Board exams are crucial to the career of students. The marks certificates of board exams are important educational documents valid for life. Many universities abroad grant admissions to professional universities based on the marks of board exams. An example is the SAARC scholarship. This scholarship grants Indian students who top board exams admission to different medical colleges that are a part of the SAARC treaty. Also, most of the competitive exams in India include the syllabus of the 11th and 12th board exams.
Therefore, board exams are very important, and parents are always on the lookout for strategies to support their children while preparing for the board exams. There have already been many discussions where we have given tips for students to top the board exams. This discussion will focus on the right strategies for parents to follow and suggest ways for them to support their children during the most crucial stage of their careers.
13 Most Effective Strategies to Support Your Child During Boards
- Take care of your mental health: Parents should sort out their mental conflicts and create a positive atmosphere for their children to study. Please do not let your children carry your emotional burdens. Put all stress-generating topics on hold. Children do not make it evident most of the time, but their parents’ emotional state affects their mental health. If the parents are fighting or have other issues, it reflects in their children’s grades. Therefore, parents are advised to keep their emotional burdens to themselves rather than display those in front of their children, especially when they are preparing for their board exams.
- Help your children create a study timetable: It is good for parents to sit with their children while preparing their study timetable and help them with the same. They should encourage the children to allot more time to the subject they are relatively weak in. After the timetable is ready, parents should make sure their children are following it and not waste time procrastinating. It does not mean that they should be on top of their children every time and interfere with their every activity; rather, they should encourage them to achieve their study goals. Giving them small rewards every time they hit a target will be helpful.
- Help them avoid distractions: Young students often get distracted by activities like browsing social media apps and watching tv series. While they are at them, they lose track of time. This leads to poor grades. Parents should strictly monitor their children’s time on social media apps and help them avoid distractions. This does not mean that they should eliminate these activities from their children’s lives. Keeping a check and helping them keep track of time will help.
- Give mental support whenever required: With the standard of exams and the course syllabi increasing day by day, students need to put lots of effort to score higher. They are under constant pressure and go through many ups and downs mentally. It is, therefore, important for parents to support their children in these difficult times. They can give them pep talks, share instances of stories from their childhood when they used to prepare for exams and point out their strengths to increase their confidence. Confidence is a much-needed asset to top board exams. Also, during board exam preparation, parents should avoid nagging their children about trivial issues like not cleaning their rooms or keeping their stuff disorganized. There is no need to add on to the stress and apprehensiveness.
- Help them follow a healthy lifestyle: It is very important for a healthy body. A healthy brain can exist only inside a healthy body. Parents must ensure their children eat nutritious meals and discourage them from consuming junk food. Nutrition also enhances energy levels and helps with focus and concentration. Low nutrition makes a person feel lazy and lethargic. It also decreases concentration levels and leads to impaired memory and cognition.
- Ensure their children sleep adequately: Having a healthy sleep schedule is important for a good memory. It is as important as eating healthy and staying physically active. A human brain needs rest in the form of sleep to perform better. Sleep deprivation leads to poor concentration and health hazards. Parents should ensure their children get at least 8 hours of sleep every night, especially on the night before the board exam.
- Do not pressurize your child: Parents should be considerate and not set unrealistic academic targets for their children. They should realise that every child is different and there is a limit to everyone’s abilities. Every child can perform according to their ability and IQ. There is a difference between encouraging your child and pressuring them to get good grades in board exams. Please do not force your dreams on your children. Children are not machines made to fulfill their parents’ dreams. There have been incidents where students have resorted to suicide due to peer pressure and unrealistic expectations by parents regarding their studies. The world is already cruel enough, don’t make it worse for your children.
- Please do not compare your children: Parents should realize that their neighborhood kids and relatives can score high in board exams. It does not mean their children have to score higher to beat them. As it has been mentioned already, every child has different abilities. Competition is good, but only as long as it does not affect your child’s mental health. Parents should prioritize their child’s mental stability over the unhealthy competition.
- Let your children discuss their dreams with you: Parents should sit with their children and patiently listen to their dreams and ambitions. They should then make them understand how good scoring marks in board exams will help them achieve those dreams. They should also encourage their children to dream higher. Only those who have dreams find ways to fulfill those.
- Give them time: Times have changed, and many parents these days do not have time to give to their children. As a result, the children are on themselves and make wrong choices. Children who spend more time with their parents tend to be more responsible, making productive use of their time. Parents need to spend time with their children discussing their syllabus and study goals during board exams. This will prevent them from procrastinating and motivate them to study effectively.
- Arrange meetings with their teachers: Teachers know a student better than their parents in many cases. Parents should arrange occasional meetings with their children’s teachers to discuss their weak points and monitor their progress. Also, they should try to find out if they are attending classes and giving the tests regularly.
- Be cool: Finally, if your kid has not performed well in the board exam, do not harass them. Do not bombard your kid with questions as soon as he leaves the exam hall. Acknowledge that your child has worked hard under your guidance, but things don’t always work out as planned. Parents should learn to accept their children’s failures as readily as they accept their success. Then only the children will learn to maintain calm in the face of failures. These are important life lessons, as important as getting nice grades in board exams are! There is much more to life than scoring high on the board exam and getting good grades. Parents should be friendly with the children and support them mentally for the next exam. Getting one paper wrong is not the end of life!
- Reduce social engagements: Students are always restless when preparing for board exams. They need to cover a lot of syllabi in a short time period. In such a situation, if parents throw parties at home or engage in long telephonic conversations with family and friends, it will cause unnecessary distractions. Parents need to stay away from distractions during their children’s exams to encourage them to stay focused and concentrate. All the social engagements and relationships can wait!
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