Studying is tough and many learners see it as one of the worst aspects of their lives. Most learners have the potential to excel at school, but most do not because of how unpleasant they find studying. For this reason, it is not enough to equip your child with the resources they need to study, but to also identify and address their state of mind.
Below are three common psychological barriers that a learner may face. They are presented in the order that they are likely to unfold.
Lacking Focus
“I struggle to get my child to sit down and study.”
This is very common and very natural. The benefits of studying and doing well at school are still a long way off from their point of view, or not even apparent. Socialising and entertainment are typically more appealing for a high school teenager. How this becomes an issue is not that they won’t start studying, but rather that they become discouraged easily. Often the phrase, “I’m bored of this”, is actually covering up, “I don’t know how to do this, so I’d rather be doing something else.” At this point, they will quickly turn to something that they know they will enjoy. To mitigate this, you need to have a plan in place to help your child each time they get stuck. This could include hiring a private tutor or using Paper Video.
Feeling lost
“My child doesn’t know where to start, they are so lost.”
This is a common feeling of hopelessness in learners. The feeling that so much has rushed past them that there is no hope left for a recovery. I recall feeling this many times when I was in school and university, and you may as well. The truth is that they are never as lost as what they think they are. The reality is that it is not about finding a starting point but committing to daily revision over the course of months, not 2 weeks before the final exams. Then, your child must not start off by trying to go through whole past papers. This will only worsen the situation. What they must do is start out by identifying the topic that they are most familiar with and start working on easy questions under this topic. The Paper Video platform allows your child to search on a topic name and set the difficulty of question they want to practice. Once they are confident in that section, they can move to the next most familiar section. It is a slow and steady process, but it works. It is like the saying goes; how do you eat an elephant?… One bite at a time.
Giving up
“My child has given up because they are too far behind.”
This is not an easy situation to deal with as it comes with a spectrum of severity. The worst-case scenario is that they need to repeat a year. However, while a high percentage of children feel this way, only a very small percentage are actually this far behind. More often, immediate daily revision can turn this situation around within a month (daily intensive revision is not sustainable in the long run but is required over a few weeks to turn a bad situation around). The challenge now, however, is where to start? The best approach is to start with easy practice questions within each section. Divide past exam papers up into their different sections and spend one day on each section doing the easy questions. On Paper Video, this can be done via our search functionality and by selecting the difficulty level 1 filter.
The next step might sound counter-intuitive, but after your child has gone through all sections, get them to spend some more time on the section for which they felt strongest. However, this time they should attempt difficulty level 2 questions. The reason for this is to build confidence as quickly as possible. Once your child is confident taking on level 2 questions in one section, they will have a strong foundation for that section and feel more confident to head into more uncertain territory. They should now move on to their next strongest section and repeat. As this process continues, they should not worry about moving up to difficulty level 3 questions. These represent a relatively small portion of the exam and are best practiced once your child feels like they have mastered most of the subject.
Each one of these barriers is challenging to overcome. There is a good chance that your child may have to overcome all three before regaining control of their studying. This in itself will be exhausting for them and adds a fourth ‘meta-barrier’ to the process. Speak to your child about these barriers, preparing them for each sinking feeling they may encounter, and what to do. Reassure them that if they stick to a consistent studying routine, they will get on top of their work.
The reward for them mastering their studies goes beyond good grades, it will develop their confidence to face seemingly insurmountable challenges. This achievement will stay with them for life.
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