Generation Z – Excel in Key Subjects

The Productivity Revolution: How to Study Smart for GCSE and A-level

Idris Musty — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 09:14:12 +0000

How to Study Smart for GCSE and A-level:

Having two teenagers who are both in the final year of GCSE and A-level respectively, means the notion of “hard work vs smart work” is a constant topic of conversation in my household… If you ask anyone which is better: smart work or hard work, the answer is a no-brainer, as the Americans say!

My son and I have completely different points of view about the importance of hard work. When he got the result of his GCSEs last year, as expected and unlike in all the other subjects, he did not get the top grade in English Literature. He missed it by two grade points. His position had always been that he was not prepared to put in that extra work that would allow him to secure Grade 9. When his cousin’s results came out this summer and she got 12 Grade 9s, including all the subjects that are perceived as difficult, I tried to highlight her achievement to my son. The fact that his cousin did so well and was in the top 20 or so students in the whole country. Despite having to travel for about four hours (in total) to and from school every day, she was still able to put in the hard work. Of course, that reignited the debate between my son and I again, I’m sure you can guess where our argument/conversation on this often leads to, but I will try and avoid getting into the hot potato debate of nature vs nurture here. I’ll come back to this point again towards the end, with a light-hearted story.

We all know that, if you are in the military, you can find yourself in a position of having to decide or act on matters of life and death. This could be for yourself, or worse, for your men, women or colleagues. I concur that education – including learning, training and getting qualifications and all that, is not a matter of life and death. However, getting it right can be the difference between a miserable life and a more enjoyable one. Nevertheless, permit me to use a couple of quotes from the military.

Here are two quotes from Google about the military.

Discipline is the soul of an army. There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
The best Generals, the Germans found, came from the clever and lazy; the best staff officers emerged from the clever and hard-working; the stupid and lazy could be made useful as regimental officers; but the stupid and hard-working were a menace, to be disposed of as soon as possible. They are dangerous! – my own edit.

Getting the balance between nurture and nature is a delicate one and, as I’m not an expert, I do not know the answer. What I do know in my over 30 years of being in the secondary education system is that you do not have to be a genus to achieve A* in any subject. Whilst I would be indulging in falsehood to claim that everyone is capable of obtaining the top grades in every subject, I’ve witnessed young people of about average ability doing very well at GCSE and even A-level. Sadly, I’ve also seen very bright young people ending up with mediocre exam grades – or perhaps failing exams all together.

Teaching in schools, on the whole, is so much better these days, partly because teachers are under greater level of scrutiny. We hear about constantly improving GCSE and A-level exam results. However, despite the huge volume of resources available, the education divide remains still too wide. The education attainment divide is still largely along demographic lines, but if you care to dig deeper into it psychographics play a bigger role. I am not going to go into detail here but what I will say is that is not just about parental income or being middle class and all that. Brampton Manor School (the so-called Eton of East London) is a testament to that. Another example is – Mayflower School in the East End of London. This school, which has so many of the typical challenges that are faced by inner city schools, outperformed almost all top private prep schools where parents are now paying about £15,000 a year.

It's always the parent’s fault – isn’t it!

Here is the light-hearted story that I promised you earlier.

A boy came home with his school report in which he has done very badly in all his subjects He then said: “father, can I ask you a question?” The father responded “yes, of course, go ahead”. The question was: “what is the reason behind my bad exam performance, is it nature or nurture?”

Never mind the cheekiness of this question. The thing is that we parents are just a catalyst in the chemical reaction that results in exam grades as the product. This chemical reaction takes many years to occur, and, according to my simplified Chemistry definition, a catalyst. has to be present for a chemical reaction to take place successfully, but the catalyst does not get used up in the process. The difference is that we as parent often get used up. Never mind the financial cost, which can be a lot; the physical and, more importantly, emotional energy we expend can be even more costly.

As I’m not an expert, I do not have a solution on how to motivate a teenager and get them away from gaming and social media. What I’d say is that it is a constant battle, and we have to remain engaged with the teenager. There is not one specific way to solve the problem, but it is important to be aware of it and to keep at it; constantly having the conversation and adopting different strategies.

The fact of the matter is that so many teenagers do not have the discipline to study, or, when studying, to work and focus in a productive way so that they get more out of the time they put in.

Help is at hand!

One thing that we did at Excel this summer was to organise some sort of study sessions during the last couple of weeks of the summer holiday. In those sessions, the idea was to use scholars from Imperial College to supervise learning sessions at the British Library in St Pancras. It turned out in the end to be teaching sessions for those scholars, as they actually taught the students. What the parents liked about those sessions was that it did not cost any money to them but it cost the children their time, as they had to get their act together, get off their devices and go and do some learning!

We are hoping to repeat the same thing during the coming school holidays, so watch this space!

Clarification: Our modus operandi at Excel involves using professional teachers for our courses, and not university undergraduates to do the teaching. We usually use scholars for a different purpose (scholars are graduate and undergraduate students – usually from Imperial College or UCL). Scholars are used to supervise sessions like enhancement and homework assignments. It must be said that, despite the fact that these are usually not sessions that parents pay for, the scholars are paid.

However, we have on occasions used some highly qualified people, but without a PGCE or even QTS, as teachers. They have been some of the very best teachers one can find anywhere. You may say this is imitating the very best of private school, where they are not so bothered about a teacher having PGCE when they are recruiting. I have got a PGCE myself, and I advocate having one, as it is safer that way. However, there are people without PGCE, BEd or any form of QTS who are outstanding teachers.

The post The Productivity Revolution: How to Study Smart for GCSE and A-level appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

Leading the Change: Environmental Sustainability in Education

Idris Musty — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 07:42:58 +0000

Environmental Sustainability in Education

In my last blogpost titled “Should we give Gen Z some credit?” I explored some of the many areas of life in which the so-called Generation Z are much more aware than, perhaps, we older people were when we were teenagers. Here, I am going to pick one of the five or so areas that I listed and go a little deeper into it.

The environment is certainly a topic which everyone knows one or two things about; however, it can be argued that young people know more than adults when it comes to this crucial issue. Although young people do not read The Guardian or The Telegraph or listen to the BBC, they are exposed to the issue in the news about the environment. They learn through various subjects in school such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography and so on. I’m not at all into social media but I suspect teenagers also hear about the debate on climate change via social media platforms and YouTube. There is a focus on climate change and global temperature rise in the media at present. Surely, all young people in this part of the world have heard of the name Greta Thunberg – the Swedish teenager – who is the face of the environmental campaign. No one on planet is a better marketer for the course of the environment change and global warming than Greta and one of her phrases that I found very powerful was “Blah Blah Blah” as she mocked the politicians in a serious way during COP26 in Glasgow in 2021.

I must not claim to be a saint when it comes to the issue of the environment, as I don’t think I’m doing anywhere near enough to reduce the negative contribution I make to global warming. I shamefully, like many adults, drive a gas guzzler and keep saying I’ll do something about it one day. Yes, I try not to drive much, but to walk and cycle at times, but I can still do more. My excuses range from I can’t afford an electric car to I live in a largely rural area, where it often snows and floods and all that Blah Blah Blah!

I often get reminded by my soon-to-be-fifteen teenage daughter about the impact I am making by driving a car. I’m not going to mention the fact that she often reminds me of what a polluter I am when I am serving one of my main purposes as a parental, which is to act as a taxi service and drive her to her friend’s place and all that.

As I write this, COP27 is taking place in Egypt and, in just the last two weeks, environmental campaigners, some of them teenagers, have been mounting a blockade on the M25 and other big roads. However, I’m not going to go into whether these environmentalists’ actions are justified or not, as this is not the point of this blogpost.

A lot has been written, quite justifiably, about how the tax system, government allocation of public funds and, more importantly, the borrowing and accumulation of huge debt that we will be leaving to our children and grandchildren to bear the burden of paying off in the future.

Despite my son often saying to me that I am too conservative on certain issues, and that I fail to understand that this is the 21^st and not the 19^th century, I have a lot of sympathy for the plight of young people.

I remain optimistic that they are growing in knowledge and awareness and are building up the skills they need to solve the problems that we are all creating and leaving for them to resolve.

I often remind my son and daughter of how privileged they are for living in this century, and also in a part of the world where they more or less take everything for granted. They usually tell me to accept it, as it’s not their fault that they were not born in the poorer parts of Africa, South America or India – which are most parts of those countries.

I am an optimist and I believe there is a bright future that lies ahead for young people. My main hope and prayer is that the future will be one in which there is a drastic reduction in the gap between the haves and have nots; I like to be hopeful that the wealthier countries will be much more generous and sincere in proactively promoting and encouraging good governance and a better quality of life in the poorer parts of the world. The success of Information Technology has made people aware in all parts of the world of how others live.

What I am certain of, is that the status quo is not sustainable, as the chasm in income and quality of life, which is being made worse in the poorer parts of the world by behaviours in the richer parts, cannot prevail for too long.

I’d like to quote a phrase from Otto von Bismarck, who said “What we learn from history is that no one learns from history”.

Without diving too deep into geopolitics, the major events we are seeing before our eyes in various parts of the world at present are a testament to the notion of man failing to learn from the past. In this world, there is too much distrust and too much me, me, me, and less of them, us and all.

I am hopeful that, when they take charge in the future, young people’s awareness in the richer places of the quality of life in different parts of the world will prompt them to run the world better than it is at present. I’m speaking about doing so in a way that there is a much better quality of life for the overwhelming majority of people all over the world. This is a huge and extremely complex task, but I am optimistic.

In my next blogpost I will discuss one of the points I listed in my first blogpost in this series, which is how well young people are exposed to people of different cultures.

Please see here for the last blogpost – the first in this series – https://excelinkeysubjects.com/should-we-give-generation-z-some-credit/

The post Leading the Change: Environmental Sustainability in Education appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

Should we give Generation Z Redefining Success: Leveraging the Strengths of Gen Z Students credit?

Idris Musty — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 07:07:12 +0000

Strengths of Gen Z Students:

There are all sorts of areas of day-to-day life in which young people are found to be wanting, and we parents are so frustrated that we get emotional at times when trying to get them to do things. The list is so long, and it ranges from the difficulty in trying to have a civilised conversation that is not monosyllabic to persuading them to get out of bed in the morning. This is not to speak of the endless attachment to their mobile phones and our failure to get them to attempt some sort of digital detox.

The above points are only the beginning when it comes to the shortcomings that young people have. However, this article is not about focusing just on the negative side but it will also try to look deeper with the aim of celebrating the positive side in young people.

Although I will be talking more about the education side of things; however, one must also appreciate that academic education is just one aspect of what young people need to thrive. There are other aspects that are almost just as important in facilitating adulthood filled with fulfilment, happiness and success – whatever constitutes success for the individual. It is about getting the balance right as there is no single aspect of life in itself that is sufficient to make one have a perception of fulfilment.

One thing to admire is the resilience that young people demonstrated during the COVID lockdown. The loss of time with their friends, which is a big deal for the very young in particular, is something that must not be underestimated. For many, staying in doors for that long was the complete opposite of what they were used to prior to the pandemic and it must not have been easy for them.

Another area in which young people have coped very well is the never-ending pressure to achieve academic success, a notion which has been a salient feature of family life for the last three decades or so – particularly in the South East of England. Before I move onto the next point, I must acknowledge that, sadly, not all teenagers have coped very well with the two key issues above.

There is not enough time in this piece of writing to go into every detail about each of the areas in which young people deserve some credit and acknowledgement. However, I will make a list of just a few areas in which I believe the young people of today are having a much more enriching experience than I had when I was growing up. For some of these, it is either the teenagers are very good at coping or have more awareness, and in some cases, are actually being more proactive in doing something about it.

The environment – awareness of the impact of our actions on our surroundings.
The ability to perceive everyday life in the context of what they learn at school.
Questioning of certain norms – with rational and valid arguments.
Exposure to people of different cultures.
Emotional intelligence.
Use of everyday technology.

In a series of blogposts to follow this, I will go a little deeper and try to explain each point in the list above.

I concur that one or two of the above points are not completely positive and there are demerits in some of these aspects. One is technology, as advancement of information technology has given very easy access to online media, what some have experienced has not been so positive. Another demerit is wasting time online, and in many cases, this is done at the expense of in-person interaction with friends and family. Too much social media messaging and video watching online is not restricted to valuable entertainment or knowledge. It is often the case that four members of a family are travelling in one car and they are all engaging with four to six different media at a time. Yes, in some cases, one person may be engaging with two media platforms at a time. For example, watching something and listening to something else.

Before I drift too far into the whinging territory, let’s get back to the positives! There is more information available to us now about what to do and what not to do to protect the environment and make the world a safer place to live in, and young people are more aware of this than any other generation. They are also more emotionally intelligent, and more in tune with their minds and how certain things may impact them positively or negatively. In addition, they learn a lot about other cultures either by reading or through social media and are more open than their parents to people that may be different from them. Also, many Gen Zs have a reformist mindset and believe that there’s always a better way of doing things, especially when the ‘old way’ may not be working or yielding positive results anymore. They are not afraid of change and trying out new things or new ways of doing things. Even if they are afraid of failure, they venture anyway, doing it afraid. Now, that’s not something that can be said of many people of the older generation!

On another note, whilst I am a dreamer or perhaps an idealist as well, I’m also aware that sadly, the improved education attainment that has been well documented is not being experienced by children in all parts of society. There is a growing prosperity gap in society between the Haves and the Have Nots. If you will permit me to generalise for a moment, it is apparent that certain demographics of society are not making as much progress as the others. The widening gap in both education attainment and income are a concern that the society must address if it is to prosper.

For a healthy society, prosperity must exist in a way that doesn’t leave too many people in society too far behind, as this in my view, is not sustainable. I understand that sadly, there will always be destitution in human society. No matter how much society tries, for one reason or the other, some people will be condemned to a life of poverty. In many cases, it is not due to natural causes, but simply because they are not willing or are not able to do what it takes to have a better standard of living. There isn’t much any government or community can do to completely stamp out poverty. However, not trying to help those who are struggling is not an option. Society must not only care but be very proactive in helping to give helping hands to those who are lagging behind. We owe it to everyone, including ourselves.

Some of the issues that the young people of today will have to deal with as adults of tomorrow will be different from what we have dealt with or what we are dealing with at present. The human society is evolving all the time, and some of us are more fortunate to live in a part of the world in which there are more possibilities than in other places.

I am an optimist and I believe that despite the gloom we hear in the media, the future is bright and young people of today will thrive. The knowledge, skills and experience that they are developing now, together with the vast resources that will be available to them in the future will allow them to prosper.

In my next few blogposts, I will go a little deeper and try to expand on each of the points I’ve listed above as positives.

See here for the next blogpost in this series – https://excelinkeysubjects.com/generation-z-and-environmental-awareness/

The post Should we give Generation Z Redefining Success: Leveraging the Strengths of Gen Z Students credit? appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.

Results Day Roadmap: How to Accept University Offers on UCAS Hub

Idris Musty — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 11:25:08 +0000

A-level Exam Results – How to Accept University Offers on UCAS Hub?

For the first time in three years, A-level exam results that are based on proper exams are released this week. As we do every year, we will see images of jubilant young people with glee on their faces, and their rather proud parents so delighted. The reality this year is that a lower proportion of young people will receive the top grades at both A-level and GCSE. The reason is that fewer grades will be awarded as A and A*, in 2022 and 2023 at least. This is because there was grade inflation in 2020 and 2021, as grades were awarded by teacher assessment. Thanks to the pandemic, top A-level grades went up by over 70% in two years.

Sadly, there will be a flip side to the picture of jubilant families I painted in the first paragraph above – as there will be many disappointments – perhaps more this year than in previous. One thing that makes matters worse for those who fall short of the required grades this year is the fact that top universities have a long list of candidates waiting from last year to take up their deferred places this autumn. This is mainly for popular courses – such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and many others. Here is a headline from the Guardian newspaper website: “Top UK universities ‘use secret waiting lists’ due to COVID uncertainty”.

The philosophical argument for going to any university to study any degree course…

On the whole, universities in the UK have a high reputation at home and abroad, as there are many universities that are ranked highly in the global university table. However, not all universities are highly reputable, and, with the exception of certain courses – mainly medicine related – the university you attend matters more than the degree you study. There are many misconceptions among young people who are perhaps not well-informed about universities and degree courses. A combination of misunderstanding and powerful marketing by universities leads to frustration and disappointments a few years down the line. This is because many young people are persuaded to attend universities that employers, and society in general, value less.

There are a few courses that are generally perceived as leading to highly financially rewarding jobs: but they don’t. Some examples of those are: Architecture, Law and, yes, even Computer Science. In reality, these courses only lead to top graduate positions if you study them at certain universities.

Personally, I take a philosophical approach to education, as I have found almost all forms of higher education learning to be very enlightening and allowing the young person to grow. However, the practicality of life is what most people find to be of a higher value to them and not the philosophical side of things. After all, most people have expectations of the type of jobs they want after graduation from university. McJob-type jobs, such as flipping burgers at McDonalds or stocking shelves at Tesco, are not what most young people had in mind when they went to university. It is perfectly okay to do these kinds of jobs whilst at college or university, to earn a bit of extra cash, not when you have graduated with a degree. Aside from having a student loan of tens of thousands to repay, many find the situation demoralising and have a sense or worthlessness. They feel unvalued.

Something to think about

What I will say to young people is to think very carefully before accepting a university offer from just any university. I am a strong believer in the notion that the university you go to matters more than the course you study or the degree you get, when it comes to future prospects. You need not take my word for it; you can do your own research. We live in an age with so much information available; just make sure you use the right sources to find information. At the bottom is a link to the BBC website with an article that includes earning power based on the university attended. I must admit that this is a very complex matter but there are certain realities that cannot be disputed, and that includes the fact that, for the majority of people, the university you attend has a significant effect on job prospects and earning power.

Follow you passion, but…

We all have emotional attachments, and many have a passion about certain courses they want to study, and that’s fine. However, it has to be borne in mind that there are market forces in operation and that certain universities and certain courses are more marketable than others.

I will not be making specific recommendations about what the teenager should do when they get their A-level exam results. However, I have a relatively short list of recommendations that they may find helpful in making an informed decision, given the importance of this matter.

It is helpful for the eighteen-year-old to have an idea what he or she wants or where they want to be in say five to ten years. It is okay if you are not sure about what you want, but think about where you do not want to be and how to avoid it
In case you happen to be ambitious or have high aspirations, and you are still unsure exactly which course to study at university, this is perfectly fine. Just be aware that, to a great extent, the degree course you study matters less than the university you attend
On the whole, certain courses give you an advantage, as they increase your chances of getting a job. Outside medicine, in my view, those courses are: Engineering, History, Mathematics and Physics. No, not Law, Architecture or even Computer Science, unless you study any of those at a top university
If you have an ambition to be a top lawyer, go and study History or even English at a top university and do a Law conversion course after your degree. This is better than studying Law at a less reputable university. In fact, it is better than studying Law as a first degree at any university
If you want to be an accountant, go and study History, Maths, Economics or anything – preferably not accounting-related – at a top university. After graduation, do a professional chartered accountant course. This is better than studying accounting or accountancy for your first degree.
If you are the academic type and want to be a businesswoman or a businessman, do not do Business Studies at university but do something else – like Economics, Finance, Physics or anything but Business for your first degree. Do an MBA or business-related course later on
Do your research before you accept an offer from any university, as the university you attend matters more than the course you study or the degree you get. The offer of an incentive from a less reputable university is not worth its weight in gold!
Attending a top university matters more than the course you study, except for medicine, and a very few other courses
In my view, the order of university reputation is as follows: Oxbridge; Imperial and LSE; other Russell Group; Red Brick and old polytechnics (pre-1992 universities). This is a slight generalisation but it largely holds true!
The very top universities are not for everyone, and you should be proud of whatever you’ve worked hard to achieve or where you find yourself; however, you owe it to yourself to give it your best shot before settling for whatever you end up with. That way, you’ll have a bigger smile on your face, and fewer regrets later on in life
Finally, if you are determined enough and you are prepared to undergo personal development and acquire additional skills, irrespective of what you study at university or the university you attend, you will succeed – whatever your own definition of success is!

Good luck!

Waiting list of: deferred places at universities https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-58270387

Graduate earning power: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38015829

The post Results Day Roadmap: How to Accept University Offers on UCAS Hub appeared first on Excel in Key Subjects.