Problem child?

Back to school and distractions are in the air. Reem Leila suggests ways to combat them

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Children have enormous amounts of work, but it is parents who bear the brunt

"Can't con- centrate." This must be a familiar cry. If not -- well, you obviously have no school kids in the house. It's come to be the philosopher's stone, control of study habits at home; time management figures highest on the agenda. But the glitch is that it is up to the parents, not the children, to suffer it. Everyone knows that the traditional method of keeping the student at his or her desk until the homework is done, while further complicating time management, in no way guarantees success at the exams. Recent research has revealed that attitude is essential. Indeed, according to Ali El-Garhi, deputy to the minister of education and head of the Kafr Al-Sheikh Educational Association, "before students even begin to think about studying, they must develop a penchant for organisation -- come up with their own schedule." Such, he says, is the way to prevent the mind from wandering, manage time and keep the parents sane. For, having come up with a schedule, the idea is that the student will want to apply it; indeed it is largely on this that the success of any schedule remains conditional. An effective schedule takes into account every activity in which the student is engaged: "The day should be divided into one-hour segments. Subtract sleep from it and you end up with a kind of road map of what lies ahead." Thus divided, the day will be more dynamic -- a more attractive prospect for the student, considering both the variety and the frequent change. But most important of all, perhaps, study hours will be entirely free of distractions -- socialising, the phone ringing, the door bell -- which, conceived of as proper activities, will have their place at other times.

According to Zeinab Ali, professor of education at Ain Shams University, a student need only take an accurate baseline observation of his or her studying times for a week to see quite how much energy and time are wasted on such seemingly harmless activities, when no specific time is set aside for them: "Each time they study, they should write down how long they worked, what subjects they covered, where they study, how many interruptions they had, what these interruptions were and how much work they actually accomplished." They may discover, for example, that they tend to read more or solve more problems at a particular time of day: "Whatever the results, they'll end up with concrete evidence of their strong and weak points that helps them decide what to change." For his part Mohamed Abdel-Hamid, a mathematics teacher, recommends "key cards" on which students should summarise their notes, sorted by topics, and then summarise the summaries -- ending up with a clear graph of the main ideas; such cards are portable and can be flipped through easily in the in-between times -- they really do keep the information fresh. Recognising that the work can be, in the words of Sarah Hassan, 13, "dry and simply too much", so much so that it is "hard to keep your eyes open, let alone concentrate while you do it" is perhaps the first step towards developing an understanding of how the brain takes in and processes information as a basis for improving efficiency.

Kamilia Abdel-Fattah, professor of psychology at Ain Shams University, stresses two points in this regard. First, there is no right or wrong way to study: "Each person is an individual for whom something a little different works better. One student's study plan may be entirely different from that of his best friend's or his brother's. The trick is to figure out what works best and stick with that." Secondly, students should realise that their homework, including the way in which they do it, is their own responsibility: "This does not mean that they should not get some help from their parents and teachers, but help should never imply the job being done for them." Abdel-Fattah recommends a 10-minute break for every 50 minutes of work, "because this helps people retain information". Learning, she explains, is a more complex process than "simply stuffing material into short-term memory". It works, rather, "when what you put into short-term memory connects with what is already stored in long-term memory, which happens naturally when you cease to take in information and relax". Thus changing subjects and activities frequently also helps, because it facilitates cognitive assimilation: "When studying, students can read for an hour, then do questions for an hour. Anything they want to learn should be started early and done over many times." All of which would seem to fit neatly into the notion of scheduling. Which means that the methods listed here are complementary, not mutually exclusive.

Children have enormous amounts of work, but it is parents who bear the brunt photo: Youssef Rakha

Study tips

- Begin studying 30-90 minutes after a meal.

- Never study within 30 minutes of going to sleep.

- Prioritise -- make lists, sort them and stick with the plan.

- Take study breaks away from the place of study.

- During breaks, reflect. But more importantly, relax.