Get Over It and Go Over Your Mistakes! The mistakes you make during test prep are a gift. They show you where you need to improve during practice, when it doesn’t matter, instead of on the actual test, when it does. A mistake is valuable information and the best thing you can do is examine …
Moving the Goalposts Besides preparing a student for their exam, a huge aspect of tutoring is managing parents’ expectations. A good example of this is the case of Maxine (not her real name, obviously). She was a fast learner, a hard worker, and a straight A student, so I was concerned when she bombed her …
Regular Mock Exams are Worthless Ok, they’re not worthless. But they’re not as helpful as we’ve been led to believe, and in many cases, they do more harm than good. Scientific studies have shown that to be effective, practice needs focus and feedback. On most mock exams, this doesn’t happen. For example, Sarah’s taken three …
Kid Freak Out! What to Do Kids need to release pressure, and they don’t always do so in the best way (you heard it here first). They may say they’re not going to take their test. They may promise to do poorly on purpose or something even crazier. Maybe they mean it; maybe they don’t, …
