I have been a participant of both types of systems. There is actually no choice for children in India to choose between the two. The choice comes in our daily routines. As your children are young, they need to be trained for conceptual understanding through various forums which the school may or may not provide. But in the final outcome where exam excellence does count, like class X and XII, we have to switch gears.

Just to continue with the thought, I believe at the later stage the new holistic approach is the one that will ultimately survive. The exam excellence requirement is only at certain stages and not required every year. If you as a parent are clear about this then the expectations from the children will be different at different stages, so things will balance out.

I am sure your child understands the importance of this exam and over the year he must have gone through all the preparation in various forms. So now is the time to support him in organising his space, being around for a talk during breaks and being less anxious about the exams. He must be having his own plan to work towards his potential.

Your support in the form of your presence during this anxious moment is a good motivation. Just assure him that you have seen him put efforts throughout the year and that you trust him.

Another thing that works well is to help sit down with them after he has done his studies and talk about the topic (Only if he wants to).

A very valid observation. Yes, it is very common to see your child getting frustrated with the same content. Just let there be a half day off from studies, if you think your child is other wise sincere

Take him out for lunch /dinner to change the environment. Ask him to meet his friends for some time. This will remove fatigue and rejuvenate him.

Yes, during preparation for exams there is indeed low level of physical activity. Here I think the parents can ask their child to go for a walk or play for some time in the evening. This refreshes the child. Good health is absolutely important during this period. Encourage your child to sleep for 6 to 7 hours on the night before the exam. Eating light food I believe should take care of low level of physical activity.

Since the syllabus for class XII is pretty vast, your child should plan cyclic revision from mid January onwards to be comfortable with the syllabus for all 5 subjects. This is generally the case after pre boards are over. Revision in the form of paper solving must start by February so that consolidated learning can be assessed by the child himself and further action can be taken. I am sure each child has a way to prepare for the exams. Do support them at all times.

There is no golden rule. It is as per the capacity of your child.

Some tips during exams to help your child.
1)Help them prepare a realistic study timetable for preparation.
2) if your child is very young , sit down with your child so you will see whether there is help / clarification required related to any concept
3) Instead of getting angry , if any concept is misunderstood by your child, do teach the concept or ask the teacher to reteach your child. This will reduce your child’s anxiety and he /she will begin to communicate freely about his doubt.
4) Do prep tests which are time bound to teach time management
5) ask your child to create visual maps of the concepts he /she has read about. This is a wonderful way to check the connection between different concepts and is a good memorizing tool
6) Summarising or inference are also simple ways of checking the comprehension of matter learnt.
7) compare and contrast is another tool that can be used for study skills.
8) creating a quiz or MCQ test for a topic can also bring in the needed variety for learning
9) ask your child to make a question bank for a topic.
10) Do an open book test with your child.