Stop Comparing:
It’s so easy to compare marks or results amongst peers.
No doubt, by the time your child reaches their exam years, they’ll already be comparing themselves to others in the class: who’s the best at sport; who can they beat in an exam; who didn’t get a good grade. These thoughts won’t help when it comes to progressing your teenager’s own grade forward, though.
As a parent or guardian, it’s inevitable you might fall into the trap of comparison, too. However, turning the focus back in on your child- and keeping your eyes on their journey- is the best way forward.
Flourish don’t Frustrate
We know how important it is that every child gets the opportunity to flourish. When teens start comparing themselves to each other, they are likely to face frustration: a friend achieves higher marks in a test- your child gets frustrated.
Therefore, continuing to reassure your teen that it really doesn’t matter what someone else did (someone else isn’t living their life!) is a good mantra to keep on repeat!
Positivity over Pressure</h2?
With this in mind, keeping positive and making reassuring comments is likely to be far more successful than making remarks that leave your child feeling under (even more) pressure. As their parent or guardian, your child probably already wants to make you proud (even if they don’t say that!) so positive statements are better than ones make your teen feel bad.
Pave the Pathway to Success
Your child can also keep more positive by being well prepared. The more confident they feel about exams, the better- and might help to tackle some of the feelings of jealousy that can come with ‘comparison.’
Rather than sitting there saying, “Well so and so got a higher mark than me,” it’d be much nicer to hear your teen accepting, “I did everything I could to get that grade.”
Our revision courses are an excellent way to support this positive mind-set. By signing up to our revision courses, your child will work intensively; they will be guided by specialist teachers who know how to help your teen achieve their best grades! Your teen will work hard and will be equipped with strategies for tackling key questions from each of their SQA subjects.
Revision is definitely not a ‘one size fits all.’ It’s important to emphasise to your child that, just because your friends revise a certain way, doesn’t mean that they will do the same!
Tunnel Vision your Teen
Always remind your teenager that this is about them: this is their academic journey. Whatever anybody else achieves is somewhat irrelevant to your child’s own grades. Everyone is about to turn in different directions and everybody has different techniques, methods and strengths.
The best way forward is to focus on your teenager’s own great assets: what are their strengths? What can they do well?
There’s really not much need to compare when it comes to exams. Your teen needs to do what works for them!
Our Prelim Revision Courses help with
✅ Grade Boosting
✅ Confidence Building
✅ Stress Busting
The aims of our courses:
– Revisit and consolidate knowledge
– Improve exam technique and approach
– Target individual problem areas
– Boost a student’s confidence
– Improve grades
Original Post Here: Stop Comparing: You and Your Teen
Scholar Tutoring Agency 