The Q1 progress report just landed. Your capable, intelligent teen is struggling. Again.
You’ve tried reminding them about upcoming tests, sitting with them during homework, and checking their backpack for missing assignments. You’re exhausted from being the homework police, and your teen is frustrated, too.
The problem isn’t a lack of effort or intelligence. The problem is executive function.
Midterms are approaching fast. This is your chance to identify the real issue and address it before Q2 begins. If your teen struggles with planning, organization, time management, or task initiation, nagging or traditional tutoring won’t fix it. They need executive function skills now.
Midterm success depends less on cramming content and more on developing the executive function skills that make effective studying possible.
What Are Executive Function Skills and Why Do They Matter for Midterms?
Executive function skills are the mental processes that help us plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. These skills are your brain’s management system.
For midterm success, students need these core executive function skills:
- Planning and prioritization: Breaking down study material and determining what to study first
- Time management: Estimating how long tasks take and creating realistic schedules
- Organization: Tracking what needs studying for which exam and where the materials are
- Task initiation: Starting to study instead of procrastinating
- Working memory: Holding information in mind while studying
- Metacognition: Knowing what you know and adjusting study strategies accordingly
- Emotional regulation: Managing frustration, anxiety, and stress
When students struggle on midterms, parents often assume they didn’t study enough. More often, students lack the executive function skills needed to study effectively. They don’t know how to break down material, prioritize topics, or monitor their understanding.
Traditional tutoring focuses on content. Executive function coaching focuses on process. For midterm success, process matters.
How Can You Tell If Executive Function Issues Are Causing Midterm Struggles?
Your teen likely has executive function gaps if you notice these patterns:
Planning and time management problems:
- Doesn’t know where to start or waits until the night before
- Underestimates how long studying takes
- Spends too long on easy material, runs out of time for hard topics
Organization challenges:
- Can’t find notes or study materials
- Loses track of exam dates or mixes up class requirements
- Has no system for keeping materials organized
Working memory and task initiation issues:
- Forgets what they just studied or needs to reread repeatedly
- Sits down to study but spends 30 minutes “getting ready”
- Needs constant reminders to begin
If you see these patterns, your teen isn’t lazy. They’re struggling with skills that haven’t been taught. Becoming the homework police won’t fix this, as it only creates dependence instead of independence.
Why Does Traditional Midterm Preparation Often Fail?
Traditional midterm prep focuses on what to study. If a student lacks the skills to organize studying, manage time, and regulate emotions, content review alone won’t work.
Think about it: A math tutor teaches math content. A history study guide lists facts to know. But neither addresses the key question: How do I actually study all this effectively?
Students with executive function gaps often:
- Highlight everything because they can’t determine what’s important
- Reread notes passively without processing
- Study easy material repeatedly while avoiding difficult concepts
- Cram the night before because they couldn’t plan ahead
This is why you’ll hear: “I studied for hours but still failed.” Without executive function skills, that time wasn’t productive.
You try to help by creating schedules, organizing materials, and reminding them what to prioritize. You become their external executive function system. This works temporarily, until the next exam, when they still can’t do it independently.
This cycle exhausts everyone and builds dependence rather than competence.
What Does an Executive Function Approach to Midterm Prep Look Like?
The executive function approach treats midterms as a skill-building opportunity, not just a content challenge.
Building a Strategic Study Plan
Teach your teen to create a backward study plan. Start with exam dates, estimate review time for each subject, break it into daily chunks, and schedule specific tasks.
Example: “I have four exams over three days. History has the most material—six chapters at 45 minutes each equals 4.5 hours total. Spread over five days means one hour per day.”
Creating Organization Systems
Help them build a system for exam materials. One folder per subject with subsections for notes, study guides, and practice materials. They’ll always know where things are.
Teaching Prioritization
Before studying, spend 10 minutes categorizing material: what they know well, kind of know, and don’t know at all. Create a priority list. Study the weakest areas first.
Developing Task Initiation Strategies
Help them identify barriers to starting. Don’t know where to begin? Break into small steps. Fear it’s too hard? Commit to just 10 minutes. Easily distracted? Remove the phone first.
Building Self-Monitoring Skills
Teach active recall instead of rereading. Cover answers and try to recall them. When wrong, figure out why and create a memory strategy.
When Should You Seek Professional Executive Function Support?
If your teen has struggled with organization, planning, and time management all quarter, midterms won’t magically click.
Consider professional executive function coaching if:
- Your teen has ADHD. Executive function challenges are core to ADHD. Traditional tutoring won’t address the skills gap. Students with ADHD need specialized strategies that account for their specific executive function challenges.
- You’ve tried everything and nothing sticks. Every exam cycle starts from zero, suggesting they need direct instruction.
- You’re burned out from being the homework police. An executive function coach provides accountability while teaching independence.
- Q1 progress reports showed problems. Missing assignments and poor performance are skill gaps, not character flaws.
- Your teen is motivated but underperforms. They want to do well but lack the skills to study effectively.
Address this now, before midterms become a crisis.
What’s the Difference Between Executive Function Coaching and Traditional Tutoring?
Traditional tutoring teaches content—how to solve equations or key historical dates. This works when students understand HOW to study but need help with WHAT to study.
Executive function coaching teaches process—HOW to break down tasks, prioritize, manage time, and self-assess. This works when students struggle with the studying process itself.
If your teen fails history because they don’t understand the French Revolution, hire a history tutor. If they fail because they can’t organize notes, lose their study guide, and start the night before, they need executive function coaching.
Executive function coaching for midterms includes:
- Building realistic, backwards-planned study schedules
- Creating organization systems for all subjects
- Teaching active study strategies
- Developing self-testing and emotional regulation skills
- Creating personalized task initiation strategies
These skills transfer to every exam and assignment for life. Content knowledge is temporary. Executive function skills are permanent.
How Can You Support Executive Function Development at Home?
Parents can support executive function growth without becoming the homework police.
Stop doing it for them. When you create schedules or organize materials, you prevent skill development. Ask guiding questions instead: “What’s your plan for studying?” “How will you organize materials?”
Let natural consequences happen. If they forget to study something and perform poorly, that’s a learning opportunity. Debrief afterward: “What would you do differently next time?”
Teach one skill at a time. Pick one executive function skill, creating a schedule or organizing materials. Master that before adding another.
Model your process. Talk through how you plan your week or organize information. Make your thinking visible.
Create structure without taking over. Set “study hours” without dictating what or how they study.
Celebrate process, not just outcomes. Notice good planning even if grades aren’t perfect yet.
Focus on developing skills that lead to independence. Perfect midterm grades matter less than building these abilities.
Is It Too Late to Make a Difference Before Midterms?
No. Even if midterms are next week, building skills now sets up success for the rest of the year.
Your teen will face countless assessments throughout their academic career. If they don’t develop executive function skills now, you’ll have this same crisis before every exam.
Starting now means:
- This week’s prep might be imperfect, but it’s better than past attempts
- You’re breaking the cycle of parent dependence
- Q2 starts with better skills in place
- Finals in January will be dramatically different
Parents often think, “It’s too close to change anything. I’ll get them through this week and work on skills later.” But “later” never comes.
The best time to start was at the beginning of the school year. The second-best time is right now.
What Should You Do Today?
If Q1 progress reports revealed struggles and midterms are approaching, here’s your action plan:
Talk with your teen. Not about grades, but about their experience. “What makes studying hard?” “Where do you get stuck?” Listen without judgment.
Identify the skill gap. Is it planning? Organization? Task initiation? You can’t fix everything at once.
Decide on professional support. If your teen has ADHD, has struggled all quarter, or you’re exhausted from being the homework police, executive function coaching takes the burden off your relationship.
Implement one strategy this week. Create a backwards study plan together. Organize all exam materials. Teach one active study strategy. Start small.
Commit to the long game. Executive function development takes time. This week’s midterms are one data point.
You’re not trying to be the perfect parent or create the perfect student. You’re building independence while maintaining your relationship.
Ready to Try the Executive Function Approach?
At S4 Study Skills, we specialize in executive function coaching that builds genuine academic independence. Our approach focuses on capable students who struggle with the “how” of studying: organization, planning, time management, and task initiation.
Rather than just reviewing content, our coaching teaches skills that lead to midterm success and beyond. Parents can step back from being the homework police while students develop genuine independence.
Families throughout Fairfield County, Westchester County, Darien, Armonk, and the surrounding areas benefit from our customized programs. Each program is tailored to your student’s specific skill gaps and learning style.
If Q1 progress reports showed struggles, if you’re exhausted from managing your teen’s academics, or if midterms feel like a crisis, we can help.
Call us today at 203-307-5455 to discuss how executive function coaching can transform your teen’s approach to midterms and to academics overall.
Or visit our website to learn more about our evidence-based approach to study skills and executive functioning.
If your teen has ADHD and needs specialized midterm strategies, read our guide: “Midterm Study Hacks for Students with ADHD” for ADHD-specific approaches that account for executive function differences.
