particularly for teenagers who due to social demands of their age and access to mobile phones, internet, gaming etc. might end up sleep deprived. 

It is important to understand that puberty is a general overhaul of the nervous system and the added pressure to revise and study is not making it easy. Think: trying to cook while having a general refit of your kitchen – a nightmare. Sleep and rest are crucial for this process and for the successful encoding of information. 

Your brain is still processing even when you sleep, research shows that children tend to remember better if they take a rest or go to sleep after their learning. Regular rest and downtime is important, but this can take a more active form, try not to use screen time as downtime as this still engages your brain muscles. 

Regular exercise is consistently associated with better academic performance for both and girls alike - try this to rest a tired brain. Try to interleave learning with rest, such as in the Pomodoro technique which has been known to reduce procrastination.

Finally, should you reward the efforts of your child or not? According to some research financial incentives may increase performance but in the long run, students may lose motivation and engagement in their learning and as a result, have lower achievement. 

Rewards should be irregular, and not always financial, children crave praise and this can be achieved without financial investment. 

Ideally, you want to foster intrinsic motivation, the internally motivated behaviour rather than one requiring constant reward. Encouragement, attention and interest in your child’s learning will do much better than any materialistic reward. 

I hope that these few simple considerations are going to help you navigate the minefield of revision and studying.

Remember – try not to exert too much pressure on your child. Even though encouragement and expectation is motivating, too much might cause stress which will adversely affect their capacity to learn. 

Be supportive, Ensure that they have all the ingredients to learn well, monitor progress but allow some autonomy, get involved. 

Don’t shy away, we all remember the sleepless nights in preparation of or our exams and certification, what is needed is support not preaching.