Wednesday 30 July 2025
Kia ora Parents and Guardians,
Last week signalled the beginning of the academic term for the students and staff of King's College. At this point in the year, every opportunity is an important one, every assessment counts and any time spent preparing for examinations is time well invested.
Being well prepared is the secret to students being successful in these testing times. Going into assessments or examinations with a confident mindset places the brain in the best position to perform well, as dendrites work well in confident and non-panicked environments. So, if success is built on being well prepared, I subscribe to some of the following suggestions:
- Studying in the morning and early evening is best, as the natural circadian rhythm identifies these times as when the brain works best.
- Study is best done in 50-minute blocks with rewards, intrinsic or otherwise, established at the end of the 50 minutes. Having a defined goal for every session is important. Studying “Mathematics” for example is unrealistic and vague. Studying “quadratics” is sharper.
- Studying for humanities subjects is very different to studying for skill-based subjects, like Mathematics, for example. Techniques to store large volumes of information is important for the humanities; practice, practice, practice is the secret to the latter.
- Examinations are activities where there are no prompts, no notes. A study programme for each subject will be heavily loaded with learning. As the programme develops, that same study programme will be more dominated by review to the point where in the final sessions, students may have no notes and no prompts around them. This is important as the exam itself will be void of all triggers for recollection.
- Personally, I create acronyms for everything, when it comes to preparing for exams, so that these become the prompts in the exam setting. Students will also have their own tricks; some like notes, some like mind maps, others create lyrics to their own songs…!
At this stage in the year, I usually run lunchtime sessions for students grappling with study and exam techniques. I am happy to run these again as it’s important that all students know how to get the best out of both the preparation and the exam itself.
As a parent, we sometimes wonder how we can help. Stability and routine at home are important. A settled environment makes an important contribution to your student’s success. Having a physical place that ‘belongs’ to your student is critical so that they can rely on it to have all their study ingredients, including a wall planner, available.
Talking about subjects with your children, understanding what they are learning and even asking them to teach you about it goes a long way in sealing the information in their minds and strengthening those dendrite connections required for success. Car trips, doing the dishes, chatting over breakfast or dinner can be simple and practical opportunities to do just that.
I wish you all well in these testing times. If you think your son or daughter might benefit from a session on the above and, separately, one on exam technique, please contact me at s.lamb@kingscollege.school.nz. I’ll collate the names and run some sessions for them in the coming weeks.
Of course, please contact the College if you have any questions at any stage during this important term.
Good luck.
Simon Lamb
Headmaster, King's College