Exam Success Hacked
Because happy students achieve their potential.
Supercharge your A level or GCSE revision
with 12 life-changing hacks to take control,
stay well and revise smarter
Bright kids who want to do well battle with motivation, ambition, and resilience.
As a former head of sixth form and teacher I’ve seen it happen; students who deserve to feel happy, ambitious and motivated actually feel miserable and despondent.
Confidence, concentration and motivation are always a struggle and sometimes stress and anxiety can lead to very real well-being and mental health concerns.
Studying well is not intuitive.
Schools are teaching for exams,
not creating confident, curious learners.
Teachers are under more pressure than ever to race through a packed curriculum and students are often given no advice on how to organise themselves, how to approach their work and how to study effectively. From primary school onward kids get more homework, take more tests and have important exams from year 6. But are they doing much better? Or are they becoming stressed way too young?
With immense pressure on results, secondary students get ever more support in the forms of extra lessons, revision packs, breakfast clubs etc but this makes students become more dependent, not less.
"I found the coaching sessions with Glenn to be really useful.
It helped me to manage my time which helped me feel less overwhelmed by it all. He was very encouraging and positive and I enjoyed chatting to him each time."
Maddy, Bristol
More help is not the answer
Mums, dads and carers are desperate to help; but not
with a short term fix.
Learning to rely less on parents, carers and teachers is an essential part of growing up. By the time they get to GCSEs you can't help the way you used to, even though they're struggling.
Even if you had all the time, all the specialist subject knowledge or a squad of tutors, you know that's not what they need. You can't help answer every question; you can't be there for every setback to rebuild their self-confidence.
More hand holding isn't the path to self-confidence, self-awareness, or resilience.
Kids need to learn study skills
There are thousands of tried and tested approaches to time management, organisation, revision and learning.
Most of us probably didn't need to and didn't really know to manage our time until we got a job. But we all work more efficiently when we learn to prioritise and structure our work.
Many happy and successful students have usually figured this out by university but they could be helped to be happier and more effective students long before then.
By why are we leaving them to figure this out for themselves?
Study hacks
Teenagers can the learn tied-and-tested tips and techniques from other students, athletes, performers and entrepreneurs.
thusky draws from psychology, neuroscience, sports coaching, business leadership and the science of happiness. As well as being taught how to study better teenagers benefit from learning positive thinking, a growth mindset, mindfulness, and goal-setting.
Happy, healthy students achieve
Shouldn't we also show teenagers how to look after
their own well-being?
Teenagers talk about stress and anxiety and they tell us off for being passive-aggressive, but this doesn't actually mean they have the experience to take responsibility for their physical, mental or emotional health. This is a lifetime journey for most of us; but teenagers can be helped along the way.
Thusky takes a holistic approach
attitude - skills - balance
My years of experience as a teacher and head of sixth form taught me that happy and confident learners become independent by developing skills in three key areas: attitude to learning, balance and well-being and study skills.
confidence
motivation
resilience
well-being
consistency
study skills