TRANSCRIPT:

You’re listening to The Parents of Hardworking Teens Podcast, episode 111 - a real life skilled and strategic student case study where they INTENTIONALLY left out the intro of their extended response in an exam, didn’t get time to go back and write it, and what that meant for their result. Be sure to stay tuned, because it may NOT be what you think.

 - Music -

Hey VIP’s! I hope you and your teens are doing great.
I am AMAZING.
I STILL have unopened boxes, but things are getting there.
In fact, given that I have no idea any more about what is actually in those boxes and we’ve clearly lived without them for weeks - over a month now, I’m in half a mind to just get rid of them. I mean I won’t. I’m not that bold. But every time I move, I actually find that un-packing is actually a better de-cluttering exercise than packing. You open a box and go, really? Where am I going to put this? Why did I decide this must definitely come along with us? In fact I have one box that literally never gets opened, but does always move with us, because it’s got photo albums in it. You definitely can’t throw out photo albums can you. Like old actual printed - or what’s the right word - processed? ‘DEVELOPED’ photos in them. Honestly it just stay in the garage til we move again. So, seeing as we don’t intend on moving again, this one will probably go up in the attic. It’s a bit like the tree that falls but doesn’t make a sound if no-one’s there to hear it.
Does it count if you keep something or not, if no-one ever looks at it?

Anyway, it’s a ‘one day I’ll probably… situation. A ‘just in case’  kinda thing isn’t it. We won’t through them away, in case we want to reminisce when we’re old. Even though we haven’t taken them out so far in 14 years. But just in case… probably… when we’re old- we’ll look at them.

And - that can be our segue for today’s episode. Get me off the topic of moving and boxes. ‘Just in case’ is a phrase I use a fair bit when talking about students and their assessments, essays and exam answers.
Because - and I’m included in this back when I was a student - big time included in this - so many try to write in extra information or write more than is required, JUST IN CASE.
Just in case they didn’t answer it right, so put some more info down, just in case.
OR
Just in case there are some extra bonus marks available somewhere not on the mark scheme.
As in “I’ll put this bonus info in, because I’ve worked hard to learn it, I want to show how knowledgeable I am, and you never know I might get an extra mark of two for it”.
Well, spoiler… there are no bonus marks.
The upper years of high school and college are not like Years 7 or 8 where you get extra ticks, gold stars or teacher acknowledgement for going over and above, doing more than was required, or showing extra research and bonus knowledge and facts. More on that in episode 103 if that resonates.

Because, in my mind at least, from an examiner’s perspective, who’s just looking for clear, direct responses, looking for evidence to match the mark scheme. And as a study coach, who wants students to achieve their best, in the most efficient and effective and sustainable way…
I’m MOST impressed by and ALL about the focused, direct and succinct responses. Those that hit the top criteria, without extraneous info, without the waffle or tangents, without bonus facts or extra knowledge to impress.
Now, putting it in, just in case, usually comes from two head-spaces.
Either they’re guessing at what’s required, so they’re trying to cover as many bases as possible.Or, they’re trying to pick up those imaginary bonus marks by trying to impress the teacher or examiner with extra knowledge.

And Mark - a student I recently had an ‘end of 10 Week Grade Transformation Program’ consult with, along with his mum, used to do both of those.
Guessing, and trying to impress the marker with the extra info he knew.

Which meant that he often ran out of time when it came to timed assessments, tests and exams.
And I want to share with you one specific assessment that he told me about SINCE he completed the 10WGT.

Because I’ve come up with something a little bit different for this episode, and I’m going to do potentially do more of these sorts of episodes. Just because I think seeing - or hearing - how some of this looks in real life can be helpful.
I’m going to share a real life example of something that a student or parent has had happen, on the ground, in real life, at the coal face, so that you and your teen can see proof and real life examples of some of the concepts and strategies that I teach in action.


The first one I want to share today is from Mark. Now, I’m going to change names here, just because these aren’t public recorded testimonials or case studies. (Though they will definitely know who they are if they hear this. And I got so excited about it on our consult, that they won’t be surprised to hear it either.)


So, here’s what happened.
They had completed the 10 Week Grade Transformation Program and had recently completed Catapult 9 - Essays Made Easy AND had a chance to almost instantly put the training into practise with an extended response in test assessment.
Now an extended response isn’t quite the same as an essay, and that’s the first reason why this is such a nice example to share.

The concepts, skills and strategies that I train students in are universal. I spoke about this in detail on last week’s episode 110.And so that means that a LOT of what applies to an essay, applies to other extended tasks as well. And Mark not only knew and this and got it, but actually did it. Carried over the skills involved in planning, structuring and then writing an essay response and applied them beautifully to an extended response task.
Now, they showed that they’re still working on and developing the skill of answering directly and succinctly, because, it turned out in our conversation that on reflection, they knew they had written more than they needed to for an earlier 6 mark question.
Good awareness, right?
But what happened was that, when they got to the 10 mark question at the end, even though they were short on time, they followed my exact steps on how to tackle an essay question, how to plan and structure the response.
Now, there are a few strategies and steps to doing this, and one of them is to: write the intro last.
Focus on the body paragraphs. And this is for a few reasons:

One reason is simply because it’s hard to write an introduction when you haven’t yet written the actual content you’re supposed to be introducing.
It’s no wonder students often find it hard to get going with an essay is it?
If they approach it chronologically, not strategically,  they start out trying to write an introduction, when they don’t have anything to introduce yet.
Another reason to focus on the body paragraphs is because the body paragraphs are where you get the majority of the marks. That’s where you have your evidence, quotes and examples. Where you have the actual explanations and analysis. It’s the meat of actually responding to and answering the question.
IF they are actually answering the question of course. Which is why it’s so important to be able to dissect the question and truly understand what it’s REALLY asking in the first place.
But we’ve seen that Mark is taking on and really applying the 10WGT training, so Mark had been able to do that.
And so he got stuck into planning and then writing the body of his response. He then wrote a short conclusion. And then… the time was up. He’d run out of time to write the introduction.

He literally had blank lines, a gap at the top of the response space where his intro would’ve gone.
But he wasn’t stressed and worried. He didn’t feel great, not getting everything finished. But he didn’t panic.
Because he’d followed the steps and understood the concepts behind it. How mark schemes work. The importance of dissecting and responding to the exact wording of and level of the question. He knew he’d matched his examples and evidence to the focus of the question.

And so, although he was still in the boat of having run out of time in an exam, he DID get to all of the questions, which was in itself a big improvement AND,... when he got the results back, he’d gotten for that 10 mark question at the end… 8 out of 10.
For a not even complete response, that was literally blank at the top, he got, not a 5 or 6 that we might think would be about right for a good, but incomplete answer.
He got 8 out of 10.
For a question he previously wouldn’t have likely even gotten to and if he had, would’ve started at the introduction and would’ve gotten some of those low level marks for that, and missed out on marks for the high level stuff like discerning selection of supporting evidence, and detailed analysis of that evidence that happens in the body of the extended response..


So, I share this to show two things…
One, that these systems and processes work.
Two, that when your teen is under pressure, is the exact time TO use these techniques and strategies.
It would’ve been so easy for Mark to fall back into old habits in the stress of the moment, with time ticking away, and just start answering with an introduction.

And thirdly, to show how, when your teen understands the underlying concepts and systems, they can apply the steps and strategies universally.
This wasn’t an actual essay, but the concept was exactly the same. And Mark saw that and acted on it..


So shout out to Mark - not Mark. His mum will know who this is when she listens.
You’ve done an awesome job. And now we’re going to get to work together in Next Level Coaching to refine, hone and up-level, to stay focused and direct in response to ALL questions and commands, so there’s no adding it in just in case like in that earlier 6 mark question, and therefore no unnecessary stress or struggle, less uncertainty and more time, breathing space and… yes, more marks too.

And shout out to you, dear VIP. Thank you so much for joining me today. I’d LOVE to know what you think of this episode, with real life examples and real life students and their experiences. Because I have PLENTY more where this came from. And will continue to look out for them specifically in future too to share if you enjoy them. Please email me support@rocksolidstudy.com and let me know, or pop it in a review on the app where you’re listening. (and while you’re there, you may as well leave a rating as well, it’s only one extra tap of the thumb.)I’ll see you back here next week, and until then, have a brilliant week. 
Take care, bye!