I was demonstrating to some of our students today, all of the resources that are available to them on our VLE and one of the things is the Top 40 resource that we’ve put on there for them to use … and inevitably (I’ve learnt that the conversation goes that way!) we got into a discussion about why there was only 40 topics and not literally every topic that is likely to come up on the exam.  I turned the question around and so the conversation went like this:

ME:  “if you were given a free hand and given access to a whole host of topics, where would you start?” 

STUDENT:  “hmmmmm I don’t know … obviously you’d give me a list of topics to look for”

ME: “and if I haven’t given you a list?”

STUDENT: “Wellllll …. I’d look for stuff that I recognise the title of, or stuff that I know I can do”

ME: “so whilst you’re looking for something to revise, you’ll be getting distracted by all the other stuff that’s going on in your life, and you won’t actually be doing anything?”

STUDENT: *** thought for a while and then called me over ** “you know what Miss? I can see what you’ve done, you’ve given me a list … its just not on paper! that’s sic miss!”

ME: “hahahaha … yep I’ve given you a list of 40 topics …  you start at number 1 and work through to number 40 … and if you still want more you start looking at the functional skills topics”

Sometimes its great to see that eureka moment, even if its nothing to do with maths!