Exams are approaching and I have a feeling my 13-year-old son is beginning to hate school. My friends son rebelled and totally refused to go to school at 15. I’m afraid my son might also do something like that if he begins hating school.

Do some soul-searching. Are you putting too much pressure on your son to perform well? What about his teachers or tuition teachers?

If you think a conscious effort to reduce pressure will help improve your sons attitude, that may be the answer. Don’t hesitate to communicate your own change of attitude to him. Teenagers respond better to understanding, rather than demanding, parents.

Talking about different careers, the subjects your son enjoys, and related fields of work will trigger motivation of a different kind. Encourage your son to find out more about careers and jobs in sync with his interest, and the education required for them.

Teenagers need to be motivated from within. Discussing the lives of great leaders and inventors, and the values that made them successful will shift the focus to essential values like determination, hard work, doing ones best and passion for ones work.

Taking the stress out of exams

Step 1: Stop being stressed out yourself.

Step 2: Realise that exams aren’t everything in a child’s life, and value your child’s different interests.

Step 3: Encourage systematic study and revision throughout the year, to avoid last minute cramming.

Step 4: Discuss your children’s strong and weak subjects. How to improve scores in the latter? How to compensate with improved scores in strong subjects?

Step 5: Discuss your child’s study plan, and help her to follow the plan.

Step 6: Praise your child for studying hard, and doing her best. Focus less on the results, and more on the effort.

Also read: Eating right during exams