Students on study leave: your smartphone is killing your gains!

Artwork by Joseph Holt https://www.flickr.com/photos/84568447@N00/5002289955

I feel really sorry for all those GCSE students who have just gone on study leave but are now battling their smartphone addiction in earnest. I hope that they are able to employ strategies to support their concentration when revising, and that parents might be able to help them to do this. Some tips:

1. Mark specific times in the day when you plan to look at your smartphone, just as you will have been encouraged to do for other leisure activities, such as watching TV or doing exercise. Don’t just let it drip, constantly, throughout your day. This will support you being ‘tech intentional’.

2. Turn off your smartphone before beginning your revision for the day. Yes, that’s right. Off. The more the thought of doing that fills you with dread, the more you need to do it!

3. Put the smartphone in a box and put that box out of sight somewhere else in the house eg under the stairs or in a cupboard

Essential tools that will massively help in not being a slave to the smartphone:

- Watch or clock

- Calculator

- Pad of paper, stationary etc

- A revision plan that includes breaks that don’t include your smartphone eg a discrete 30 minute show on the main TV rather than 30 minutes of scrolling. I’m not saying you can’t ever scroll during your day, but you have to make it intentional (see above).

It used to be the sunshine that was a key distractor for young people revising for summer exams (and I’m sure it still is) but you are now also competing against one of the most psychologically addictive products ever invented.

There are various revision techniques that I hope you’ve been shown, including Cornell note taking, ‘Blurting’, mind maps and, my personal favourite, flash cards.

But I have to tell you, whatever you try, it will be far less effective if your smartphone is near you! And, let’s be honest, you know it.

Best of luck to all Year 11s (and to the Upper 6th students who will be joining them on study leave)! The longest summer holiday is just around the corner!

Guy

Ps as you will know, most adults are addicted to their smartphones. Including me.