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I'm Sick And Tired Of Revision... (GCSE)

I recently did a post - People on that post were saying they were doing 4 hours of revision a day or more... I simply do not understand how people can manage that much.

To anyone out there who has done their GCSE's how much revision per day is enough?

I don't pick things up easily. I do have motivation. However I can't seem to do more than 1 hour of revision. It's like once I start and then after I've took a break... My mind simply won't focus. Which is why I find it shocking that people on here are saying they revise for up to 4 hours or more.

I want to relax. But there is no time for this. So I just get annoyed at the situation. And I just can't seem to cope with this at all.

I'm somewhat sick of the education system altogether. For several different reasons...

I also find it much easier to revise in the evening/night time. I honestly don't know why.

Is anyone else currently going through the same thing? Where they feel like there constantly revising and they can never relax. (And although I don't do that much revision. My mind is mentally aware of the fact that I should be revising, in this sense, I don't feel relaxed).

Thanks.

Reply 1

Dhaden

I think's it's all about finding the right revision technique which can keep your attention, how are you currently revising?

Reply 2

>Username<

Original post by Dhaden

I think's it's all about finding the right revision technique which can keep your attention, how are you currently revising?

I think my technique is pretty good.

I work for 40 minutes.
Then a 10 minute break.
I work for another 20 minutes.
Then a 20 minute break.
(Repeat)

Reply 3

blossomx

Don't compare your revision to others. I remember being in a similar boat during my GCSEs last year and my measly 20 minutes of reading notes was nothing compared to these people with elaborate revision schedules. I've found that it's better to do short bursts of revision with long breaks then sit there trying to drill things into my head. Those people saying they do 4 hours a day are probably spending half of it daydreaming without realising, at least that's what happens with me. :wink:

Revision?

LeaX has given you some great advice. :smile:

Just because other people do loads of revision, don't worry - it doesn't mean you have to.

When I did my GCSE's, I devoted most of my time to Maths, because I found it hard. I spent about 1-2 hours every other day revising maths. For English,Science and History, I just re-read notes, used the bitesize website, and did past papers in my lessons. Aside from my Maths, I must have spent around an hour - 2 hours a week, if that, revising my other subjects. I did a quick 15-20 min revision session at home or in the library before each exam, as I find last minute revision really suits me.

That technique also worked for my AS exams, however I don't think it's going to work for my A2. :tongue:

but at GCSE I came out with B,B,C,C,C,C,C,C,D. Average, but it was good enough for me.

So In conclusion..dont worry and just do enough to suit you. If you push yourself, you might not remember a lot and you'll seriously stress yourself out. Take care :biggrin:

Reply 6

>Username<

Original post by LeaX

So what kind of schedule did you have?

I was also thinking that as well! Surely if you were doing that much revision you'd just spend half the time day dreaming...

Thanks for reply. :smile:

It was helpful.

Reply 7

Niki_girl

Original post by >Username<

To anyone out there who has done their GCSE's how much revision per day is enough?

I don't pick things up easily. I do have motivation. However I can't seem to do more than 1 hour of revision. It's like once I start and then after I've took a break... My mind simply won't focus. Which is why I find it shocking that people on here are saying they revise for up to 4 hours or more.

I want to relax. But there is no time for this. So I just get annoyed at the situation. And I just can't seem to cope with this at all.

I'm somewhat sick of the education system altogether. For several different reasons...

I also find it much easier to revise in the evening/night time. I honestly don't know why.

Is anyone else currently going through the same thing? Where they feel like there constantly revising and they can never relax. (And although I don't do that much revision. My mind is mentally aware of the fact that I should be revising, in this sense, I don't feel relaxed).

Thanks.

Hi, I'm an A2 student, and I'm doing around 4 hours of revision a day at the moment, you should consider that I've had a bit more practice at it than you though :tongue:

, the hard part of GCSE revision is that you're still learning what works best for you, different methods etc.

Have you tried; re-writing notes, then turning over the page and seeing how much you can write out again, recording yourself talking about a topic, onto a phone, ipod, making colourful posters with pictures on, making little revision cards (flashcards) for formulae, quotations, getting post-its and sticking them all over your room with tiny little bits of information on, drawing mind-maps to summarise topics, planning or doing past-paper questions.

Revision methods really are endless, so give all of them a chance at least once!

I can't rememebr how much revision I did at GCSE, but I do remember that it's different for every person and every subject. For my GCSE maths I studied at least 20 minutes a day from February until May to ensure that I got a B (maths wasn't my best subject!), other subjects, like PE short course, or "Business communications", I left until a few days before (not recommended, but I didn't prioritise these exams, and I did 14 GCSEs), memorised a few facts, and came out with a B and an A respectively (they were multiple-choice exams!)

Don't worry about picking things up easily, that comes with practice. If you take the time to read through something, and understand it, and THEN memorise it, you will "pick it up", although you shouldn't try to revise things you haven't learnt or didn't understand in the first place, you need to learn them first.

Do you have a timetable? I think that would help, divide your subjects into their key units, and the spread them across a 7 days week, across about 4 hours a day. That way, each day, you know what you're doing, e.g, maths, shape and number, or English, key text, and how long for (keep sessions to 1 hour if you can't concerntrate longer, sounds fairly normal).

Re-focusing is hard, which is why you need breaks and motivation! Remember that your exams will be over in 10 weeks, and if you break that into chunks, that's not very long at all. You will have plenty of time to relax in the summer! I know revision is tough, but keep going and you'll feel good about what you've achieved - especially on Results Day!

It's also fairly common to find it easy to work at night/ during the evening, I think quite a few teenagers experience this, it's to do with alertness and hormones and energy levels, I think. Don't be too hard on yourself, I can sometimes only manage 2 hours instead of 4, or I have to skip a subjec or any activity because I'm too tired/ stressed to focus. It happens to everybody, they just don't mention it!

I'll give you an example of my day, and see if it helps;

Start revision at around 11:00am, 1 hours revising Theology (MAKE IT SPECIFIC, so you stay focused) so I did, an essay plan for a part (a) and part (b) question relating to conflict. (Takes me up to 12:00pm)

BREAK UNTIL 1:30pm, eat lunch, family came round, etc.

2:00pm start revision on Paradise Lost, English lit., make revision cards on key quotes, and re-read the text (takes me until 3:00pm)

BREAK UNTIL 4:30pm, go on computer, watch TV, etc.

Eat dinner at 5:00 until around 6:00pm

6:00pm, start revision on Irish History (support for the Union), planned an essay question and then wrote a page summarising my conclusions, in case I want to look back on it

That took me until 7:30pm, and now I'm on a break until 8:30pm, when I'll start revising my last topic for the day (Dracula!), which should take around an hour to an hour and a half.

If I achieve everything, I'll have done about 5 hours of revision, which is pretty good, and hopefully you can see from my mini-schedule above how I structured it around the day, and varied what revision I did (it's a good idea to have several different areas and types of activities a day, so you don't get bored!). When I'm finally finished, I might watch a film, or do something fun and relaxing before I go to sleep, so that tomorrow morning I won't mind having to revise again.

I think the key is simply, stay motivated, stay on target, make a timetable, take regular breaks and reward yourself!

You can do it! Good Luck :biggrin:

Reply 8

L1000

Feel exactly the same. I feel like I'm getting no where with my revision, it's so frustrating. There's so much to learn in such a short amount of time.

Reply 9

Moggs

Original post by >Username<

So what kind of schedule did you have?

I was also thinking that as well! Surely if you were doing that much revision you'd just spend half the time day dreaming...

Thanks for reply. :smile:

It was helpful.

I'm not doing GCSE's anymore, but I'm guessing these are the first exams you've had to study so much for. You do get used to it.

The way I get around the day dreaming thing is instead of setting time intervals (40 minutes, break, 40 minutes etc), I use a stopwatch with a countdown. When studying, the watch is counting down to my target time. If I take a break for food, the bathroom, or just get distracted it gets paused.

I find this is an excellent way to see exactly how much I'm doing. I don't feel overly restricted, and at the end of it there's no uncertainty about how much of the day was spent distracted because the watch never lies. There's something comforting about thinking a lot of time was wasted yet the clock reads X number of hours. I also find myself motivated to try and improve it the next day.

Maybe worth a try, but as has already been said, you'll find what works best for you with experience :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 10

tamimi

GCSE?
You know nothing of revision yet.

Reply 11

blossomx

Original post by >Username<

So what kind of schedule did you have?

I was also thinking that as well! Surely if you were doing that much revision you'd just spend half the time day dreaming...

Thanks for reply. :smile:

It was helpful.

I never really had a set schedule, it was more just see what kind of subject I felt like revising haha. I started in the Easter holidays and my exams were from May 16th to June 21st so they were nice and spread out so I had time to focus on each subject. I think that's the biggest thing that you need to cope with is the large amount of subjects you need to revise for. It depends on which areas are your strengths and which are your weaknesses as well as what subjects you're taking in the first place. For English, I did lots of past papers and posted the essay answers on the English forums and received feedback which helped immensely. Maths is just past papers really. Science, English and 'wordy' subjects like History I made mind-maps with condensed notes which I read and reread which helped all the fine details I needed to remember stick in my head.

It really depends on your learning style, too. I'm a big visual learner so the mind-maps helped me but you might prefer listening to podcasts (check out BBC Bitesize) or watching Youtube videos of certain concepts. I really recommend past papers though, you begin to see how an examiner thinks and what they're looking for when marking as well as noticing which questions often come up (I remember in a biology exam there were a whole two pages that were the exact same from a past paper so I knew exactly what to write).

Also, I don't know if this still applies to you but definitely do your best in coursework. That is my biggest regret from GCSEs because on results day I got A*s in most exams, but my B's and C's in coursework brought my grades down.