Subject Maps: Your Teen’s Exam Study Road Map
A superhero tool for getting organised and staying on track during exam study.
Welcome to one of my most important posts. If your teen is struggling to get their study on track you have come to the right place.
One of the hardest parts of studying for exams is just actually starting. We all know what it feels like to procrastinate something difficult and / or daunting.
It can be really hard to get over that initial inertia you have when you know you need to start studying for exams but you can’t find the motivation to do it. This inertia is also often compounded by students not knowing where to start and not knowing what topics they need to cover for the exam.
Is there anything that can help solve all of these problems at the same time?!
Why yes, yes there is. It’s called a Subject Map.
Why are Subject Maps such an amazing organisation-wonder tool?
Because the first thing your teen has to figure out BEFORE they start studying for exams is what they need to study and in what order (not military order but at least an idea).
This is the purpose of Subject Maps.
What is a Subject Map?
A Subject Map is simply an organised list of every topic your teen needs to know and study for their exam. The idea is to make one Subject Map for each subject your teen has an exam for.
The role of a Subject Map is to help your teen navigate their way through their exam study.
Subject Maps will help them stay on track and make sure they are focusing on all of the important topics they need to know, and not wasting precious study time on topics or facts that are more peripheral to the subject.
They also prevent a common exam disaster — missing an important topic and realising the day before the exam.
How to make Subject Maps
As mentioned, a Subject Map is essentially a topic-by-topic breakdown of every subject your teen has an exam for. All they need is a piece of paper and a pen.
I think it’s helpful to set them out as follows:
Subject Heading (e.g. General Science)
1st Main topic (e.g. Biology)
First sub-topic (e.g. Genetics)
Main points/key words from this topic
Second sub-topic (e.g. Micro-organisms)
Main points/key words from this topic
Third sub-topic…
2nd Main Topic (e.g. Chemistry)
and so on…
Here is an example:
To sum up, the structure is simply Subject —> Main topic 1 —> Sub-topic 1 —> main points —> Sub-topic 2 etc…
Subject Maps do not need to be a work of art. And the structure above is a guide. If your teen wants to do them slightly differently in a way that works for them, that’s absolutely fine.
The important thing is that they include at least all of the main topics your teen needs to cover. This will give your teen a plan to work from, so that they don’t need to wonder what they should be studying each time they sit down at their desk.
Where do you get the information from?
Usually students are given the curriculum for each subject at the beginning of the school year. Hopefully your teen has been given information that sets out what they are going to cover for each subject.
If they haven’t, it’s probably worth asking their teachers because they should have a curriculum breakdown for their subject.
Otherwise (or as well as) your teen should have been given enough information throughout the year for them to know what topics they are going to be examined on.
They should also be able to find this out from their school work books, which are generally designed to follow the relevant curriculum.
Extra Tips
Your teen could write or stick their Subjects Maps at the front of a new exercise book for each subject, and use that exercise book to write their study notes, so everything is all in one place for each subject and nothing is going to get lost.
Or they could stick their Subject Maps up on the wall in front of their study desk.
Subject Maps should go somewhere your teen isn’t going to lose them or ignore them. Your teen will need to refer to their Subject Maps all the time to check off their progress and see what topic they’re going to tackle next.
If your teen is struggling to get over their study inertia or often gets overwhelmed by the amount of information they need to cover during exam study, I hope that my suggestion to make Subject Maps will help them to overcome these very common and very debilitating obstacles.
As with all my study tips, Subject Maps are not complicated and are something that every teen can do to help get their exam study on track, and keep it on track.
Thanks so much for reading!
Clare x