Wednesday, 29 October 2008

10 tips to get teenage boys to study for NCEA


One of the biggest adjustments we've had to make in New Zealand, is to get used to the school system and get our heads around how NCEA works.

In just a few weeks Dan and Joe are both starting with their NCEA exams. Dan is in Year 13 (Level 3), and Joe is in Year 12 (Level 2).

After having attended a technical high school, they had to revert to academic subjects when they got here last year. Boy, have they had a hard time adjusting! The NCEA system is very different to Matric and seems to be of a much higher standard. They've gone from being top students to really struggling to achieve the required standard.

Of course choosing subjects like Chemistry, Physics and Legal Studies has not made it easier for them. Nor has their constant wagging. (Bunking in SA-speak.) But, they've got this far, and all they need to do now is to sit on their behinds, and study!


How to (attempt to) get teenage boys to study:

1. Acknowledge that this is much too hard, and that they'll never make it without super-human effort. Be sympathetic. All the time.
2. Be prepared: it will cost you money! Buy them every study guide you can lay your hands on. Also print out exam papers and answers off the internet. Also help them work out a study time table. Buy new stationery. Get colourful sticky notes. Actually get anything you can think of that may help them.
3. Stock up on chips, chocolates, jelly babies and instant capucino's.
4. Stock up on Gingko Biloba, St John's Wort and Rescue Remedy.
5. Motivate, praise, cajole, bribe, blackmail. Many times. Plead, then cry, then plead, then cry some more.
6. Promise to buy them a car.
7. Look guilty, and apologize for the inconvenience you have caused them by bringing them up, and getting them this far. Apologize even more if you've immigrated during their puberty.
8. Remind them that their fore-fathers walked barefoot over the Drakensberg Mountains. (Or the Bombay hills, if you're from Aotearoa.)
9. Pray. Pray consistently and constantly.
10. Ask well-meaning family in SA to NOT tell them they 'don't have to worry, they can write Matric next year in SA'. (Go figure!)


Oh dear, I don't know how I'm going to get through these exams! Any advice?