How To Help Your Child Study
Tests are important for your kid’s education: they help to evaluate the child’s progress, compare how he or she is performing against other students in 
class, indicate which parts of the material are difficult for your child etc. However, most children struggle with tests and perceive them only in a negative light. The test anxiety does not help in studying and it is often the reason why children feel stuck and are unable to rehearse the material for the test. Parents’ support can make a huge difference and if you want your kid to feel more relaxed and confident, help him study before the test and apply our useful tips.
Consistency and strategy
Tests are always planned and announced weeks or months ahead, so your child has a lot of time to prepare. However, most students put studying aside, until it is too late to learn anything new (last minute cramming is never as effective as regular, structured practicing). Therefore, you need to start as early as possible and recognize the problems your child has with the covered material. If your kid is bad at math, try studying together at home, help him with his homework and find math exercises you can use to practice together. However, if this does not work, you need to come up with a better strategy. For example, register your child for a math workshop for underperforming students. Remember that the key feature to success is consistency: if you plan to study at home, make sure that you do it regularly, day to day and week to week.
Organizing and memorizing
The more material there is to master, the more you need to organize it in a neat way, in order to have a clear view on what you have already accomplished and what you still need to work on. Create folders and binders to group the study sheets. Use colored pencils and sticky notes to highlight the parts, which are particularly important. Make sure that your child is able to connect different math facts and understands the relations between them. This way your child will be able to come up with correct conclusions much faster and be more creative, when he stumbles upon new math problems. To make sure that your child remembers the facts, which you have studied so far, use funny mnemonics, such as acronyms and first letter phrases. When you study abstract issues, use pictures and graphs to create a pictorial representation of the problem and remember it better next time.
Confidence and positive attitude
Last, but not least, make sure that when the test day comes, your child is confident and positive about the challenge in front of him. The fact that you studied together and managed to cover all material is very reassuring, but do not forget to build your kid’s confidence along the way, by awarding him for his accomplishments and highlighting his successes. On the evening before the test allow your child to relax and have some fun, in order to reduce his anxiety and create positive connotations with the upcoming test.
Marta Gromadzka is a writer and editor with a wide variety of experience, including writing for websites internationally and editing books on many different subjects and in a variety of formats.
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