Why Early Preparation is Key: Starting the Selective Exam Journey Early

We've all heard of the line "Being early is better than being late" right?

We all know we should do things early. But why do we wait?

There are a lot of reasons but the key ones are:

Procrastination.

The Fear of Failure. We're too busy at the moment.

But why are we actively avoiding something that we know is good for us?

This is especially true for our children.

Why are we not preparing them early for OC or Selective?

The Benefits of Early Preparation

Now incase you don't know how important preparing early is, I'll run you through the key benefits:

Reduced Stress: With more time to prepare we have more time to understand our mistakes and weaknesses. Slowly building knowledge and skills helps ease pressure as the exam day approaches.

Stronger Fundamentals: Early exposure to key concepts and solving strategies creates a stronger foundation for success.

More Confidence: I've found that 12.4% of my students felt unconfident the day before their exam. Of those, 0% of them made it to selective. Confidence and early preparation is how students get ahead

More time to develop habits: Habits are hard to get into. It takes 21 days to develop a habit and 90 days to make that habit a lifestyle. Developing good study habits early allows for your child's performance to compound.

Lets look at the key skills that take time to develop.

Building Foundational Skills

The journey to exam success begins with establishing core competencies. Focus on these foundational areas:

1. Critical Thinking

Why? Because Selective and OC questions are designed to make us second guess ourselves. Critical thinking helps students isolate the only the important details of the question.

Encourage Inquiry: Ask open-ended questions about everyday topics.

Problem-Solving Activities: Engage your child with puzzles, strategy games, or real-life scenarios that require analysis.

2. Problem Solving

Why? Whilst there can be many solutions to a questions, only one answer is correct or more correct than the others.

Practical Challenges: Involve your child in simple projects or challenges that require creative solutions.

Step-by-Step Approaches: Teach them how to break down complex problems into manageable parts.

3. Time Management

Daily Routines: Establish consistent study times mixed with breaks.

Planning Tools: Introduce routines or calendars to help them organise tasks and deadlines.

Gradually Increasing Study Intensity

Early preparation doesn’t mean overloading your child from the start.

If we overload from the beginning, it becomes more likely that your child burns out.

Instead, aim for a gradual build-up:

Start Small: Begin with short, engaging study sessions that incorporate fun learning activities.

Track Progress: Regularly assess how well your child is learning and adjust the routine around this. This involves regularly reviewing past topics to make sure they still remember it.

Scale Up: As the exam date nears, slowly increase the length and difficulty of study sessions. Why? we want to ensure a smooth transition into exam preparation.

A Summary:

Always start early.
The skills that are crucial in an exam take time to build: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving & Time Management
As we near the exam date, increase difficulty of study sessions slowly