The eye of the hurricane: Holidays before the sprint to exams -

As a VCE teacher currently teaching multiple year 12 classes the term 3 holidays are a moment to take a breath. Squished between the crazy attempt of finishing course work in term 3 and preparation for the exams in the coming weeks, it seems like the eye in the storm. Both teachers and students will look to reenergize themselves and take in some much-needed self-care. Beyond this the break is also a final chance to lay some foundations and prepare to make the most of the revision period to ensure a successful exam period.

*The exams are run and won before entering the room*

Students

This two-week period is about balance. Students need to take time and engage in activities that will help elevate their stress from the last period of school-based course work which dominates the end of term. However, they also can’t afford to take two weeks off from study as they need to reacquaint themselves with content from earlier in the year. While the desire might be to leave everything to the last few days of the holiday this realistically increases stress going into term 4. A wiser choice is to space out revision over the two weeks with a schedule to maintain a mindset without stressing too much before returning to school. Part of this schedule may be a choice to attend additional lectures from different providers or holiday classes. Overall, this is never a bad idea, but it is wise not to go overboard to avoid additional stress once again. Realistically, there are only so many ways to hear similar advice or go over the same content in a lecture so there is limited value in attending multiple sessions for each subject.

The most important thing that is often forgotten is to make sure you are establishing positive habits ahead of the next couple of months. This means a balance of work, study, and other commitments as much as possible but also good eating and sleeping habits are essential. Building these routines during the holidays means that it is going to be easier to maintain the rage over the exam period. The links between healthy eating, sleep and peak performance are well documented but it’s not something that people can just slip into when the term kicks off.

Teachers

Often, we consider this period of the year to be down to students, after all the delivery of content is done and internal assessments are largely finalised. However, these final couple of weeks of revision can be where effective VCE Teachers can make the most difference. Firstly, during this time, we can construct some exam strategies for our classes and individual students based around capitalising on their strengths and using the time effectively. Secondly, we make important decisions about prioritizing certain content based on our cohort and predictions for the exam. This includes planning our approach in the classroom that is going to engage and push our students to use this time.

Considering this the holidays are still important for planning this final assault. It is the time to review some of the past assessment tasks throughout the year as well as any early practice exams students have already completed. This will help inform the content we choose to reteach through identifying obvious weaknesses in skills or gaps in content knowledge. Additionally, reviewing past VCE exams and examiners reports provides similar insights to understand potentially the key aspects that markers will be looking for as well as trying to predict potential content that might find its way on the exam. . If as teachers, we use this time well, we can breathe easy come the exam period knowing we have done our best for students and given them a chance.

Sometimes both students and teachers might be inclined to feel like the heavy lifting is done. Now is the time to work smarter not harder to get those extra few marks on an exam, not through crazy study sessions or endless feedback but targeted preparation.

Read some of my other ideas on NAPLAN, Teaching and the current problems facing our education system.