How to help your child for school tests

Are you surprised to read this post title?  “How to help your child for school tests ? s it necessary? Does primary school student have studies? Are you joking?” might be your reactions after reading this post title. And  if  anyone would have told about this to my parents around 28 years back when I was  in primary 1 class,  they would have definitely  laughed  on it. If you have school going children at home then you might be in sailing in same boat as that of mine.

But now time has changed and so does the education .Children have to learn and study many things. Children need to study   from primary education itself and parents are considered to be responsible for their success or failure in the academics. Definitely kids today have more stressful education and its harsh reality. They hardly get free time to enjoy playing.

Schools have different syllabuses from variety boards/ streams and also different exam patterns. My daughter studies in international school and the syllabus pattern is CBSE. When she got into primary school from pre- primary school , initially it was tough for her to adapt to new school timings and studies. I wanted her to enjoy her school and learn things happily so I didn’t put any pressure on her for studies. But one day she shown me the syllabus for her school test, and we were shocked to see it. After going through her syllabus and activities in school I decided to help her out in studies and her school tests.  But the things which I considered extremely easy were not so. Before teaching siya I have to read books and understand everything.

Actually regular studies are the best thing for better understanding of subjects. But sometimes kids get tired and other time they don’t want to study. It was her first exam in new school and she was very scared to face it. It was challenge   for me as a parent, to remove fear for exam from her mind. I explained her how exams are important to check how much student understands from their syllabus. “And never think about grades; just try to express everything you know. That’s all and your grades will never matter to us .Only thing we want is just always do your best without any fear in your mind”. So for systematic preparations for school tests we decided to make time table as given below .

Here are some of the tips for preparing primary one exam.

# Make time table:

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Making time table for studying all subjects of your child  is effective way. Assign few days for each subject. Start with noting down the syllabus for each subject. Follow the work done in school rough books. Make worksheets for each subject and mark all completed worksheets in the time table.  We decided to start before 3 weeks from the exam and we distributed the available days in subjects. As she was having school in these days we planned study in after school hours.Weekend was the time when we could study  for more time and i could explain about the chapters to her.

Subject	Days (Time)
Mathematics	3  days per day 2 hours 1 day for revision
English	3 days  per day 2 hours 1 day for revision
Environmental studies	3 days per day 2 hours 1 day for revision
Second language	3 days per day 2 hours 1 day for revision

# Child should not be exhausted /tired:

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After 8 hours of school (including travel time) children get really tired. I had to check that my daughter is not very tired and exhausted to learn  or practice anything after coming home. We decided to keep 2 hours free for relaxation after coming home from school. But she had to compromise on her playground hours for preparing school tests. I promised her to take her to playgrounds as soon school tests get over and it’s the matter of only few days. Always select comfortable time for child. He/she should not be very exhausted/ tried to grasp new things.  Make sure your child is well fed and well rested for studying.

# Actual study:

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While actual studying   for each subject start with difficult subject first. More practice will make it easy. In between other subject study include difficult subject worksheets just for a change.

For first / second language study includes reading chapters aloud .Ask easy questions about the chapters to check how much he /she understood from it. Then go for practicing hard questions about the chapter. Language study needs good vocabulary so give more attention towards improving vocabulary. Hindi was difficult for her as we don’t use Hindi much in communication. The questions were tricky and she couldn’t understand the meaning of question itself many times. We made word lists for improving vocabulary of language alongside solving regular worksheets.

Mathematics –Mathematics needs practice to solve all problems in question paper. So practice all problems in the book/ workbook. EVS –Prefer reading chapters aloud. Reading improves understanding of the subject Explain all difficult terms, concepts in chapters. Practice on all the questions below topic in textbook. Practice the worksheets provided by school.

Hope you can relate with the post and do share your tips and tricks for school exams with us. Wish you all the best for your child’s next school test. Thank you.

Love,

Rupali

photo credit: Asian Development Bank 31345-via photopin (license)