Preparing for examinations at home: what parents have found works

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Examinations are the point where home education feels most exposed. There is no staffroom, no other teacher to compare notes with, and the responsibility sits squarely with you.

A few things that come up repeatedly from experienced families:

Past papers, early. Not as a final check, but as the main study method. The format, the phrasing and the timing are half the battle, and they are learnable well before the content is finished.

Timed conditions at least once. A learner who has never written under time pressure will meet it for the first time in the examination itself.

Marking rubrics. Reading how marks are actually awarded changes how a learner answers, often more than extra content revision does.

Sleep over one more hour of revision. Consistently. The evidence on this is not close.

Plan the days off. Families who schedule rest tend to arrive at the examination in better shape than those who intend to rest and never quite do.

Your turn. What worked for your learner? What would you do differently? And for anyone facing their first examination season at home — ask here. Somebody has been where you are.

For anything about examination entry, timetables, venues or SACAI administration, please use the Administration forums, where the school can answer officially.

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