How to help your child study for a test

Please note: this guide is general information for parents, not medical, psychological or other professional advice, and it can’t take your child’s individual situation into account. If you’re worried about your child’s health, wellbeing or safety, speak to their school or a qualified professional such as your family doctor. In an emergency, contact your local emergency number.

The most effective way to help your child study for a test is to replace re-reading with self-testing and to spread the studying over several short sessions instead of one long one. Below is a simple countdown plan, quiz methods that work without any special materials, how to use AI to build quizzes in minutes, and the habits that help on test day.

What the research says actually works

Most children study by re-reading their notes and highlighting. It feels productive because the material looks familiar. But familiarity isn’t the same as being able to recall it under test conditions.

A widely cited review of learning techniques by cognitive psychologists (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013) rated two methods as having high usefulness across ages and subjects:

• Practice testing (also called retrieval practice): pulling information out of memory — quizzes, flashcards, explaining from memory.
• Distributed practice (spacing): spreading study over several sessions instead of cramming.

The same review rated re-reading and highlighting as low in usefulness. So the plan for parents is simple: quiz more, re-read less, start earlier.

The countdown plan

Adapt this to the time you have. Sessions are short — 15 to 30 minutes depending on age.

Only have two days? Same principles, compressed: find gaps, quiz on the shakiest topics, mix it up, sleep.

Quiz methods that need no special materials

• Blurting: your child writes everything they remember about a topic on a blank page, then checks the notes and fills gaps in a different colour.
• Teach it back: they explain a topic to you as if you know nothing. Stop them where it gets vague.
• Flashcards: question on one side, answer on the other. Cards they get right move to a “later” pile; wrong ones stay in rotation.
• Question swaps: they write five questions for you; you write five for them.
• Past questions from the textbook, worksheets or the teacher.
• Two-minute car quizzes: spaced retrieval in tiny doses.

Getting answers wrong during practice is useful — it shows what to study next. Make that explicit so mistakes don’t feel like failure.

Using AI to make quizzes and plans in minutes

Writing good quiz questions takes time. An AI assistant can turn a textbook page or study guide into a quiz at the right level. Our full guide to making a quiz with ChatGPT covers this in depth. For a study plan:

What to ask for: a day-by-day plan that puts shaky topics early, starts each session with a short quiz on the previous one, uses self-testing instead of re-reading, and ends with a light review the day before.

The AI Tutor Vault’s Examiner chapter has a Custom Quiz Maker (photo of a textbook page → quiz), a Chunking Strategy for day-by-day exam plans, and a Mnemonic Maker for lists that must be memorised. See the AI Tutor Vault.

How to help without hovering

• Be the quizzer, not the lecturer. Asking questions is more useful than explaining things again.
• Let them plan. Older children especially should own the schedule; you check in.
• Praise the process: “You’ve tested yourself every day this week” beats “you’re so clever”.
• Protect sleep. Late-night cramming trades memory for exhaustion.

Test day and test nerves

Some nervousness is normal and can even help focus. To keep it manageable:

• Talk about the test as a chance to show what they’ve practised, not a judgement of them.
• Give them a plan for questions they can’t answer: skip, move on, come back, make a sensible attempt.
• A “brain dump” at the start — jotting down formulas or key facts on scrap paper, if allowed — can ease the fear of forgetting.
• Avoid last-minute quizzing on the morning of the test.

If worry about tests is intense, persistent, or affecting sleep and appetite, talk to the school and your doctor. That needs more support than a study plan.

By age

• 5–8: spelling and times-table tests. Short daily games, lots of quick recall, a little and often.
• 9–12: topic tests. Introduce blurting and flashcards. Help them plan across a week.
• Teens: exams across subjects. Teach the method, then step back to accountability check-ins.

Common mistakes

• Re-reading as the main strategy. Swap at least half of it for self-testing.
• Studying only what they already know. It feels good. Gaps need the time.
• One long session the night before. The same time spread over several days usually works better.
• Making it about the grade. Pressure on results raises anxiety; focus on preparation.

Frequently asked questions

Next steps

For the next test, ask your child to list the topics and rate them, then build a countdown plan together. Use our guide to making a quiz with ChatGPT to create practice questions from their notes in minutes.