Brandon Learning Centre: British Education - process, preparation and practicalities

Here is a brilliant tip for anyone who is about to sit Common Entrance (or any other exam for that matter!) Reading and making notes will help your remember your information but teaching and explaining your topics will help you even more. In stages... 1: Revise one of your topics (e.g. life processes) and make your notes, 2: Try to teach the topic back to a member of your family. Plan your lesson around providing the information needed to answer typical Common Entrance questions. Refer to the marking scheme when you are thinking of how much information to include. Your aim is to teach the materials and for your student (victim?) to be able to reply to your questions. 3: As you are teaching, remember to repeat key points or share mnemonics (MRS GREN?!) Through teaching your student, you are ensuring that the topic will stick in your mind. 3: At the end of your lesson, if you have explained everything clearly, your students should be able to give you complete answers. You are

If I had a pound for every time parents had asked me to explain the difference between Common Entrance (11+/13+) and schools' own papers, I would have a nice little pot of savings! So here we go: 1: Common Entrance is an examination created by the ISEB (Independent Schools' Examination Board). The exam is available for a board range of subjects and different levels are available (maths has three for example). Individual schools decide: which papers candidates should sit and, the level required. You need to check requirements with the school (ask for subjects/levels). Registration is done through the ISEB website. Schools are provided with a suggested marking scheme but some adapt to suit their needs (e.g. rewards for correct spelling/forgiveness of incorrect spelling) Depending on the selectivity of the school, Common Entrance could be used to confirm an offer or just for setting purposes. Common Entrance can be sent to ONE school. The only way that it can be used fo

For all of our Brandon (and non-Brandon!) students who are about to start their Common Entrance exams, some last minute advice: 1: Take a deep breath, panic will only make you feel overwhelmed 2: The night before your exam, pack your pencil case. Don't forget that you will need calculators for some non-maths exams, including biology. 3: Review your notes. Put your books away and relax by reading. Don't be tempted to go online, computer games will only stimulate your brain and prevent rest. Get a good night's sleep. 4: Before the exam, review your notes again, take a deep breath. Off you go! 5: During the exam, draw a line through mistakes rather than using Tippex and remember to show your workings. Good luck!

The days running up to any exam are always a mixture of excitement, anticipation and outright terror. We have the Winchester College exams next week and Common Entrance at the beginning of June. Try following these steps to avoid turning up in a state of nervous exhaustion... Leading up to the exam: Review your notes. Flick through textbooks; sometimes the images they contain can aid memory. Transfer your key notes to flashcards that you can review before the exam. If you really don't understand a topic, speak to a teacher as soon as possible. The topic may not come up on the exam but worrying about it may prevent you from focusing on what you do know. The night before the exam: Get a good night's sleep. Pack your pencilcase. Make sure that you have a couple of pens, pencil, sharpener, rubber, calculator and any mathematical instruments you might need. Put your books away; your goal is to have a relaxed mind. The morning of the exam: Double check your equipment.

The day is coming to a close... to quote the hymn "night is drawing nigh/Shadows of the evening/Steal across the sky" What better time to reflect on your day and bring it to an end on a high point? Assuming that your audience has folded up its tents and crept silently away, try this exercise on your own in front of a mirror. The scenario is this: You are being interviewed by a radio presenter and have been asked to identify the highlights of your day. Use this framework: 1: Summarise the theme of the day 2: Give detail 3: Conclude on lessons you have learned/experiences you have enjoyed/things you never imagined would happen That is it. Three minutes to combine reflection and public speaking! For today, my speech would be: 1: Today started on a low, wet note and ended on a joyous high. 2: When I arrived at Brandon Learning Centre this morning, one of ths classrooms had flooded. After our brilliant air-conditioner men solved the problem, my spirits were lifted by

The Brontes; marooned in their Haworth parsonage on the edge of the wild moors. Writing thrilling, visceral and untamed literature that touches the deep core of our beings. At the risk of sounding like a Sixth Form essay, I want to spend a few Good Friday moments on Emily Bronte's Last Lines ; a poem which explores the role of God in our lives. This poem is a powerful Good Friday reading. Traditionally Good Friday is a time when we are looking for hope and reflecting on the coming resurrection. The language of the poem is a powerful; full of imagery of being tossed on life's ocean. There is a stunning series of verbs "changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears" which encapsulate the circle of life. Last Lines is a poem which should be read slowly, giving listeners time to reflect. The main trap for a reader is the enjambment (when the sense runs on to the next line) which needs to be respected in order to convey meaning. Emily Bronte only lived for thirty

Brandon Learning Centre is normally a haven of tranquility in the maelstrom of Causeway Bay. Students discuss literature in measured tones, small children give engaging presentations and even science experiments take place in an atmosphere of studious calm. Not this week though. Oh no. Easter revision is upon us and everywhere we see teenagers frantically leafing through files of notes, prep school boys trying to cram vocabulary into over-stuffed heads and teachers desperately printing revision sheets. So how do you avoid being swept into last minute panic? 1: Plan a timetable allocating time to each subject. Work out how much work you have to cover and allocate periods to each block. Make it realistic; look at the time you have allowed and double it! Build in rest periods and any other activities (tennis?) you know that you will do. There is no point creating a work of fiction! 2: "Chunk" your work. Don't try to cover too much in one session. 3: Test yourself aft