If you are the parent of a 15 or 16-year-old, your children are probably in the midst of revising for their upcoming GCSE exams.
Kicking off in schools across the UK on May 15, the exams will be spread out over a six-week period, with the final exam taking place for some students on June 27.
The next few weeks will likely be incredibly stressful for teenagers as they attempt to commit as much information to memory as possible.
This can also cause stress and anxiety for mums and dads who want to help and support their child through the exam period.
According to a former teacher, there are a number of ways parents can help - but there are also several things they should avoid doing as it could cause more harm than good.
Mehreen Baig, a former English teacher with over 10 years of experience, spoke to The Mirror about some of the 'worst' things parents do when their kids are studying. She claims the biggest mistake is leaving them to get on with it on their own.
The 33-year-old, who has created a study series on YouTube called Glow Up Your Grades, explained that many parents are put off helping their kids with schoolwork as they feel they don't know enough about a subject to be of any use - however, this shouldn't be the case.
"I hear [from parents] all the time 'I wasn't good at maths myself' or 'I haven't read that Shakespeare play'. So how can you support your child? I think the key thing is to sit with your child.
"The majority of time parents let their children revise upstairs, in their rooms, for hours and they might pop in and check on them and ask if their work is done and think that's good enough but you need to actually sit with your child while they do their work.
"The most important thing you can give your child is your time.
"If you sit with them while they are revising, it means you can monitor whether they're becoming distracted - and even if they're really hardworking, you might be able to see them getting really stressed, which could mean the work they're producing isn't to a high standard. But if you sit with them, you can make sure that they've done their homework or revision and that they've done it well."
Mehreen goes on to say that by paying attention to their work, you'll also be able to see if they've spent enough time on the task, or whether they rushed through the writing and didn't put enough effort into it.
"Whether you know the subject or not, you'll be able to judge these things and know that your child wasn't just sitting on their phone, not studying," the expert continues.
She adds that you don't have to know a subject to be helpful to your child, as it can actually be good for them to 'teach' you about it - as it will help them in turn.
"It's fun to do things together, get your child to teach you something," Mehreen advises.
"I always say with GCSE revision, even if parents have never read Shakespeare before if they get their child to tell them the story and if they write down all the key quotations from the play they can help their child memorise them by testing them on it - as they need to remember the key quotes for the exam."
Another top tip from the teaching pro is to get hold of a mark scheme for practice papers, as you don't need to know the subject, you just need to tick whether your child's answer matches or not.
"You don't need to know the subject, but you can work with the child and really it all comes down to the time you give them, rather than just assuming that when they say they've done the revision that they've actually done it. You can make sure they've done it well."
And in terms of how long your child should be revising, Mehreen claims it's unhelpful and unhealthy for them to spend all day sitting down in front of a computer screen or textbook.
Instead, she recommends revising in 'bursts' for 40-minute blocks and then taking a 20-minute break.
However, this might need to vary for students, as some will want to spend more time on certain topics they struggle with.
But when it comes to breaks, make sure your child is getting outside and being active.
"Those breaks aren't for sitting on your phone, it needs to be something like going for a walk, getting active, doing some sort of yoga or something where you can really switch off and give your eyes and mind a bit of a break," she says.
Finally, she warns students not to just read over their notes or read a textbook and think that's the job done.
"You can read all day that doesn't mean that anything is sticking in your mind," she explains. "You have to actively revise, and by that I mean, you have to be doing past papers, or actively writing essays or writing answers to questions.
"Make revision cards where you write the question and you write the answer on the back. You can't just read notes, you have to do something with that knowledge."
For those who are still struggling with revision, you can find more tips and advice in Mehreen's Glow Up Your Grades YouTube series.
