A Parent’s Secret GCSE Journey

In my last article I talked about using ‘Future Pacing’ and ‘Time distortion’ which are two techniques you can weave into conversations to help release your son or daughter from over whelment and pressure.

They are simple and powerful, if executed with thought and care.

I want to share with you what my son and I have learnt from his GCSE journey.

I do have to let you into a secret though, as you are not going to believe what I did!

In fact I still can’t believe I did it myself.

There were a few reasons why I did it.

But before I share my secret I want to talk about the ‘Concept of Immersion’.

I recommend this for everyone.

I started to realise the power of this was huge.

In school it takes an entire term to learn stuff, but we can become expert in a very short amount of time if we immerse ourselves in it.

If you do it with immersion you can learn 90 to 80 % in a very short and finite period of time.

Especially if you take a topic you are really passionate about.

Let’s say I want to learn about online marketing …

I could go and read a book on it, do some stuff on it and in six months I will know a couple of things.

Or I can immerse myself in it.

So that’s what I did, I went online and purchased every course, podcast, audio book, videos, as much stuff as I could.

I spent 30 days learning everything I could, I completely immersed myself in it. In the car I listened to audios, while food shopping I was plugged in, I scanned through books and I immersed myself as hard as I could for a short period of time.

You can learn enough in a week on any topic, you can become fairly expert in it.

My goal is not to learn absolutely everything on it or read to the end of every book. I find the things I can use that are applicable to me, as fast as I can.

When you do that you assimilate information very fast.

What is really cool is that a lot of people can read a book on a topic and they get it from one author’s perspective, the problem with that is it is one guys perspective.

Get five or six books, so you can get everyone’s perspective and you get a whole picture.

This also helps you to make connections that you don’t make when you dabble.

Just imagine if you did this with GCSEs.

What is really tricky at school is you spend an hour here and an hour there. Learn several topics in a three-hour period. You end up dabbling and the connections don’t happen.

Take one topic and cram it as hard as you can for a finite period of time, you get so much stuff.

That’s why I like our Grade Busters online maths courses, you get so much stuff, you do get overwhelmed with all the content you are learning …

But the real purpose behind ‘immersion’ is you start to get all these connections …

You start thinking … ‘Oh that’s how all the stuff fits together!’

That’s the power with immersion, you are able to make the connections.

When I want to learn something, I completely immerse myself in it.

So, now for my little secret …

My son was taking his Religious Education GCSE, a year early.

So, I completely immersed myself in the GCSE content. I learnt the whole GCSE scheme of work. I then broke it down into 15-minute teaching points which I delivered with my son daily.

Now, I am certainly not advising or recommending you do that, but the point I am making is I completely immersed myself. I became expert enough with the GCSE content.

Needless to say, I did not do that the following year when he took 12 other subjects!!!!

You may question my actions.

Why would a parent do that?

Well, I did it to feel and experience my son’s journey. To remind myself what it feels like to study something you are not passionate about.

From my own educational journey, I had negative experiences and associations around the subject.

Through the process I learnt and understood things about Christianity and Judaism that I had not grasped or understood when I was at school.

A strange thing to do, some parents may think!

As we get older our thoughts change and shift and sometimes as parents we are so wrapped up in our own needs and desires, we find it challenging to see the world through teenage eyes, once we have become an adult.

If you were wondering … yes, he did pass, he got an A or some of you will be familiar with the grading of a 7, which I thought was pretty good considering he took it a year early and it wasn’t a subject he was interested in. His efforts paid off as that was one GCSE ‘under his belt’ and he could close those textbooks and he had the choice to end his journey with that subject, which I am sure was a big relief for him.

By taking one or two GCSEs a year early is a great way to help your child realise the demand and it is a great way to prepare them. If they pass them, then that removes a huge work load the following year and secondly, if they don’t get the grade they were hoping for, they can re-take the following year anyway.

But the important reason for taking a GCSE early is to experience the learning process and understand the demands GCSE content expects.

A challenge that gave me great insight into the world of a teenager in 2018.

If you wish to immerse yourself in maths GCSE content look out for our online course.

Remember immersion is sure fire way to a great result.