SHOW NOTES

Ep. 79
Who wants to waste time or effort treating the symptoms of a a problem when we could eradicate the cause?  
Understanding the issues (symptoms) and figuring out the root problems (causes) of your teen's study struggles - and then solving those root causes - is how we create lasting change and BIG improvements.

FEATURED ON THE SHOW:

• Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades.
   
• Follow Rock Solid Study on Facebook
   
• Follow Rock Solid Study on Instagram
   
• Have your teen trained by Katie in the 10WGT: 10 Week Grade Transformation Program
   
• Next Level Coaching:  (for 10WGT grads only). Work with Katie personally to apply the skills and strategies from the 10WGT accurately, and effectively and then amplify them to take things to the Next Level.

TRANSCRIPT:
 

You’re listening to The Parents of Hardworking Teens Podcast, episode number 79 - understanding the issues or problems your teen might be facing in their study- big or small and how we can only truly solve them by getting to the root cause rather than treating the symptoms. Because who wants to waste time or effort treating the symptoms when we could just eradicate the cause? 
 

Hey VIPs! I hope your day is going really well so far. I have kind of found a second wind of energy right now to round out this year. I had a really busy few weeks with external exam marking, the Crack the Exam Code webinar, and then an earlybird enrolment for Next Level which I ran another live event for, and I did hit a bit of a wall towards the end of all that. But after a slow few days of just getting the bare basics of work and other general tasks done, I’m feeling full of beans again. Honestly, it only takes me a few days to refresh and re-energise myself, and having celebrations like our 10WGT student of the term - congratulations Kasia - and our Next Level Awards has really gee’d me up. And I’ve had some really lovely feedback from some of you from episode 78 last week - it sounds like having a totally different approach to your teen struggling with certain subjects or just not liking them, has been really helpful - so I’m really glad about that. 

I never really know which topics are going to be most popular, though of course over time, I am building up a bit of a picture, but there are episodes of the podcast that I put out that I think - oh wow, this is amazing, this is going to be such a key episode and then an episode that I didn’t necessarily think was totally groundbreaking or such a big deal will get way more downloads or feedback. And the numbers don’t lie, so I’m always keeping track of what is most helpful or popular for you.

This episode is actually in response to an email that I received from a parent after the Crack the Exam Code webinar a few weeks ago. Now, I always like to have a clear structure or format to anything I present - a lesson in class, a professional development seminar, a parent webinar. Mainly just because that’s how my brain works best. Turns out, from what I hear from you and your teens, it works for them too. So that’s good news. So, in this webinar I really wanted to share my insights into external exam marking, so rather than just randomly talk about what I was seeing, I did a big brain dump of everything and then I set up the format to be the 5 top issues I see and how to solve them. It wasn’t issue - solution. It was issue - problem - solution. 

I had one particular email afterwards that mentioned how they really liked that structure, the clarity that ISSUE - PROBLEM - SOLUTION gave but also how it highlighted that the issues we often see are actually caused by something else and that the underlying problem is what we then need to solve for. And that’s what led me to record this episode. The need to recognise that just like everything in life, treating the symptom won’t solve the actual problem, it will just paper over the issue. 

Most likely, what we get to see, maybe in class or at home, in students are the symptoms. For example like stress in the lead up to an exam, or procrastination over an assignment. Those are how the problems, the causes show up. The key to actually solving these issues is figuring out, specifically, what is the actual thing causing it? Not just, how do we help them feel less stressed, or can we put on a 5 minute motivational video to get that assignment started. Spoiler alert: motivational videos don’t work if the underlying cause of that procrastination is that they’re not actually clear on some part of the task. Which FYI - is the main reason I see for procrastination!

If we see things as the symptom being a sign that something is wrong. Then the cause is the reason the issue occurred.

If we think about symptoms in the way that word often gets used - in the medical sense, then if we broke our arm - we can take painkillers for the pain, but that won’t fix the problem. We need a proper treatment to help the bone heal properly. 

The important thing here is to differentiate the causes (the ACTUAL PROBLEM) from the symptoms (what we are seeing or experiencing as a result) so that we can find a solution that actually deals with the cause, solves the actual problem. This way, we can prevent it from happening again, or reduce it, or minimise the likelihood. When we just treat the symptom, the problem is just as likely to happen again, and we’ll need to keep repeating the treatment of the symptoms. Nothing actually improves overall. 

So, in your teen’s study, we need to take proactive action in relation to the cause, instead of reactively solving for the symptoms.

Let’s say that your teen is feeling stressed, because they have an exam coming up. Having them do breathing exercises might relieve some of the stress in the moment, but it doesn’t treat the cause of the stress - which is likely the pressure of the exam - what is riding on it, the fear of the unknown - not knowing what will come up on the paper, the uncertainty - not being sure about how to answer certain questions, or how to meet the mark scheme criteria. Those are things that are causing the stress. So the stress itself can actually be reduced when they have the strategies to revise effectively and efficiently, and have the skills to accurately dissect any question.

Here’s another issue that I see quite often and that I discussed in detail on the webinar: running out of time on an exam. 

I’ve had students try to practise writing faster, buying smoother flowing pens. But that isn’t WHY they’re running out of time. They’re not running out of time because they’re slow at writing. They’re running out of time because they’re trying to write too much in their answers. And that’s because they aren’t clear about what the question is really asking, what the focus is for the essay, what will get marks and won’t get marks so isn’t needed.  So they’re hedging their bets and writing as much as they can -just in case. Writing way more than they need for the 2 mark answers so running out of time later in the paper and/or rambling on in the 15 marks answer.

The type of pen or their writing speed is not the actual root cause here. But the good news here, is not only that these issues are indeed solvable. But the BEST news is that when we solve for the root cause, none of the other ‘treatments’ are needed. The symptoms go away - or are at least significantly reduced, so the issue itself disappears and we don’t need to learn how to write faster, we don’t need techniques to deal with excess stress, we can spend our time and effort on things that will actually move us forwards and upwards, not just help us survive. 

Now, sometimes the issue here, is that we don’t know what we don’t know. It’s not always obvious what the true root cause is. In fact this actually kind of reminds me of a History lesson I had to cover once where they were doing medieval medicine and there were all these crazy treatments being given to people, partly because everything was just so simple and basic, there obviously was no modern medicine, but also partly because of what they thought was causing the symptoms. They thought that illnesses were caused by the stars in the sky, by evil spirits, by bad odours in the air - which I guess makes sense as I imagine there were a lot of bad odours in the air in medieval times. And so remedies or cures, or solutions were things like magic stones and charms, fragrant herbs and barbers were tasked with all kinds of surgeries and operations - I guess simply because they owned sharp things to do them with. 

Now, the students and I will laugh or grimace at these things, but back then, they had no way of knowing what the real causes were. But things have evolved, developed. And I don’t want you and your teen stuck treating the symptoms, just because the true causes might not be clear straight away. 

So, I’m going to offer a suggestion here if you’d like to perhaps dig into this a little more.

Do a brain dump of ALL the issues your teen might be having in their study. Big or small, anything and everything. And then see if you can figure out - is each thing on that list a symptom or a cause? Is it happening because of a deeper root cause, or is it the actual underlying problem?

See if you can determine what’s happening and then determine WHY it’s happening. With every layer down, ask ‘why?’ Why else, what else might be happening? What COULD be the real reason? And then it’s time to figure out what would solve the root cause or causes? What would your teen need to know or be able to do? And I promise, there will be a solution. Because, yes, some students are naturally more suited to academics and traditional study paths. Or at least that’s what I personally have experienced and believe - I’m sure there may be some people who don’t think that and that’s okay. But what I also have experienced and believe is that so many of the skills and techniques that create academic success are exactly that. They are skills. They are not natural born talent. 

In fact many students who ARE more naturally academic still struggle when they don’t have some of these skills. And I’ve seen those who aren’t so traditionally ‘lets say ‘good’ at a subject’ do better in assessments and exams because what THEY do naturally ‘get’ and are good at is the strategy behind the assessment. So there are ways to reduce exam stress or have them easily complete papers within time limits - by getting to the root causes, like not truly understanding the wording of the question, not feeling confident in the subject contents of the topics to be tested, not being sure of how to hit the top criteria on the mark scheme. 

There are ways to get your teen certain on what the question requires, rather than guessing and hedging their bets. 

Here’s what I’ll offer right now, now that I do have more time with the holidays upon us, if you aren’t sure what the root causes are, or you’d like help differentiating the symptoms from the causes, send the braindump through to me - email it to support@rocksolidstudy.com. I’ll take a look at it and reply with my take on it and share what I would prescribe as the treatment or solution. I promise it won’t involve boiling herbs or a visit to the barber!

Have a wonderful rest of your week. I’ll meet you back here again next week. Final episode for the year next week. We’re gonna finish the year on a high together. 

Take care, speak to you then, bye!