If your child is struggling to do well at school, the temptation is to whip out their report and exam results, zone in their marks and the areas that need improvement and create a plan to score higher next term.
And it makes sense – it usually boils down to numbers anyway: ATAR, HSC, bands, etc. It’s a concrete and straightforward way of seeing your child’s progress.
But if you want to truly understand your child’s academic potential, you need to look beyond their marks. The factors influencing their academic performance extend far beyond raw grades and need deeper evaluation.
Usually, when a student struggles, the underlying issue goes beyond mere lack of effort or motivation. Limiting beliefs, feelings of pressure or inadequacy (whether real or perceived) and emotional dysregulation contribute more significantly to most students’ performance than most parents think. To help move our teenagers safely and effectively throughout the school year, we need to assess these factors before deciding on a study effectiveness plan.
Recognising and addressing your child’s specific challenges is key— not only to their academic success but to their overall personal growth. It’s a little bit like checking your car before a long road trip. You’d usually check the tyres, the oil or water levels, to make sure everything is working well as it should and there’s nothing that’s at risk for the journey ahead.
And the school year is a long journey, and it can feel even longer when you’re watching your child refuse to take directions even if you know they’re going the wrong way! Sound familiar?
No, I’m not talking about your partner or spouse! 😉
But a prudential planning for a good road trip is really no different to making sure your child has the motivation energy and a full tank of gas to successfully complete the journey and enjoy some fun along the way. If they have a roadmap to address the specific roadblocks they encounter, it can completely transform their senior school journey from one of overwhelm and struggle, to confidently achieving consistently strong results across their subjects.
Of course, your child needs to put in the miles but by minimising resistance and bolstering their resilience, they are going to be much better placed to tackle learning if their approach vectors are tailored to their unique learning profile.
So, if your child seems to be putting in the effort but not seeing the results, or if they’re feeling frustrated and confused about the marks they’ve been getting, it’s time to look under the hood and look at the possible learning challenges that might be affecting them.
Mind blanks and lack of mastery
Even if your child reads a whole textbook or studies the entire syllabus in preparation for their exam, they won’t be able to get better marks unless they have truly mastered the concepts. Conceptual mastery means not just understanding the material but also being able to apply that knowledge critically during exams.
A well-structured and consistent study plan, including effective exam preparation, is essential to build mastery and confidence. As your child’s understanding deepens, they’ll be able to anticipate and critically analyse the questions. Most importantly, they could present their answer and write them down exactly as the marker wants!
Disillusion and mismatched efforts
We’ve met a lot of students who just resort to doing practice paper after practice paper, and that’s one way to do it. But sometimes, the amount of effort they give into these papers doesn’t reflect the marks they want and causes more disappointment. A constant cycle of disappointing results can trigger a decline in their motivation and feelings of disillusion, which drags their self-esteem down and limits bigger aspirations, such as the uni they prefer or the career they’re aiming for.
To break this cycle, the key is to work smarter, not harder. We should align your child’s strengths, learning styles, and preferences to their personalised plan and study habits so that we can make the most of each learning session.
Some can’t stand studying for one hour straight, but some can go for hours with intense focus. By taking a look at their cognitive load or the amount of mental work during various types of study sessions, we can put in active measures to ensure they’re learning at optimum levels while preventing their developing minds from cognitive overload. Pushing beyond healthy limits can cause even the most diligent student to become ineffective and create issues in mental health, motivation and focus.
Neurodiversity and other mental health challenges
Anxiety disorders, depression, and other mental health challenges, including neurodiverse factors such as ADHD and dyslexia, can greatly influence a student’s academic performance.
Some parents overlook that students with these learning challenges do excel in school if given the appropriate support and systems. We’ve seen countless students with say ADHD or dyslexia perform at the exact same level, if not better, than their neurotypical counterparts during exams simply because they’re equipped with the right strategies to tap into their knowledge base and adapt to their environment, no matter how anxious they get. Their differences represent a beautiful and unique way of problem-solving. Instead of looking at these challenges as ‘defects’ or ‘deficits’, we look at them as unharnessed strengths lying dormant, waiting to be activated to help the child succeed.
With empathy and understanding, students with neurodiverse and mental health challenges can keep up and even excel past their neurotypical counterparts. If your child can relate to any of these challenges, we’d be more than happy to provide them with their personalised roadmap and strategies to adapt to their learning context.
Peak Academic Performance Through the Study Effectiveness Amplifier
To harness your child’s dormant academic potential, we’ve found that the 80-20 rule works best for students with learning challenges. Where can your child focus 20% of their effort to produce 80% of results?
And this is where having a study effectiveness amplifier can really change your child’s entire outlook when it comes to the school year. Your child could literally be spending 80% less time compared to what they’re currently doing if they amplified their study effectiveness using our tool.
To amplify their study effectiveness, we implement cognitive adapters to tailor to your child’s needs. As a result, every bit of work they put in is strategic, calibrated to enhance learning so they can ultimately achieve better marks. We’ve seen a lot of our students go from overwhelmed and frustrated to confident and scoring 90+ on at least 3 subjects after implementing the study effectiveness amplifier.
Some parents would choose to focus on the numbers to gauge their child’s academic potential, overlooking the underlying factors that affect them. But we know that’s not you — because despite your busy schedule, you committed to learning more about addressing the possible challenges that your child might be facing. Even when you know it’s going to take a little more effort from here on out, you’re ready to get to the bottom of the problem and work with your child to address it.
Parent and child collaboration is the foundation of a rewarding academic journey. With tailored support and targeted interventions, your child is going to experience significant improvement in her marks, work in her optimal learning levels, and regain their self-confidence.
Ready to get started?
Book a free discovery session with our Education Strategist today to learn how we can help create a tailored success strategy for your child.
