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How often do you take breaks when revising?

How often do you take breaks when revising, and how long for? What do you do?

And how many hours are you doing a day for each subject? :confused:

Reply 1

Tahooper

During the course of the day I usually take a 24 hour break from revision.

Reply 2

Floridfist

I remember reading somewhere that the most efficient study timing layout for revision, in terms of how much information you retain is 45 minutes and a 15 minute break. Whilst you remember most prominantly what you studied in the beginning and toward the end of the session with lowest recollection being in the middle. So you stagger your revision in a repetitive manner, e.g if you had 5 short chapters to study, you would revise chapters 1 - 3, 15 minute break. Then do 2 - 4 (over-lapping with the first session), 15 minute break. And finally 3 - 5 and so forth.

In terms of hours of studying I follow the ratio of "3 hours study for every hour in class". Also it is best to review what you learned in lesson in the same day but about 4 to 5 hours after studying it, as studies showed this reinforced information retention of 90 - 95% for up to 9 weeks, opposed to next day revision, or third day revision with percentages of low 80% information retention or only 40% information retention for around 4 weeks.

Ofcourse you always want to review things you studied in the past maybe once a month. No matter how well you know it.

Reply 3

Andicate

I get distracted SO easily! I take breaks frequently whenever I feel like it, and that's once every 20 minutes -.-... I can only do 1 subject per day! e.g. I do a model answer, then I spot a great headline on my newsfeed, read that article, and then get back to revision and the whole cycle starts all over again.

It's so annoying! Shutting off the internet helps, but if I can't access the internet, I make myself food and start eating... :angry:

edit: and I feel sleepy after I eat so then just go to sleep -.-

Reply 4

PrettyLittleLiars

I study for about 35 min (can't do more) and take a 15 min break. I do this for 2 hours then take a 1 hour break and continue this for about 4 hrs. I usually try and attempt a past paper a day for each subject and try and review my notes.

Reply 5

swbp

I'm an A2 student and my pattern is usually 1 hour of revision followed by a 20-30 minute break, and i'll follow this schedule from around 10-5.

Reply 6

Frey

Original post by buildalegohouse

How often do you take breaks when revising, and how long for? What do you do?

And how many hours are you doing a day for each subject? :confused:

like a lot of things, revising power ranges from person to person. Some people can get away with literally one hour and do fine, some plod out 9+ hours.

I would say, don't think about it x amount of time per subject, but break your subject down into it's different units and work though them all (I try to one unit per day, so takes about an hour maybe). Also give yourself time to do practice questions.

It's thought that people's super concentration last about 15-20 mins. so do a 20 min chunk then do something else 5-10 mins completely unrelated.

generally you concentrate best in the morning too; it's amazing what you can get done in a 9am till 1pm-ish shift, and then you have the rest of the day to enjoy yourself if you finish all you set work :wink:

Reply 7

rawragee

I tend to work by the hours, so I do like 45-55 minutes of revision then have a break for the rest of the hour, and start again at the next. I do about 4-5 hours of actual revision a day, sometimes less if I'm doing a past paper because they're so long :frown:

I do about an hour of each subject as well (I have five) but yeah, it depends on if I'm doing a past paper as for some of my subjects a paper takes 2+ hours and some only take an hour.
I also work best in the morning definitely - I find getting up and revising straight away works for me because I get distracted far too easily. I tend to get up at 7-8ish then work from 8-12 or 9-12 and then have a two hour break and start again at 2 :smile:

Reply 8

acedlol

More like, when do you do revision in your breaks.

Reply 9

whatisthis47

Original post by acedlol

More like, when do you do revision in your breaks.

Haha! I was just about to post exactly this!

Reply 10

LaEstrella

I usually get up at 7 and start revision at 8, I do about 7 hours in the day with 10 minute break every hour :smile:

Reply 11

Rarrgh

I do 8 hours in a school day with a 20 minute break to go get myself some food.. apart from that I'll occasionally just space out for like 5 mins which is enough of a break for me xD

Reply 12

Eriu McQuaid

i dont count the hours i just work until ive hit "the wall" lol but you should take a 5 minute break every 25 minutes :smile:

Reply 13

buildalegohouse

Thanks for all your replies guys, it's really good to see what works for other people.
I don't have a fixed schedule (tut tut!), I just do revision when and wherever I can. I'm typically averaging at 4-5 hours a day, 3 at the least. If I'm working through the day, I'll take a break whenever my concentration wavers, not every 20 minutes because I'm so uptight, and I know I could work longer. It's usually after about an hour and a half, I'll go and have a cuppa or snoop around on TSR, then back to it.
I really should make myself a timetable that I'd STICK too, but all my previous attempts have been utter failures. :colone:

Reply 14

dooooo

I'm the same! I also get distracted so easily!! I take a break every 30 minutes though!! Don't like revising..... so boring.... but I guess you have to work to succeed!

Reply 15

ICantDoMathsFfs

It depends on how motivated I feel each day. Some days I feel like I can do 35-45 minutes straight with a 5-10 minute break and others I can only do around 20-25 minutes with a 15 minute break -_-

My original plan was to do 3 hours of psychology a day (as there's loads to cover)

then 2 hours of one of the sciences (additional chemistry, biology and physics) and alternating which subject I do each day so I revise them equally.

And then if I feel like it I'll do an hour or so of statistics.

However, I feel like I haven't been able to stick to the plan as rigidly as I had hoped to, as some days I'm more distracted than others meaning I get little or none done. With 7 exams coming up I know I have to buckle down to achieve the grades I need.

How do you guys stay motivated?

Reply 16

JustBeing

I take long numerous breaks, especially now, because I have only two exams left, i'm acting too relaxed as though my holidays have begun lol

Reply 17

Elora_cripps033

I revise for about half an hour and take a five min break and do this for two hours. Then take an hour break and do the 30 min revision and five min break for four hours then I take a 20 min break and do 30 mins at a time for another two hours. Hope that helps x