Our children have many challenges to face as soon as they begin their academic careers at a young age, and as parents, we try to do our very best to help them prepare for exams so they can achieve their true potential.

However, sometimes things don’t quite go to plan, and SATs, 11+ and even GSCE results can come as a disappointment to our children and seriously knock their confidence.

In order to keep them motivated to succeed in the future, it is imperative that parents (and teachers) help children overcome exam disappointment and set them back on the route to learning as soon as possible so that any future examinations are met with confidence rather than fear and anxiety.

Therefore, we have created a helpful guide to help children overcome exam disappointment and help them move on ready for their next set of examinations.

It’s ok to be disappointed

As soon as your child receives their results, it’s easy to tell if they are disappointed. Anger, frustration and tears are commonplace if they feel underwhelmed by the outcome of their recent exams, so allow them to let go of their emotions and offer them as much support as you possibly can.

Many children have a knee-jerk ‘I’m not bothering anymore’ reaction when they receive results that aren’t quite as good as they expected, but with a little help from you, they can soon overcome these feelings and start to accept the grades they have received.

Talk about what went wrong

Once things have started to settle down, sit down with your child to ask them what they think might have gone wrong on the run-up to or during the exam.

Was revising for their exam too difficult due to a noisy family atmosphere? Did they have the right resources to help them learn outside of the classroom or was the test simply too much for them and they needed some additional tuition to develop their understanding of the subject?

Knowing where the core problem lies can help you ensure that any barriers to learning are remedied in the future.

Make a plan

Children and teenagers often feel much more positive if there’s a plan in place to ensure exam success in the future, so work together to discuss any problems. Click here to read our top tips for creating a study schedule or see our guide to creating a winning homework routine here. Take a look at our wide range of learning resources for SAT’s, 11+ and GSCE examinations that can be downloaded free from our website, to support your child in their learning process.

Using these tools can help instill a greater sense of confidence in any weaker subjects and help to dispel any fears caused by unexpected past results, so click here to access our free revision material and start to create a new revision schedule before the next round of examinations starts.