Resources
Study method, organization and advice for parents
Working methods, a homework routine and advice for parents, built around the Quebec programme, from elementary school to Cégep. It all reads right here, with no account to create.
- A seven-step study method, ready for the next test
- A homework routine and a ten-minute weekly plan
- Four pieces of advice for parents, plus what to avoid
Free to read.
Articles
Our articles for parents and students
Three pieces on the questions families ask us most often.
Homework help: ending the fight at the kitchen table
How to set up a routine your child eventually keeps on their own: one spot, an announced time, a clear finish.
Read the articleA study method for Secondary exams
Rereading your notes is not enough. Active recall, revision spread over several days, and a full practice exam.
Read the articleHow to choose a math tutor in Quebec
The questions to ask before the first session: the Quebec programme, background checks, how progress gets measured.
Read the article
Study method
Exam prep: the seven-step method
The method we teach in session at the Secondary level. It runs over about ten days, in short sessions.
Get the outline of the test before you start studying
What is covered, the type of questions, how much each part is worth. One question to the teacher is usually enough to get it.
Turn the material into a list of questions
One question per concept: “how do you factor a difference of squares?” rather than “factoring”.
Work in short blocks, never in one long stretch
Twenty-five minutes on, five minutes off, phone out of the room. Two blocks beat three hours in a row.
Close everything and write down what you remember
Active recall: blank page, ten minutes. The gaps show up right away. Uncomfortable, and far more effective than rereading.
Redo the questions you got wrong, not the ones you got right
The questions marked with an X on old exams and the numbers you skipped. First without the answer key, then compare.
Explain the concept out loud, to someone
A parent, a friend, a wall. If you stall halfway through a sentence, the concept is memorized, not understood.
Take a practice exam under real conditions
Two days before, an old exam, timed, no notes. The last review then covers only the mistakes you found.
From Secondary 1 to Cégep. In elementary school, use ten-minute blocks and do steps 4 and 6 with your child.
Organization and motivation
A week in the life of an organized student
Being organized is not a personality trait, it is a set of habits. Here are six of them.
A fixed homework hour, the same one every day
After two weeks, “should I get started now?” stops being a question.
Ten minutes of planning on Sunday evening
Write down what is due and what is being tested, spot the heavy day, decide when the studying happens.
The phone out of the room, not just out of reach
A visible device takes up attention even when it is off. It comes back at the break, then it leaves again.
The hardest task first
Energy drops as the evening goes on. Math at 6 p.m., reading at 8 p.m.
End each session in a way that sets up the next one
Write the next action in one sentence: “redo questions 12 to 18”. Starting again becomes easy.
One evening a week with no homework, protected
A student who never gets a free evening ends up sabotaging the whole routine.
One habit at a time, for two weeks. Six changes on the same evening never hold.
Advice for parents
Four pieces of advice for parents, and what to avoid
Most of this comes down to a change of role: supporting the work rather than correcting it.
Support the work, don’t become the teacher again
Your job is to make the work possible: a quiet spot, a set time, someone available. Taking the teacher’s role back turns you into the examiner.
- What helps: asking “show me what you tried”.
- What to avoid: picking up the pencil to move things along.
Hold the frame, leave the execution alone
The parent decides when and where. The student decides how, and owns the result. That line defuses a lot of arguments.
- What helps: announcing the length in advance and sticking to the end time.
- What to avoid: stretching the session because the work is not “neat enough”.
Read the report card looking for the cause
A mark going down is information, not a verdict. Look for where the thread broke: a concept missed, no working method, exam stress, sometimes ADHD that nobody has spotted yet.
- What helps: asking which questions were missed, and why, in the student’s own words.
- What to avoid: announcing a consequence before you understand.
Ask for help before things fail
Trouble in math and in French usually builds on concepts missed earlier on. The older the gap, the more sessions it takes to close it.
- What helps: reacting to the first assignments of a term, without waiting for the report card.
- What to avoid: waiting until May, when revision and the ministry exams arrive together.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about these resources
What are these study resources for?
For working on your own: between two sessions, during a busy week, or before a test. The method and the routine carry over to every subject. These are study tools, not a school curriculum.
Are the resources free?
Everything published here is free to read, with no account to create. The printable documents will be free too, the day they exist.
Do your study resources follow the Quebec programme?
Yes. They follow the Quebec Education Program and the progression of learning: elementary school, Secondary 1 to 5, Cégep. We are not affiliated with the Ministère de l’Éducation or with any school service centre.
How do we get one-on-one help?
A worksheet is no substitute for someone looking at the notebook with the student. Tell us the subject, the level and where things are stuck in the matching form. The levels we cover: elementary school, Secondary 1 to 5, Cégep. Sessions are held online, from Montreal to Laval and across the South Shore.
Need help? Find a tutor
A method gives its best results when someone checks that it is actually being followed. Tell us the subject, the level and the goal: we look for the person who fits.
Matching takes the subject, the level and the student’s personality into account.