Has the pandemic changed the way students revise, encouraging them to consolidate their learning earlier?

3 insights into pupil learning patterns post-pandemic

Factors affecting changes to revision patterns:

Exam cancellations

The 2022 cohort have completed their full GCSE courses during the pandemic and they have had the constant worry of exams being cancelled. This has put additional pressure on teachers to ensure they have a full range of a student assessment and to be able to evidence it through regular and robust assessments.

Ongoing assessment

Our Exam-Style assessments have been used by teachers to give students valuable practice at exam-style tasks. These tasks are continuously being used to assess student learning and understanding to create an accountable evidence base of teacher assessment should it be needed.

For students, they have had to learn, consolidate, and demonstrate their subject knowledge and understanding throughout the academic year as opposed to just in the summer term. This has been reflected in the number of pods watched by GCSE students throughout the year.

No more cramming!

Now it is nearly exam time, instead of the usual trend of cramming knowledge by watching lots of pods, students have covered the content they need to learn and are now using this pre-exam time to independently refine knowledge and fill gaps with our award-winning Check and Challenge feature. Check and Challenge helps students navigate their way to the correct answers while providing scaffolded support along the way. It’s like having a personal tutor on hand 24 hours a day24/7.

In 2022 5 million Check and Challenge questions have been answered, Check and Challenge helps students navigate their way to the correct answers while providing scaffolded support along the way. It’s like having a personal tutor on hand 24 hours a day24/7.

So, have we finally taught students how to make use of their valuable time spent learning? Probably not! But, by continually assessing them it has pushed them to take charge of their learning earlier and not just leave it all to the last minute!

 

How schools can use classroom edtech to support students' exam revision

GCSEPod brings your school community together with one resource that does it all, online or offline, in or out of class. Trusted by over 1,700 schools.

Online GCSE content and assessment

We provide award-winning online GCSE content and assessment for 28 GCSE/IGCSE subjects, actionable data insights to intervene where necessary, as well as ready-made launch plans and resources. Proven to engage students, consolidate subject knowledge, and accelerate progress while – crucially – reducing teacher workload.

Knowledge evaluation tools

The star of the assessment area is Check & Challenge, a unique assessment system that evaluates students’ knowledge and provides scaffolded support via hints, multiple choice options and feedback statements, to aid actual learning and retention. With a range of question difficulties, including questions designed to challenge even the most able students.
For teachers, the data gained from Check & Challenge provides meaningful and actionable feedback, which translates to accelerated progress and no wasted time.

Exam-style assignments

Our Exam-Style Assignments have been very popular, providing an efficient and effective way for students to practice essential skills and for teachers to test their student’s subject knowledge. Original, exam board-specific questions, all written by experts, and available for more than 20 GCSE subjects. They are ready-made, quick to set and quick to mark, thanks to a partially-automated marking system backed up by clear marking support for every question. Our Exam-Style Assignments have saved teacher’s valuable time by given them the ability to assess student knowledge throughout the year with very little effort. They have also provided the valuable evidence needed should exams have been cancelled.