Want your child to be a high performing student in school?
The best way to excel academically is to ensure that the students develop a sound foundation from the very start. The longer parents wait to deal with a stressful struggling student, the more difficult the process gets to help achieve success. The goal should be to identify each student’s gaps and weaknesses as early as possible and take remedial proactive approach to enable the student to master the lacking skill level.
Step 1 – Start with a Comprehensive Diagnostic Test
Clearly, no two students are the same. It’s impossible to know what students know and need help with. As such, a comprehensive diagnostic test is vital to assess each student’s areas of strengths, but more importantly, the areas where the student has gaps or weaknesses.
Step 2 – Develop a Systematic Curriculum to Master Skills
The key goal is to identify areas of weakness and make sure that those lacking stills are perfectly mastered. Any areas of remaining, if not mastered fully, will result in future problems. Learning is foundation where everything builds upon a lasting structural knowledge. A focused approach can go a long way in helping students not only to catch-up but accelerate several grade levels above. Being ahead is clearly more desirable since the self-esteem and confidence resulting from it makes for highly motivated students.
Step 3 – Practice! Practice! Practice!
Nothing is simpler to say but hard to do for students: Practice! There is no doubt about it. You get what you put in. With all the things that are available to distract students – computers, video games, mobile phones, etc. – there seems to be less time available for students to study and practice their skill levels. The key goal is to set-up regular time in a student friendly environment where learning can be done without external distractions.
With a high student teacher ratio in overcrowded schools, students can hardly be faulted. Learning requires patience, perseverance, and above all practice for students to master their skill levels so that they can excel academically not only in school but in life.
About the author
Ruchi Nagar is the educational director who has taught at FasTracKids Rego Park for over 14-years. Ms. Ruchi holds multiple advance degrees in Education, Psychology and English Literature. She is a widely published author in the areas of early childhood development and education of students from over 60 countries.