The Student Room Group

A and A* students... Share your revision tips

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Reply 100
Constantly revise stuff- that way the stuff at the beginning of the module wont be completley lost come actual revision time ( and save yourself the hysteria that follows).

For chemistry I spent about 10 minutes every day writing all the reactions I needed to know and their mechanisms

Same with Bio, except it was all bullet points and flow diagrams

Do past papers throughout the year, dont just do them a week before the exam. You need a lot longer to figure out how the mark schemes work- most of it is just memorising certain phrases
This

starforsure


-Study everyday even if its just 10 minutes. I revised German grammar whilst on the train journey home from school everyday. Aced my German A Level.
-Marathon sessions are good only if you know everything to start with.


Reply 102
Hire a tutor if you find you are going to struggle - Maths.
Essay technique. This is very critical and probably more important than the knowledge provided itself - Business and History

Practice, practice and practice. (I didn't do this due to my authenticity, but its a massive benefit)
Generally put in extra work than your friends, as they can be good standards to be measured against.
Be interested in the subject.
Reply 103
I seem to be at my best when I play a lot of games, so I'll play games for a few hours. So lets say I'm playing an RTS (strategy) game, I'll play a match, which ranges between 20 and 40 minutes, and once that finishes I'll do some work. The work is usually a question or two, or reading a paragraph or two. Then I go back to another game.

I like to think of it as mental conditioning.

I also make sure I regularly go to the gym, just so my body doesn't build up any stress.
Literally just enjoy revising. Sounds hard/weird, but if you enjoy your subjects (which I really hope you do) then try to gain some enjoyment out of being able to remember things. It's kind of like mentally rewarding yourself. This is even better if someone tests you, because it's showing them too that you know your stuff.
Enjoy the whole experience and the idea of succeeding in the end. I hope you do enjoy your subjects, because it's so satisfying being able to know a topic/subject inside-out! :smile:
Reply 105
MARKSCHEMES. learn them.
Reply 106
Farooqi bean
Those were my subjects as well (although i wish to god psychology hadn't been)! You studying Law at uni?

How can you say that about Psychology?!!!? :zomg: :p: hahahaha I LOVE it! Wish I was gonna study it at uni but I'll miss it :frown: and nope I'm doing English at KCL :biggrin: you?
Reply 107
Biology and Chemistry I'd go through the spec, write out each point as a heading then make notes under each from textbook/past papers + mark schemes/class notes etc. I'd then learn each point by explaining it to myself out loud in front of a mirror, making sure I said each of the keywords at least once. Then repeated.. again and again. Rote learning, yes. But it worked!

Maths just past papers until I was hitting 70+ out of 75 in each unit.
Reply 108
revise and be intelligent
jwn09
Biology and Chemistry I'd go through the spec, write out each point as a heading then make notes under each from textbook/past papers + mark schemes/class notes etc. I'd then learn each point by explaining it to myself out loud in front of a mirror, making sure I said each of the keywords at least once. Then repeated.. again and again. Rote learning, yes. But it worked!

Maths just past papers until I was hitting 70+ out of 75 in each unit.

Yeah I agree with this. :yep:
To OP: Start revision early-I left a lot to last minute and that made me really stressed. When I revised content I had learned before, it was a lot easier the 2nd time round.

From personal experience for a-levels:

Biology: It was pretty much a memory game. Even though they say to get an A*, you can't just learn everything off by heart because they want you to be stretched and challenged, do it anyway. :p: In my opinion, the more you learn the easier it is to do the S & C q's and it can only benefit you. I wrote notes under headings, highlighted, drew out diagrams, read things out, re-wrote my notes on rough paper to test my own knowledge, memorised everything, did the past papers (some of the q's require rather long answers so I just bullet point), compare with markscheme, memorise markscheme answers.

Chemistry: My approach was very similar to the way I revised Biology except I found there was a lot less memorising and a lot less note taking involved with Chem.

Maths: Did exercises in the textbook then moved onto doing all the past papers.

1 month before my exam, I went to the library everyday and then helped me to stay motivated because all my friends went there and we encouraged each other and you don't feel so alone. But I made sure not to sit with them when revising incase of distractions. We went out together as a group for breaks and lunches so it was a nicer way of revising :smile:

Revision is boring, that's a given. But you just need to remember that revising for exams is only a few months of your life. There may be moments where you might suddenly think 'oh my god I'm being such an antisocial freak, I'm wasting my life away with revision.' but a few months in the long term is really not going ruin your social life, honestly.

Hardwork always pays off and when your results reflect this, you forget all those horrible months you had to stay indoors to revise! Trust me.

Also, another thing I did was that I would set my alarm on my phone for every hour or so to keep track of how many hours of revision I was doing. It made me aware of when I was wasting time and also made me stay more focused.

Oh and fruit is good as well :biggrin: I tend to get distracted by the thought of food a lot so I had a fruit basket on my study table. And I drank A LOT of caffienated things..hardly slept, which is really not a good idea but I always do that during exam time.

Good luck OP and soldier through ! :smile:
Reply 110
Vanny17
I worked very hard for my As level exams but came out with very bad grades. I read during every break/ lunch and sometimes 4 hours straight. I worked through EVERY past papers, made revision notes, cut out on social life and always read before every new chapter. My teachers and students said i had potential to get AAAB grades. How come i messed up? Please tell me what i did wrong. Share your revision tips as well! Please. My subjects are biology, chemistry, Religious Studies and sociology. Thanks.


Maybe you need to understand the way to write an answer that examiners look for. It is no good working hard and understanding everything but not being able to answer correctly what the question is asking.
Wardy23
As someone who got an A* an A and a C I can tell you that reading some notes from the years lessons doesn't work (results in a C) and that past papers work (result in an A* and an A).

DO PAST PAPERS!!!

I hope I've made that clear.


But what about if the whole specification has changed!! Like Biology and RS!:woo:
Subscribed
For biology AS I read the textbook. For maths you can just do past papers. I hate chemistry so I'm not sure on that.
Reply 114
Try to take the time to firstly understand the value of the knowledge that you're required to learn. It's more than likely, regardless of the subject, that it's taken an unmeasurable amount of passion, effort and time for the information to have arrived at the point it is now and so therefore once this is understood, if this works for you as it does for me, it becomes less of a strain (if not the opposite) to be spending your spare time reading upon it. For instance as a Philosophy student, to consider the history of ideas and the human struggles behind them allows me to realise that it's probably far more worthwhile to make the effort to learn it, and do well, than to procrastinate. :gthumb: I still struggle with this, but it's always essential to have the motivation. :gthumb:
Reply 115
mel0n
How can you say that about Psychology?!!!? :zomg: :p: hahahaha I LOVE it! Wish I was gonna study it at uni but I'll miss it :frown: and nope I'm doing English at KCL :biggrin: you?


Aww wish i was studying Eng Lit as well actually :frown: always been my favourite subject, but went where the money was instead :colondollar: studying Law at Nottingham, i take it Thursday went well then :biggrin: ?
Reply 116
Dr Eadful
What you doing in Southampton?

I'm going there too :smile:

Physics :smile:
Reply 117
Revise LOTS! Literally go through your text book and re make notes. I tend to read notes and re write until i remember- but it really depends on what works for you best! I know one of my friends revises by speaking it out loud and walking in circles!!!
MissFanatical
yes, because that is a word :awesome:



Forgot a B there. Sorry.:smile:
I literally memories textbooks for biology, maths and chemistry to the point where i remember which stuff was on which page number and memorised vocab and grammar constructions for german and russian. But then again, i don't forget stuff easily...
Don't revise for so long!!!!

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