As the term comes to an end, many of our students will be receiving their exams back soon. Emotions can be high during this time, so I wanted to share just a couple of things that I try keep in mind when my students bring their papers in so that we can go through them together.

1. It can be easy to gloss over the things that our students did really well. I know that time is of the essence in our sessions, but I wanted to stress the importance of praising and commending our students on the stuff they got right/questions they showed great effort in DESPITE how few or how many instances of this there were in the exam! It can be super easy to focus on just the negatives, and I’m sure we’re all familiar with how far even one negative comment can go in ruining an otherwise perfect day! Please, please make sure to acknowledge the good stuff too. It’ll go long ways!!

2. If the outcome is poor, I like to be dismissive of the result (unchangeable) and instead focus on the opportunities right in front of us for learning and improvement. It can be all too easy for our students to interpret bad marks as scarlet letters; “I suck at maths,” “it’s just too hard for me,” “I’ll never be good at this,” etc. This is where we as tutors must step up to the plate and show our students just how doable these questions can be if we break them down and always go back to basics. Please don’t ever make a student feel dumb or stupid for the way that they did something in an exam; it’s a surefire route to the student putting their walls up and encourages them telling you things like “yes, this make sense” when you explain stuff (even though it may not), just to avoid potential embarrassment.

The centre is first and foremost a safe space for our students and it is our job as contextual leaders to see that this is always the case.

Thomas Koutavas