Help Your Teens Prepare for Milestone Events
As the parent of teenagers, you probably feel like you are going through as many milestones with them now as you did when they were toddlers. From studying for and getting their driver’s permit to taking the SAT and filling out college applications, teenagers' lives are exceptionally busy.
While teenagers are ultimately responsible for their study habits, you can still play a role in their success. The following tips can help your teens get ready for some of the major events they have coming up...
Prepare for the Driving Exam
When you were a teenager, getting ready for your driver’s permit test meant reading through a dog-eared booklet numerous times in an attempt to memorize the rules of the road. Now, thanks to the Internet, your teens can prepare for the test on any device no matter where they are.
For example, Driving-Tests.org offers free DMV permit practice tests that teens can take over and over. The interactive tests, which are based on the actual DMV manual, are a great way for your teens to prepare for the actual exam, especially if they get nervous during tests. Help your teens study these tests, or if you like a little competition, have a friendly contest to see who gets the highest score on a practice exam.
Get Ready for the SAT
Like the driver’s permit test, preparing for the SAT involves taking some practice tests. But while the practice permit tests don’t take that long to complete, a full-length SAT takes almost four hours. To help your teenagers do well on the SAT, encourage them to study and to take plenty of practice tests, but also to space them out to prevent feeling overwhelmed and burned out.
You can purchase workbooks that include practice SATs, or you can visit websites like Khan Academy to download a full-length SAT. Encourage your teens to set aside a block of time every one to two weeks to take the full-length, timed practice SAT. While they might complain about how long the test is, remind them that when the real test day rolls around, they will have the endurance and know-how to get through the long exam.
Send out College Applications
In many ways, college applications are like homework assignments; your teen must stay on top of deadlines, know what is expected in each application packet and answer all of the questions in order to pass. Teens must be exceptionally organized to make sure no applications fall through the cracks.
Help your teens by knowing which colleges they are applying to and marking the deadlines on a family calendar. Encourage your teens to use a calendar app like Google Calendar to record college application deadlines and to schedule times to work on getting them done. While you want to encourage your teen to do most of the work, help them by proofreading everything and making sure they have provided all of the requested information.
