Below are the depressingly unsurprising study habits of British AS level college students (16-19)* revealed through my blog data. I guess the headline is that my views double the night before the exam from a weekday average of 27K to 40K.
As some of you will be a bit sick of hearing, my main blog is ReviseSociology.com which is primarily an A-level sociology (16-19) revision website which focuses heavily on exam and revision technique, but also the main content of the course, extension work, book summaries and ‘sociology in the news’ so the main audience is A-level sociology students.
The point is that there is a lot of just teaching and learning and exploring resources on that blog, but far the most used are the exam technique posts, and so I think the above stats suggest some depressing facts about the way students study:
- Somewhat unsurprisingly, you can see the spike in popularity the night before…. Up from a daily (weekday) average of around 27K, almost doubling to nearly 40K views.
- What’s also equally interesting, and depressing, is the punishing predictability of the daily views on the different days of the week - highest Mondays and Tuesdays and weekdays in general, dipping Friday (possibly because colleges have a shorter day) and then dipping away on Saturday and Sunday, back up the following Monday…
- It’s a shame I’ve got no reliable (immediate) way of showing you the time stats, but you’ll have to take my word for it…. when I wake up at 6.00 a.m, I typically have around 3K views for that day from the USA, my hits from the UK start to climb suddenly at 9.00 a.m. on a weekday, and maintains a rate of around 1200 an hour all day until 16.00 when it tails off.
- Needless to say my views also vary by month - May and June are the peak, dipping considerably in July.
What does this suggest about student study habits?... Basically that many of them do their studies in college only and tail off when at home, except when there's an imminent deadline looming.
How valid are these stats as in an indicator of students not working outside of college as a general rule?
personally I’d say they are very valid
- OK not every student uses my blog, so all we are getting here is data on the kinds of students that do use blogs to revise…. It may be that there are 10K students out there who only use books or other sites and they have different study patterns.
- However, of those students that do use my blog, I’ve got so much data, and it is so consistent, that I think this gives good validity.
- The above stats correlate with my own in-college observations that students really don’t tend to do that much work, and there is a surge in demand for ‘revision classes’ immediately before the exam: lots of students leave it too late, even with all the warnings.
Final thoughts..
It could also be that AS levels are now something of a ‘second tier qualification’ (compared to the full A levels in June) so these are either students ‘peeling off’ and dropping this subject after one (rather than two) years or these are just tester exams before the real things next year, in which case I wouldn’t expect that much of a dedicated effort.
HOWEVER, I'm fully expecting an intensification of these patterns come the 4th June, the night before the first full A-level!
Of course, perhaps my site only encourages slacker students, I have had the odd comment such as ‘lol, bun sociology’... it’s a possibility in this ‘structurated' age.
Statistically inspired Poem
When all through the country
No one was stirring,
Except for a few desperate teenagers destined to fail their exams.
(Because all those who are going to pass would have already revised and be getting a good night’s sleep!)
As you've discussed in other places, this is partly a feature of the education system with, I would argue, an over-concentration on exams and exam results rather than learning. In addition, and maybe separately, I have found it quite difficult as a foster carer to establish a relationship with the school where I had some clue what was going on (a copy of the syllabus would have helped, for example).
I was unable to attend the year 12 parents evening as I was working. I offered to go another time, by appointment, and was told this was "against the rules". I did ask which rules these were, but never received an appointment or an answer. At the year 13 parents evening, I asked every teacher what I could do to support the young person I'm caring for, no one had any ideas about how we might work together.
Economics is okay, I understand some of the concepts and theories; we eat an evening meal together most evenings where we talk about things and current economic issues get discussed. Maths and physics are a different matter, though, I've not studied them. However, that doesn't mean I'm not interested.
Most of my focus has been on helping to build emotional resilience. We've talked about will power, how it works (or doesn't), the value of routine and consistency, looking after yourself, eating properly, taking a walk at lunchtime, getting enough sleep. Another big area has been about managing friendships - about setting boundaries, learning to say no, having healthy and respectful relationships with other people.
We also talk about how to manage the exams themselves, about positive self-talk, and that things not working out as planned is not the end of the world. It will simply mean a different set of next choices and decisions and some valuable lessons you can learn from next time you're in a similar situation.
I guess, as part of my role is about helping the young person prepare for independance, this is the best I can do for her. But I think I could have done more, been more supportive, if I had had some sort of overview and outcomes for us to work with together.
This is not a criticism of individual teachers - everyone I have met has been talented, committed and approachable and genuinely interested. I have also found myself defending a young inexperienced teacher who is struggling. But at the same time, I'm surprised that schools, colleges, don't have a more open, proactive approach to engaging parents and carers (a simple briefing at the beginning of the year would have helped).
I appreciate the pressure on educators' time - last year I turned down a full-time job in adult education because it looked like the job from hell - but perhaps some time spent here would relieve time elsewhere. I also appreciate that students and families most in need of support are least likely to participate but again, there are approaches from community development and health improvement and protection that could help with this.
Thank you for the information and the opportunity for reflection, it has prompted me develop my thoughts more clearly.
It sounds like you've really been just left to your own devices by the school - but as you say it's no one individuals fault.
Sounds like you're doing a great job in your caring role. You're really one of life's unsung heros by the sound of it!
The whole system really does need a more integrated approach.
Not really 😎 I'm just emphasising that young people are doing alot of informal learning around their formal education and we might all benefit from a more collaborative approach. But that's in another world 😁.
It’s not an accident, this is the desired result of the Prussian school model that the entire world has adopted.
If you haven’t seen it already, I think the work of John Taylor Gatto would be of interest to you. It’s from an American perspective on the education system, but I’m sure there are strong parallels in the UK.
Like everything else, centralization and monopoly leads to bad outcomes for the masses of people and rewards the few.
And intensified by marketisation!
I've heard the name - I will add it to the to read list!
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It is difficult, but the application of continuous evaluations can help to improve student interest and obtain better results in their self-motivation.