Dear Parents and Students,
Thank you so much for a fantastic start to the 2014-15 school year. I can hardly believe that shortly after we come back high school semester exams begin.
Speaking of exams, click here for the exam schedule.
Some suggestions to best help your children succeed in their exams:
Discuss how best to use the time allocated for the examination. Ensure your child understands the importance of reading the examination paper carefully, understanding what the question is asking, noting which questions carry the highest marks, planning answers and having enough time to proofread carefully and redraft answers if necessary. I cannot stress the importance of using all the time allocated enough.
Have a look at your child’s current grades on Plus Portals and discuss with her/him what the impact of a 20% semester examination mark will be. Grades will be calculated at the end of the first semester and 20% of this grade is from the semester examination. It is this grade that will go on your child’s transcript.
The mistake that many students make is leaving all their revision to the night before the examination. Cramming material in at the last minute causes stress and does not lead to lasting learning. Help your child overcome the temptation to do this by preparing an examination review schedule, with time allocated to all subjects over the next two weeks and time to go over everything a second or third time.
Here is an example of an evening revision schedule that you can print off and use.
Here is an example of a schedule that might suit your child if s/he is a more visual learner and enjoys creating mind maps to study from.
Here is another guide to studying, with sample study techniques and examples of student study plans.
Here are some more revision tips and hints.
Make sure that your child is spending adequate time at weekends preparing for these examinations.
Help your child to focus by making sure that they are working in a communal family room where you can just look up and see their computer screen. This will mean that your child will be focusing on work rather than being distracted by social media.
Make sure your child is getting enough sleep. Having enough sleep is an important contribution to success in learning at all times, but particularly during examinations.
Below I have linked a series of videos on Youtube presented by Dr Stephen Chew, a Professor of Psychology at Samford College in Birmingham, Alabama. These will help you and your child understand what effective studying consists of and how people learn. Professor Chew includes examples of deep processing strategies that, if followed, will help your child to learn the material for the examinations with true comprehension and with lasting understanding.
Here is Episode 1 This is called, “Beliefs that make you fail-or succeed.” It is 6.53 minutes long.
Here is Episode 2. “What students should know about how people learn” 7.14 minutes long.
Here is Episode 3. “Cognitive principles for optimising learning.” 5.45 minutes long.
Here is Episode 4.’Putting principles of learning into practice.” 9.16 minutes long.
Here is the final episode. “I blew the exam. Now what?” 7.28 minutes long.
Here is a link to a BBC report on a psychological study of the best revision techniques, published in 2013.
I hope that these ideas will prove useful and enable you to support your child as s/he prepares to do her/his very best in our semester examinations.
Having shared all of this information please know that I definitely believe it is very important for families and our students to relax and enjoy quality family time together over the holidays. The heavy lifting on exam preparation is best done after we return from the break.
All the best to you and yours over the holiday.
Craig Randall
Thank you so much for a fantastic start to the 2014-15 school year. I can hardly believe that shortly after we come back high school semester exams begin.
Speaking of exams, click here for the exam schedule.
Some suggestions to best help your children succeed in their exams:
Discuss how best to use the time allocated for the examination. Ensure your child understands the importance of reading the examination paper carefully, understanding what the question is asking, noting which questions carry the highest marks, planning answers and having enough time to proofread carefully and redraft answers if necessary. I cannot stress the importance of using all the time allocated enough.
Have a look at your child’s current grades on Plus Portals and discuss with her/him what the impact of a 20% semester examination mark will be. Grades will be calculated at the end of the first semester and 20% of this grade is from the semester examination. It is this grade that will go on your child’s transcript.
The mistake that many students make is leaving all their revision to the night before the examination. Cramming material in at the last minute causes stress and does not lead to lasting learning. Help your child overcome the temptation to do this by preparing an examination review schedule, with time allocated to all subjects over the next two weeks and time to go over everything a second or third time.
Here is an example of an evening revision schedule that you can print off and use.
Here is an example of a schedule that might suit your child if s/he is a more visual learner and enjoys creating mind maps to study from.
Here is another guide to studying, with sample study techniques and examples of student study plans.
Here are some more revision tips and hints.
Make sure that your child is spending adequate time at weekends preparing for these examinations.
Help your child to focus by making sure that they are working in a communal family room where you can just look up and see their computer screen. This will mean that your child will be focusing on work rather than being distracted by social media.
Make sure your child is getting enough sleep. Having enough sleep is an important contribution to success in learning at all times, but particularly during examinations.
Below I have linked a series of videos on Youtube presented by Dr Stephen Chew, a Professor of Psychology at Samford College in Birmingham, Alabama. These will help you and your child understand what effective studying consists of and how people learn. Professor Chew includes examples of deep processing strategies that, if followed, will help your child to learn the material for the examinations with true comprehension and with lasting understanding.
Here is Episode 1 This is called, “Beliefs that make you fail-or succeed.” It is 6.53 minutes long.
Here is Episode 2. “What students should know about how people learn” 7.14 minutes long.
Here is Episode 3. “Cognitive principles for optimising learning.” 5.45 minutes long.
Here is Episode 4.’Putting principles of learning into practice.” 9.16 minutes long.
Here is the final episode. “I blew the exam. Now what?” 7.28 minutes long.
Here is a link to a BBC report on a psychological study of the best revision techniques, published in 2013.
I hope that these ideas will prove useful and enable you to support your child as s/he prepares to do her/his very best in our semester examinations.
Having shared all of this information please know that I definitely believe it is very important for families and our students to relax and enjoy quality family time together over the holidays. The heavy lifting on exam preparation is best done after we return from the break.
All the best to you and yours over the holiday.
Craig Randall
The World Scholars Cup
The GAA World Scholar’s Cup students are now getting ready for the competition in Brighton College on the 30th January, here in Abu Dhabi. Mr Broderick and Miss Heatly have arranged several guest speakers to discuss their areas of specialism in the topics to study for the competition. Topics vary from the history of Apartheid to music by Radiohead. A timetable of sessions taking place in the month of January will be posted outside Mr Broderick’s room, Miss Heatly’s room and Mr Mott’s room, once these have been confirmed by staff. Students should discuss who can attend sessions and attempt to have at least one team member go each one, if possible. Please remember to post on Edmodo and discuss what you have learned so each team can benefit from your research. Keep checking out new items on the list to research yourself and share your opinions with others. Focus on the topics which interest you initially and share that interest with others then try to work with your team to ensure that most topics areas have been covered by the strengths of at least one member of the team.
Keep posting and sharing and enjoy the topics over the holidays in order to be as knowledgeable as possible for the competition in five weeks’ time.
Mr Broderick and Miss Heatly
Keep posting and sharing and enjoy the topics over the holidays in order to be as knowledgeable as possible for the competition in five weeks’ time.
Mr Broderick and Miss Heatly
Grade 8 Trip To Masdar City
This week, grade 8 and Mr. Lyons went on a filed trip to Masdar City to learn about renewable energy. Here are some quotes directly from the students about what they learned on the trip:
Donghyun (Yil): "There was lots of interesting things that works by solar power there was even a battery charger that charges its self by shaking and it charges himself it was really cool even though it was quite expensive. There is even a car that moves without a driver. I wish in future, everybody can generally have that car. There were about 7200 solar panels that make electricity outside. And the buildings were all stick together because it can store more sunlight."
Eliecer: "My favorite thing were the cars and how they work, and also liked all the solar panels that create a lot of electricity, I also like the shapes of the buildings and also the explanation of why they have that form, also how the city works with renewable energy, also I like how masdar city is going to work with another source of energy in the future. "
Isra: "I really liked the designs of the buildings. The driverless cars were really fun and we should have more of them in the UAE. The whole city was powered on renewable energy!"
Jaimie: "It was fun learning about how they got enough energy to run the city, and how they are planning to expand. It was cool how they planned and designed the buildings to benefit the city."
Priyanka: "The driverless cars were really cool . The solar panels produced 20 Megawatts .The toys shop had toys which worked with renewable energy !"
Donghyun (Yil): "There was lots of interesting things that works by solar power there was even a battery charger that charges its self by shaking and it charges himself it was really cool even though it was quite expensive. There is even a car that moves without a driver. I wish in future, everybody can generally have that car. There were about 7200 solar panels that make electricity outside. And the buildings were all stick together because it can store more sunlight."
Eliecer: "My favorite thing were the cars and how they work, and also liked all the solar panels that create a lot of electricity, I also like the shapes of the buildings and also the explanation of why they have that form, also how the city works with renewable energy, also I like how masdar city is going to work with another source of energy in the future. "
Isra: "I really liked the designs of the buildings. The driverless cars were really fun and we should have more of them in the UAE. The whole city was powered on renewable energy!"
Jaimie: "It was fun learning about how they got enough energy to run the city, and how they are planning to expand. It was cool how they planned and designed the buildings to benefit the city."
Priyanka: "The driverless cars were really cool . The solar panels produced 20 Megawatts .The toys shop had toys which worked with renewable energy !"
Here is our Community and Secondary School Calendar - Scroll through the months to see what's planned for this year at GAA
Please make sure you check this calendar regularly for updates and new events