How To Prepare Your Child for National Or State Common Entrance
All private schools, state schools, and federal unity schools have an entrance exam that all intending students must take before being offered admission. And these exams are highly competitive due to the number of pupils seeking admission into the schools.
I know that most federal government colleges, Unity schools, Air Force schools, Navy schools, Command schools, Nigeria military schools and some highly rated private schools in Nigeria conduct competitive entrance exams for their new intake.
My concern is not about how competitive the exams are but how your child will ace the exam through adequate preparation.
Before I make my points on how you can help your child, I must let you know that most of the exams are divided into five sections: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics, English Language, and Current Affairs.
Knowing how the sections of the exam will be will give you direction on how to help your child excel in the exam.
Get your child a preparatory guide for practice: During my own time, I used a book by M.O. Odiaka to prepare for my common entrance. It has many questions in each section I have mentioned above. Nowadays, a book by Ngo C. Ngo is recommended by some schools to their pupils. Apart from the two books I mentioned, some schools provide past questions when you purchase their entrance examination form. The essence of the preparatory guide is to let your child get familiar with the type of questions he might see in the exam.
Get him/her a good private teacher: Some parents may not have the time to sit their child down and put him/her through difficult questions during his/her practice time. And that is why you can employ a good teacher to put your child through. A good private teacher will be the one to teach, motivate, and inspire your child during the time he is preparing for the exam.
Help your child schedule his/her time: Naturally, most children are playful; they prefer playing to reading. So, as a parent, you have to make sure that your child has a reading timetable that he/she must follow.
Encourage and make him feel confident: One of the reasons why some students fail competitive exams is because of the lack of confidence in their ability to excel. It is the parent’s job to understand their child’s confidence level and work on it before he/she goes for the exam.
Help him/her how to read and understand: This is an effective way to succeed in any competitive exams.
Recommended: How a student can read and understand
Lastly, you must make sure your child has a sound sleep a day before the exam, eat a balanced diet, and arrive at the exam venue one hour before the exam. Getting to the exam venue early will make him feel relaxed and will reduce any form of pressure.
