Supporting a Child Through Exams Without Buying Everything

What has the strongest evidence

Retrieval practice: testing recall rather than rereading. Rereading feels productive and produces poor retention; self-testing is uncomfortable and works.

Spaced practice: returning to material at intervals rather than in a single block.

Past papers under timed conditions, which teach the format and the pacing as well as the content.

Interleaving topics rather than studying one at a time, which improves the ability to select the right approach.

What is free

Past papers and mark schemes, published by examination boards.

Specification documents, which state precisely what is examinable. Studying beyond them is wasted effort and studying less than them is a gap.

Examiner reports, which describe what candidates commonly get wrong. These are extremely useful and almost never read.

School-provided resources and teacher availability, which are already paid for.

The environment

A consistent place to work, free of the phone, matters more than any resource.

Sleep is the measure with the clearest effect on performance and the first thing sacrificed. Protecting it is worth more than an extra hour of revision.

Regular meals, movement and breaks, which sustain the weeks rather than the evening.

When tutoring helps

Where there is a specific identified gap rather than general anxiety.

Where the tutor knows the specification and the examination board.

Where sessions include work between them rather than being an hour of passive listening.

Ask for a defined aim and a review point rather than an open-ended arrangement.

The emotional part

Pressure from home reliably reduces performance rather than raising it.

Asking about the process rather than the outcome — what did you work on today — is more useful than asking about grades.

Make clear that the relationship does not depend on results, which sounds obvious and frequently is not communicated.