How many times have students and parents butted their heads together when it comes to revision? According to our survey of over 100,000 students, when it comes to revision, families predominantly argue about bedtime, diet, time spent revising and when to start revising. And as exams get closer and closer, it doesn't get any easier!

To help make the next few months as stress-free and calm as possible, we conducted research of 1,000 parents and their teenagers to understand the pain points. 

Through this research, we spotted five common misunderstandings between parents and their kids, which we wanted to tackle and set the record straight.

 

1.

How many times have parents thought (or said) “it can’t be that hard” when their teenager moans about revision? Well, it turns out it is actually quite tough, with one in two (52%) parents admitting they often don’t understand the questions their teenagers are asking them when doing homework! We even challenged 1,000 parents to a recent GCSE maths question and it came back with a 100% fail rate! These parents aren’t hiding this confusion very well, with 44% of kids admitting they’ve caught their parents looking perplexed when looking through textbooks.

2.

It’s Christmas - it’s time for the family to come together and enjoy a well-earned rest. However, this isn’t the case for a lot of teenagers, with 32% of parents expecting their teenagers to revise up to 6 hours either on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It is the Dads who are the strictest, with 44% forcing their children to revise when compared to only 23% of mums. The level of strictness differs regionally too. Parents in Truro and London are strictest, 85% and 55% respectively whereas parents living in Plymouth and Cambridge are more relaxed (6% and 15%).

3.

A desk and a chair is often perceived as the perfect set up. However, research shows that students are much more likely to do their best work if they break away from the traditional set up. 48% of the students prefer revising with a background noise or on Zoom and over a third would prefer to revise with friends. When working out the best place to study, think about what would be most effective, not just where you’d prefer.

4.

When students are revising, many parents expect them to put their phones away and sit with a textbook. However, almost a third of students use TikTok for revision! According to Matt Green, The Rapping Science Teacher, TikTok is a great way to share short-form ideas, getting key ideas sent straight to a student’s brain. This is very different to YouTube - a video could be 10, 20, 30 seconds - concise and to the point which can help with learning difficult topics in seconds rather than minutes.

5.

People often advise students to eat healthily in the lead up to exams, and - while good nutrition is important - they can sometimes feel disheartened and void of treats (especially around Christmas time). Approximately 80% of parents and 60% of students think chocolate will not provide brainpower. Fear not! According to nutritionist Reema Patel, dark chocolate is actually a "brain food"! Including a few squares of dark chocolate in the diet can increase blood flow to the brain, which may help with alertness, reaction time and problem solving. The small amounts of caffeine can also boost mood and concentration. Dark chocolate also contains flavonoids, which may help improve memory.