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

Please, can anyone give me revision tips for Chemistry and Maths? =/

Biology, chemisty, RS and sociology

I did Biology and Chemistry at A Level and got As for both. I would recommend you to get a copy of both syllabuses and go through each topic ensuring you understand all areas and then write simplified notes for each topic using colours and diagrams etc. I normally then go through covering up sections and trying to recall it until I know it by heart. Any sections which you struggle with, spend extra time on, maybe stick them on your bedroom wall so you see them every day. If there are any areas which you really can't grasp then ask your teacher to explain it to you again. Once you have learnt most of the material then use loads of practise tests!
I have found that this is the best way to revise and using it I got 8A*s at GCSE and A*AA at A Level so it has proven successful!
For RS and sociology, I would suggest lots of practise essays to ensure your essay skills are up to scratch. Even if you learn all the material for these subjects, if you can't write a good essay you won't get the high marks.
Hope this helps!

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.

I can't comment on sociology or on chemistry, because I haven't taken them, however I do study both biology and Religious studies. For both knowing what the examiner wants you to write is really important. For religious studies they assess AO1 and AO2, so make sure you are incorporating both. For biology you just have to practise, revise and pray you get a good paper. Examiners reports are also great for biology as they outline the parts of the syllabus where students fell down, and these areas are then more likely to be assessed in subsequent years.

I just do a few past papers and have a look at the stuff I got wrong, other than that, I don't really spend time outside of lessons revising. In some cases I've not done any revision (including past papers) and come out with 90%+.

Step 1: Open book
Step 2: Read Paragraph
Step 3: Copy and Paraphrase
Step 4: Repeat until end of book
Step 5: Repeat until all books paraphrased
Step 6: Sit exam

I sent the following message to someone last week as they asked about how to get a decent grade in AQA Biology. I did more or less exactly the same for AQA Chemistry so it is relevant for that too. Not going to edit it but might help someone.

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I basically did 2 years of A levels first, getting a D at AS then an E overall. I then went to a college and retook the whole A Level in 1 year, so the AS exams were done in January and the A2 exams in June. The 2nd time round I managed an A*.

Firstly you need to make sure you have the Nelson Thornes text book. I assume you already do, but it's certainly very good. It is worth noting that I was lucky in that at my retake college the teachers were VERY good and covered the syllabus comprehensively.. so I was able to produce my own good notes. To aid revision I also bought the Philip Allan Updates 'Student Unit Guides' - they produce one for each unit, so 4 overall. These revision books do not cover absolutely everything and have some stuff in them that you don't need to know.. but some of the diagrams are excellent.

When it came to revision the first time, I simply tried to revise by reading a revision guide and I spent very little time doing that. It was obviously completely the wrong way to go about revising - I was going into the exams with a few topics learnt very well and simply hoping that they would come up in the exam. More often than not they didn't.. so I flopped it.

For my AS exams in my retake year, I was revising for them at Christmas. My revision method was fairly simple.. I used my notes, the text book and the revision books and produced revision cards. These were basically A5 size pieces of coloured card and I wrote on both sides (I cut lots of A4 pieces in half). My aim was to use the information from all 3 sources to produce comprehensive revision cards with absolutely all the information on them, but as brief as possible.. so none of the waffle. I would say I spent 4 to 6 days working 8 or 9 hours a day over Christmas doing this for AS.
Then, a bit closer to the exam, you can just go through all of your revision cards and make sure you're happy with everything. I did exactly the same for A2.

It's also important to note that during term time I had been set past exam questions on the topic we had be learning every week. So I was getting used to what type of answers are expected to get the marks very early on. For revision you should probably go through all of the past papers (there aren't that many because the syllabus is fairly new) and use your revision cards to answer the questions as well as possible. Then use the mark scheme to go through and see where you missed out points. You can add to the cards if you need to.

This method works mainly because by reading your notes/textbook etc and rewriting the information into revision cards, you learn an incredible amount without realising. You then have all the information in a really concise form so it's very easy to read over them at any point before the exam and touch up on your knowledge.

It basically got me 100/100 in Unit 1, 140/140 in Unit 2, 100/100 in Unit 4 and 128/140 in Unit 5.

Hope this helps.. good luck.

This is only what's worked for me (I had 7 exams 2A*, 4A's and a C (ashamed to say the C was in General studies - embarrassment!)) but I wrote up my class notes in a neat format, then made mind maps, lists and revision cards with them.

Sorting through your notes I find really helps - especially if you're a meticulous note-taker like myself! Different ways do work for different people though, so try a couple of different methods to see which suits you best.

Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to say, don't work for a solid 4 hours, you'll stop absorbing information about 1 1/2 hours in.
This is normally my study plan:

-Revise topic A for one hour.
-At the end of an hour, go over the notes I've made in the last hour just to put it all into context.
-Have a 10-15 minute break.
-Switch to topic B for one hour.
-At the end of an hour, go over the notes I've made in the last hour just to put it all into context.
-Have a 10-15 minute break.
-Give myself a little test for topic A.
-Mark test and re make notes on any questions I got wrong.

For a-level all you gotta do is complete all your homework, and do every past paper over and over. It's that easy.

Half of it is exam technique, and you learn that by doing past papers. You should be able to get 8 hours revision per day towards the exams, if that sounds like a lot then remember that most jobs require that much time every working day, all year round.

Get hold of the syllabus' for all subjects and work out which categories each topic goes into. Use the textbooks and books given for further reading and write the numbers of relevant pages/ chapters next to the section of the syllabus. Do a similiar thing with exam questions, categorising them so u don't end up overdoing one section and missing out a completely different one. Making sure u don't repeat yourself write neat notes in ur own words on some aspects, then for harder to remember stuff e.g. dates, names, quotes, Kreb cycle etc , produce revision cards. I also made posters and stuck them on my walls cos im pretty visual. When revising in exam leave i d do a session before lunch so u feel like u ve acheived something, then during the afternoon alternate an hour of work then an hour of chilling then take the evening off and just have a quick look through ur notes before u go to sleep. Make time for sport/sex as well it takes ur mind off stuff, relaxes you and stops you getting ill. Do lots of exam questions for the sciences then for the others just practice doing very quick plans/brainstorms or taking note answers instead of 9 page ones (I find u can peak too soon with these essays).