How to help your child survive the exam

Do not pump

At parent-teacher meetings, you have probably already been told many times that there is nothing in a person's life more fateful than the results of the exam. You know by heart the mantra that the future of your child directly depends on each point received on this most important of the exams. You have been threatenedly urged to take it seriously and not to relax. And, of course, you were asked to convey this to your children.

Of course, passing the exam is a serious matter. As serious as passing any other exam. Do not be overly imbued with grandiloquent arguments about its exceptional significance. And there is absolutely no need to remind the child about this once again: believe me, he hears about this from teachers every day.

It is better to remember how you yourself passed the final, and then the entrance exams. There was no terrible abbreviation then, but there were exams, and in total there were no less, and sometimes even more, than the current applicants.

The form has changed, but the final exams, as before, do not go beyond the school curriculum.

You did it in due time, and your child, who is certainly no more stupid than you, can do it. Tell him so.

11 years of school is more stress than the exam

A person who has done his homework every day for most of his life, read, solved, proved, memorized, and moved from class to class, knows enough to cope with the last school exams. Anyone who has written so many tests and has never died of fear on them has nothing to fear on the Unified State Exam. Compared to 11 years of apprenticeship, the stress of a few hours of final exams is such nonsense!

Tell your frightened child that the part about “easy” is about to come from the promised program “hard to learn - easy to fight”.

The more I learn, the less I know

"I know nothing!" - this is exactly the conclusion your graduate comes to during the preparation process and inevitably falls into despair. Tell him that he is not the first to understand this, and that Socrates also had a similar idea. Praise the child for correctly noticed addiction and explain that each new knowledge opens up a prospect for new unexplored areas for him, which gives rise to the illusion of insignificance of his own knowledge.

The one who stands at the foot of the mountain sees only one mountain, while the one who climbed to its top sees other mountains around.

At the same time, remind your child that he is not faced with the task of embracing the immense - you just need to remember the key things from the school curriculum. It is to remember, not to study. Everything that he "teaches" now, he has been teaching for the past 11 years.

Plan b

More than the USE itself, only the prospect of passing it on low scores, which will not be enough for admission to the desired university, frightens. As you know, the fear of failure is worse than failure itself. The best cure for this kind of anxiety is to visualize the worst-case scenario.

Try it yourself first, and then, together with your child, imagine that for some mystical reasons he failed the exam and that he will not go to the university of his dreams in the coming year. Consider several options for further action, but there are actually many of them. This is a simpler university, secondary specialized education, and self-education, and work, and various courses, and much more.

It is very important for your child to understand: failure on the exam in no way puts an end to his dreams of the future, but only makes the path to them a little more winding.

The exam can be retaken

And this is the most important thing to remember about the exam.

Those who are not fortunate enough to get a satisfactory score in Russian language or mathematics can re-take these subjects on the additional days set aside for retake. If the student has not passed both compulsory subjects, retaking is possible in the fall of the same year.

If it does not work out on the second try, you can repeat the retake next year. Graduates who have received higher than the minimum number of points on the exam, but want to improve their results, can also retake the exams for the next year.

Even the worst USE result is not a verdict; it can always be corrected if desired.

Repeat this more often, at least to yourself. Your calmness and confidence will help your child much more than horror stories about a forever ruined life and a career as a janitor.