Health and Wellbeing
Exams & Assessments: 10 Things Parents & Carers Need to Know
Supporting your child through exams gets easier once you know what young people say really helps, and what only adds to the pressure.
- 40 minutes
- 12 modules
- Certificate
Members
Parent membership: all 50 courses for parents and carers, £40 a year or £4 a month after 14 days free.
Already have an account? Sign in
What you'll learn
- Acknowledge exam stress honestly and help your child use it
- Help your child plan realistic revision, with breaks and fun built in
- Set up a study space and a sleep space and keep them separate
- Plan an exam-day routine that takes the guesswork out of the morning
- Use if-then planning to turn your child's worst fears into a plan
About this course
"It's only one exam" is meant kindly, but young people say it can feel dismissive. They'd rather you admitted it's hard and offered to go through it with them.
Help them build a realistic revision timetable with fun written into it, so a night off doesn't come with guilt. Set up a quiet study corner, and keep revision out of bed. Plan an exam-day routine, right down to the breakfast, the checklist and the song in the car. And when they ask "what if my mind goes blank?", don't brush it off. Make a plan together, such as breathing in for four and out for eight.
Timing matters too. Save the talk about tactics for a calm evening, not the morning of the exam, and bear in mind that a disappointing mock isn't the verdict it feels like.
12 modules
Open in order
- 2 min
Introduction
- 3 min
Don’t pretend it’s not stressful
- 6 min
Nothing beats exam stress like knowledge
- 5 min
Knowledge of the exam matters
- 3 min
Plan ahead at times of calm
- 4 min
Plan in time for fun
- 2 min
Don’t let the wellbeing basics slip
- 4 min
Create a good environment for study
- 4 min
Sleep matters too
- 6 min
Develop an exam day routine
- 4 min
Run towards the scary stuff using if…then…
- 2 min
Wrap up