60 Days to A Level Success

By Tim Matthews

Facing up to A Level exams is a tough time for both students and parents! The examination system in the UK may seem similar to the experience parents had growing up, the reality is that students are now much better prepared, resulting in a more competitive arena in which to secure grades. This book aims to pull together evidence-based strategies that are proven to impact and improve attainment and progress. Students want to do well in A Levels as these qualifications open the door to numerous exciting new opportunities such as University or Apprenticeships. As with anything what you put in is proportional to what you get out - getting good A level results requires much hard work.
Often the difference between getting grades that open doors to wider choices and grades that don’t isn’t down to the capacity or potential of the individual student, it is down to the systems used to support achievement. Some students fall into an effective system because their parents or older siblings found something that works, others manage to work it out for themselves, both of which leave too much to chance for my liking. This book aims to provide a system that, if stuck to, will provide the basis for students to build upon the great work they have done alongside their teachers and achieve the grades they deserve!
I hope it is useful - when things get tough - no matter if you are a student or parent -stick at it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tim Matthews
• Release date: Feb 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463964941

Book preview

Facing up to A Level exams is a tough time for both students and parents! Whilst the examination system in the UK may seem similar to the experience most parents had growing up, the reality is that students are now much better prepared, resulting in a more competitive arena in which to secure grades. This book aims to pull together evidence-based strategies that are proven to have impact and improve attainment and progress. Students want to do well in A Levels as these qualifications open the door to numerous exciting new opportunities such as University or Apprenticeships. As with anything what you put in is proportional to what you get out - getting good A level results requires much hard work.

Often the difference between getting grades that open doors to wider choices and grades that don’t isn’t down to the capacity or potential of the individual student, it is down to the systems used to support achievement. Some students fall into an effective system because their parents or older siblings found something that works, others manage to work it out for themselves, both of which leave too much to chance for my liking. This book aims to provide a system that, if stuck to, will provide the basis for students to build upon the great work they have done alongside their teachers and achieve the grades they deserve!

I hope it is useful - when things get tough - no matter if you are a student or parent -stick at it!

Contents

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence is the secret to unlocking our potential.

Winston Churchill

Table of Contents

Foreword

Principles

Intro

Parents

Students

Basics

Creating good multiple choice questions

Meanings

Getting set up

Let’s Go! Days 1 – 60

Day 61 onwards

Outro

60 days to A Level success:

Principles

The 60 days to exam success program is based upon the key principles of: distributed and deliberate practice, interleaving, self-regulation, metacognition and self-testing. It builds upon the hard work already done by students and their teachers in building levels of subject knowledge and understanding about the application of this knowledge. The principles of this program help to improve retention, recall and the application of pre existing knowledge to exam scenarios. Below are short descriptions of the approaches that underpin the 60 day program.

Deliberate Distributed Practice

This is a method where specific practice is broken up into a series of short sessions. Often to achieve improvement the skill is broken down into component parts. In this instance it relates to regularly practising individual exam questions which when combined improve the result in the overall exam. It has been shown that learning is more effective when broken up into a series of shorter, more spaced out sessions rather than if everything is attempted to be learned in one go.

Interleaving

This is sequencing learning so that blocks of unrelated information are studied one after the other. For example studying Maths, then History, then Science and back to Maths again. This forces the student to have to work hard to recall information, strengthening the ability of the individual to recall information about each topic or subject.

Metacognition

This is essentially learning about learning. In the 60 day program it is centred on understanding where an individual student has secure knowledge or gaps then addressing these gaps to improve performance.

Self-Regulation

Successful students are often the most self-regulating. They are able to set specific goals and work towards achieving them. The 60 day program provides a structure for students to use, helping them become more self-regulating and responsible for their own learning.

Self Testing

Students who regularly undertake self-directed testing are more likely to retain and recall key information, producing improved exam results. Regular testing produces greater recall than simply reading required material.

60 days to A Level success:

Intro…

Intro:

As a teacher of many years I spend a large amount of time supporting students to achieve. Often, many students present similar issues: not knowing how to revise or sometimes spending large amounts of time doing activities which will not bring the impact that their investment of time deserves! Students often look to their parents for advice about what to do, yet often parents themselves are not sure how to help as the exam system has changed significantly in recent years.

When studying for A levels or the equivalent most students have found a way that has allowed them to achieve a certain degree of success already. This is implicit in the fact that they are studying courses at this level. However,