Parents of Hardworking Teens

Ep. 155

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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Going over the word limit in essays, assignments and reports is a common issue I see in knowledgeable, hardworking students.

The biggest problem is the amount of extra work it means they are doing when this happens: Extra wri...

Ep. 154

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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Listen in for the top 10 ways that I've found to be the most effective in catapulting students' results AND confidence in a fast yet sustainable way.

FEATURED ON THE SHOW: 

• Updated and upgraded! Check out the 10 Week Grade Tr...

Ep. 153

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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There's a significant difference between an 'inquiry' research task and a research 'project'.
Treating an inquiry, report or any kind of research task in the upper years of high school like a 'project' will keep your teen stuck a...

Ep. 152

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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I'm a big fan of making the biggest difference to results and confidence,
in the simplest, most efficient and effective ways.

This example of how to make essays 'more sophisticated' is a great example of this:
> One...

Ep. 151 - 

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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I was initially surprised by this student's reaction to finding out exactly why he 'only' (in his words) got a C grade on a section of his Business assignment. 

I expected him to be frustrated at the situation or annoyed...

Ep. 150

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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I spend a LOT of time hammering students about making a plan before they start writing any kind of extended response, report analysis, essay, or discussion piece. 

There are a lot of instincts we have to override in order to spe...

Ep. 149

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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What does baking have to do with your teen's study?

These words, are what:

“I’m calm. I’m in the zone. I know how to do this.”

How can we make those the words in your teen's mind when they're queuing up outside ...

Ep. 148 

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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I often have parents and students feed back to me that the skills they pick up from my trainings and programs are also super-helpful in uni, but not having teaching experience at that level, I tend to avoid getting too much in...

Ep. 147

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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Most students don’t lose marks because they lack knowledge.
They lose marks because they don’t show enough depth.

They’re told to “add more detail”…
 So they write more. Repeat more. Ra...

- Ep. 146

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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If your teen thinks they need more motivation before they can get stuck into a task, listen in.

There are two things that will create and maintain momentum in your teen's study, WAY better than motivation ever can - whether they're...

Ep. 145 - 

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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Where uncertainty lurks and hides, gently sabotaging your teens confidence and results: How to find it and how to turn it into clarity and confidence.  

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The often hidden areas where u...

Ep. 144 - 

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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This recent Science assignment task proves why students should always START out on any assignment task with the thing they usually check LAST, if they want to:

• Avoid wasting time and effort on things that won't earn them ...

Ep. 143

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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The tips, insights and examples that may have flown under your radar this year, but I think you and your teen really, REALLY need to know.

Listen in to discover:

• How to figure out what's actually important in creative and extended...

Ep. 142

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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I've just marked over 400 pages of student responses this year for the Y12 ATAR external exams.

Listen in for my top 5 takeaways from that experience that I want all students and their parents to know and learn from - so they do more...

Ep. 141

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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Research can be a HUGE time sap for students.

Whether it's researching information for an investigation, sources for an inquiry, or finding data for a report, finding relevant and high quality information, and then sifting and sortin...

Ep. 140

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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The focus of an assignment or project is not always what it first appears to be.

Take this example:
> Design a Photo Story about a particular topic related to food security. 

It would make sense for a student to put a lot o...

Ep. 139

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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The third thing that totally changed how I see study, exams and assessment:

- My experience as a NAPLAN Writing Test marker (and non-English specialist teacher).

Listen in to discover:

• What the marker training taught me about the t...

Ep. 138

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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Discover the unexpected reaction of one student when I shared the insights and training in exam technique, mark schemes and rubric criteria, with one particular class.

This was the moment I realised hardworking students really do wan...

Ep. 137

→ Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
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These are the 3 moments that started and then led me deep into the world of exams, exam marking, assessment and the discovery that subject knowledge alone isn't the key to academic success.
 

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• Get all ...