“He just needs to work harder…”
The idea that hard work is all children need to get good marks is one of the greatest education scams around.
At Kalibrate-Ed, we’ve spent over 15 years working with underachieving students, leaders, and athletes in the high-performance space.
You know what we’ve found?
The only thing you get from telling anyone that they need to ‘work harder’ is them looking for ways to make things hard.
We’ve met hundreds of students who stayed up all night to study but did not get the results they expected. Why?
Because they’ve been told that the ‘hard-working student’ is the student who gets good marks is. Someone who studies hard and is always focused on their books.
It’s a scam.
This innocuous-sounding piece of praise might seem harmless enough. But beneath this widely touted traditional view belies a limiting belief that can make students decide not to put any effort into school before they even try.
Students who are told they are, or need to be ‘hard workers’ – they don’t feel encouraged or inspired. They feel like someone has just told them that things are going to be hard.
So guess what— they either:
- Avoid things because they’re anticipating it’ll feel hard; or
- They self-sabotage or unconsciously look for ways to make things hard because they feel they haven’t done enough to be a hard worker.
Both of these scenarios will lead to students who underachieve well below their potential.
We are calling out this scam because that’s the thing about limiting beliefs—they’re subtle, casual, often a slip of the tongue or an unintended mantra your mind that’s somehow gotten stuck on loop.
Until suddenly, someone calls your ‘beliefs’ into question.
And then you start to question other things. “He needs to know that the HSC is going to be hard work”.
That’s not true. Sure, you need to do the work to get the result.
But no one said it had to be HARD.
Not unless you choose for it to be. And why would you do that to your child?
Most parents accidentally fall into this kind of education scams because they’re worried their child isn’t taking it seriously. And with so many teens who only put in the bare minimum or don’t put in the work, we can totally see why a lot of parents are trying to instil upon their teenager the gravity of the situation.
But it’s not helping. It’s just putting more overwhelm, expectation and pressure on their plate.
There is a way to flip this.
What’s the opposite of hard?
EASY.
In fact, there are so many ways to make school easier, enjoyable, rewarding and beneficial to your child’s short-term academic results as well as their future tertiary studies and career earning potential.
And the easiest way to flip things from ‘hard’ to ‘easy’ is to find out what’s making things hard in the first place with a personalised study strategy.
If your child can study in a way that removes distractions, barriers, excuses, self-doubt or their favourite— ‘C.B.F’—then not only will they be studying more effectively and efficiently.
Everything, for the whole family, will be much much easier.
If you’re looking for an easier way to improve your child’s study attitude or academic marks so they’re set up with the confidence for the best possible future opportunities (whatever they want to do), read on and we’ll be sharing a case study and some tips below.
How Matthew Turned Failing Marks to 95%
Last school holidays, we met Matthew. He was a Year 10 student who did a little better with assignments because he had more time to work on them, but really didn’t do well in tests and exams.
He was overwhelmed by how to prepare for exams and often didn’t answer questions properly. His teachers said he was an engaged student who answered questions well in class, but his exam responses were unstructured and missed a lot of detail.
When Matthew failed three of his Year 10 exams in subjects, he knew he needed to do well in for Years 11 and 12. That’s when his mum, Susan, got in touch.
We helped Susan develop a personalised study strategy to improve Matthew’s marks and give him a high ATAR for better university options and potential high-paying careers. We created an improvement plan for higher marks by identifying his vulnerabilities and introducing special tactics.
Within 11 weeks, Matthew jumped two bands in every subject and got 95% on his Maths test. This gave him an enormous confidence boost about doing Physics and Chemistry in Year 12.
Now, Matthew has an updated improvement plan for Term 3 for an academic scholarship requiring strong Year 11 and 12 results. He became more motivated and focused. And for the first time ever, he’s confident he can do whatever he wants to pursue.
We get really pumped up working with students like Matthew, who really want to do well but just don’t know how and where to start. Matthew had the potential all along, he just needed a strategy that would work well with his strengths and a plan that would set him towards the right direction.
Personalise Your Child’s Study Strategy
According to a recent report from the Victorian Department of Education, personalised learning strategies were found to improve student achievement by 10%. Matthew’s recent achievement is just one of the many stories that show how much personalised study strategies can impact student outcomes.
There are so many ways parents can take charge and ensure that their child’s study strategy fits their needs. Here are three easy starting points:
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Start the conversation.
Teenagers find talking about their school life and future difficult, even with their parents. The easiest way to close that gap is for you to take the first step and open the conversation.
Ask about their goals. What do they want to achieve? What particular subjects or activities do they find hard to learn?
Listening to your child is one of the simplest, yet most impactful things you can do. Empower them to articulate their thoughts in a safe space free of judgment.
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Identify and work with their Unique Learning Profile.
Your child’s unique learning profile (ULP) is like a blueprint of their learning DNA: their strengths, their weaknesses and aspirations.
Find out what motivates your child to study or improve and what they’re good at. What are their ‘blockers’ at school or even at home that hinder them from giving their 100%?
Knowing your child’s ULP is a game-changer. It can point you and your child to the right kind of support that will make the most significant impact on your child’s Term 3 results.
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Create your child’s study strategy around their ULP.
Because your child has a distinct ULP, they’re going to need a personalised plan that would propel their results next semester.
This might sound intimidating at first and that’s why we’re here to support you. If you want something to help you improve your child’s marks fast, we created an improvement plan that can boost their results within the next ten weeks.
The improvement plan includes a list of special tactics you can personalise for your child. It also comes with recommendations based on the latest analysis of Term 2/Semester 1 results across 85 NSW secondary schools. To get a copy, you can check out the free tool here.
No matter how your child insists they could improve their marks alone, and with only hard work, it’s important to remember that they really cannot. It’s one of the greatest education scams there are. In reality, they’re going to need all the help and guidance they can get if they want to reach their ideal results.
If you want more ideas on how you can boost your child’s marks and lift their trajectories this Term 3, our education coaches are ready to brainstorm with you. Just click here to get started.
