The mid-year exams are over and school is wrapping up lessons. But before you pack up the pencils and make plans for the upcoming holidays, there’s one last matter to attend to – your child has brought home their mid-year assessments – what should you do now? Whether you and your child are happy with the scores, this is an opportunity to get feedback on their academic progress thus far in the year. Here are our top 3 tips on how you should interpret your child’s performance and help you get them ready for the new semester!

1. Assessing scores

It’s easy to see an Achievement Level (AL) of grade 4 to 6 as a sign that your child is struggling. But more importantly, try to determine how your child fared in comparison to their classmates. Though AL grades are supposed to reflect how your child did relative to their previous work and not for comparison between individuals, they can be a good gauge. You may have cause for concern if they are getting AL 7s or 8s. Conversely, an AL4 may be great if the rest of the class are getting AL5s.

Get feedback

Take the opportunity to get personalised feedback on your child’s performance by meeting with individual subject teachers in parent-teacher meetings. Maybe they’re always falling asleep in class. Or perhaps the assessments were set at a high standard. You don’t have to wait till the school schedules a parent-teacher session before asking to meet with them!

Alternatively, if your child has tuition classes, ask his tutor for an assessment of their progress thus far. Tutors work closely with your child in their learning, and they can provide the best tips for improvement.

2. Making a game plan

What did your child do well this time that contributed to good or improved grades? Get your child in the habit of self-reflecting on their results and get them to write it out or discuss it with you. Doing so will help them develop a sense of ownership and responsibility for their academic work.

Here are some questions for them to consider:

• • Are they satisfied with their grades?
  • Do they think they could have done better?
  • Did they allocate sufficient time to revise?
    Most students start to prepare only a few days before, but high-performers tend to revise consistently.
  • What did they do well this time that contributed to good or improved grades?
  • What can they do differently next time to boost their scores further?

Create an action plan

From teachers’ feedback and your child’s reflections, guide them in creating an action plan with concrete and achievable steps for the upcoming holidays and new academic semester. This might mean strengthening their foundation in certain problem-solving or writing skills or revising specific topic areas.

Get a headstart

It’s worth taking the time to work on weaknesses, as each term’s academic syllabus tends to build on the content and skills of the previous. Alternatively, it might be worth getting a head-start on the next semester’s curriculum to ease the learning curve once July comes around.

3. Enjoying a well-deserved break

Ultimately, every academic semester is just another stepping stone in your child’s long education journey. Allow your child time to get some rest during the June holiday break too, so that they don’t burn out. But don’t let the books get dusty. Working in some revision or studying ahead will ensure your child is in the best place to hit the ground running come July!

Our programs at Elucidation Learning are built around this principle — students are sorted by ability into small classes. This builds an environment that best suits their individual needs.

For a free assessment of your child’s work, make an appointment with Elucidation Learning. You can drop in at one of our centre locations and speak to us. Alternatively, call us at +65.6464-0323 or Whatsapp us at +65.9738-8529. We can help your child work on their weaknesses this holidays, and give him or her a head-start for the new semester!