How Parents Can Help Their Teen Study More Effectively (By Subject)
Many students study by rewriting all of their notes from a unit—or even an entire semester—even though this method has been shown to be ineffective for many learners. As teachers, we often assume students know how to study, but the reality is that most students have never been explicitly taught effective study strategies.
As a parent, this can be frustrating to watch. Your teen may be spending a lot of time studying, but not seeing the results they expect.
One of the most important things to know is that study strategies should change depending on the subject. Below are some practical, subject-specific ways parents can help their teens study more efficiently and effectively.
Studying for Math
For math, the most effective studying happens when students redo problems, not when they reread notes.
Encourage your teen to:
Recalculate questions from past assignments, quizzes, and tests
Focus especially on questions they got wrong or lost marks on
Talk through their thinking as they solve problems
Teachers often reuse question types from assignments and tests on exams, simply changing the numbers. Practicing these questions builds both confidence and accuracy.
If your child no longer has past work or answer keys, encourage them to:
Ask their teacher (or another math teacher they trust) to review questions with them
Use ChatGPT to generate practice questions with solutions, not just answers
Sample prompt students can use (adjust grade, unit, or location as needed):
Please provide a one-page math review on the Trigonometry unit for a Grade 10 Applied Math course in Ontario. Include a step-by-step answer key on a second page and links to clear instructional videos.
Studying for English / Language Arts
English studying should focus on thinking, planning, and structuring ideas, not memorizing entire essays.
Encourage your teen to:
Practice outlining answers to possible short-answer or essay questions
Write full responses using those outlines
Collect two or three meaningful quotations from each text studied
If memorizing quotes is difficult, paraphrasing is an important and acceptable skill to practice—as long as your teen understands the ideas behind the evidence.
Most English teachers provide sample exam or short-answer questions. These should be the primary focus when studying. If examples are not provided, students can create their own or use a prompt like:
Please provide multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions that could appear on a Grade 10 Academic English exam based on the Ontario curriculum and the following texts.
Essay organizers like this FREE Exam Prep Worksheet can be extremely helpful for students who struggle with structure or organization.
Students can also use ChatGPT responsibly for feedback (not rewriting) by asking:
Please give feedback on the following essay without rewriting or editing it. I need feedback on structure, quality of evidence, critical thinking, and conventions such as spelling and grammar.
Studying for Fact-Based Subjects (History, Science, Geography)
Subjects that rely heavily on memorization often lead students to rewrite notes—even when that doesn’t match how they learn best.
Encourage your teen to think about how they learn:
Auditory learners may benefit from recording facts using a voice memo app and listening during commutes.
Kinesthetic learners may learn better by sorting flashcards, building concept maps, creating review games, or teaching the material to someone else.
Studying is far more effective when students actively engage with the material rather than passively rereading it.
A Few Final Study Tips for Parents
Studying doesn’t have to take hours to be effective
Encourage focused study blocks:
25 minutes of work
5-minute break
Repeat in one-hour blocks
Help your teen plan what they will study before they sit down
If organization is a challenge, a simple Exam Prep Worksheet can reduce overwhelm and help students stay on track.
Need Extra Support?
If your teen is feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or stuck—or if you’re already thinking ahead to next semester—extra support can help.
Contact me to book a FREE trial tutoring session and learn how structured, confidence-building support can make studying more manageable and effective.