Exam Preparation: Smart Habits & Practical Skills

Points clés

• Every study habit has a cue, a routine and a reward, so when a routine will not stick, check which of the three is missing.
• Link study to something your child already does every day with an anchor sentence, such as: after I finish my snack, I will open my book.
• Remove friction from studying by preparing the night before, and add friction to distractions, such as keeping the television remote in a drawer.
• Track whether the routine happened with a simple tick chart, and praise the effort you noticed rather than the marks that followed.
• Agree a five-minute version for hard days, restart the day after any miss, and keep a small learning habit of your own beside your child.

À l'intérieur de ce bit

1. What a study habit really is

   A habit is an action you repeat in the same situation until it starts with very little thought, like brushing your teeth after breakfast. Every habit has three parts.

2. Cues that make study start by itself

   The strongest cue is something that already happens every day. Link study to it with an anchor sentence: after I do this, I will do that.

3. Friction: make good choices easy, distractions harder

   Friction is the small effort that stands between you and an action. A few seconds of extra effort can decide whether something happens at all, which makes friction one of the simplest tools a family has.

4. Small tools that hold a routine together

   A habit needs a few simple tools, and none of them costs anything. The first is the study box: any old container holding pens, a ruler, blank cards and the week's list, kept where the routine happens.

5. Tracking that encourages instead of pressuring

   Tracking means recording whether a habit happened, so progress becomes visible. For a family, the best tracker is often a sheet on the fridge with the days of the week and one row: did the routine happen today?

6. Keeping the routine alive when life wobbles

   Every routine wobbles: school trips, illness, festivals, visitors, exam weeks with odd timetables. Plan for this in advance by agreeing a five-minute version of the habit, such as ten question cards, for tired or busy days.