The Student Room Group

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

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Reply 60
Remarqable M
What techniques do you apply to tackle questions beginnign with "Describe.." or "Describe and Explain" especially in biology?


I don't do biology, but I did do geography where we had similar 'key words'...
Describe: write in detail
Explain: give reasons for
Don't revise stuff you know you can do, so if you're me, just don't revise ^^
thanks everyone! those tips are really good. I'm going to request few of my scripts back and look where I have gone wrong! If I don't know what the hell went wrong, I might do the same mistake! as they say, to learn from mistakes you have to identify the mistakes and learn from it!
DPLSK
1) Make lots of notes.

2) Revise independently.

3) Do lots of past papers.

4) Stock up on stationery.

5) Work hard.

I'd say more... but I can't remember the post I made about this.

I hope it helps though!


This is basically it
just start bascially in march slowly and increase the amount of work you do each day each week make sure your comfortable (aka don't try do too much then think omg i can't do it) also get a good night rest everyday

i swear down for like a month or 2 i went to sleep got about 8/9hours rest and found remembering school work easy

don't rely on your teachers to teach you i found in my 2 years of A levels rely on teachers and classes and you fail

i probably worth this year at home because i had more important things to do during the year but this was balancd by revising during free periods at school and do it with a friend it makes things easier and you remember things better (sometimes) but best is to do as the guy i've quoted listed
People may find my technique bad but considering I came out with A*AA and have constantly improved my grades each year at school I'm guessing what I have done is good. The first tip is complete ALL past papers for your chosen subject. DO NOT SLACK. If there is a past paper which you haven't done.......DO IT!! If you run out start doing them again.
For me I would wake up at 9am every morning and study hard until 11pm at night. I Would of course take frequent breaks and a main break would consist of going out for a jog or a bike ride to clear my head, get some fresh air and some exercise. Revision with other people is a good idea and teaching to other people is great also, however I found spending time alone to revise helped me to concetrate more and although my social life went down the pan, I am so glad I am where I am now and it took me literally one day to get my social life back, so don't worry, the studying is worth it in the end.
Well that's my advice. I wish you all the luck in the coming year and I am sure you will do fantastic :smile:
Revision tips there's nothing to say, you seemingly had covered a lot of stuff in terms of notes, past-papers etc. (and I did much less than that in lower time-frame), so you say...But on the day of the exam, you gotta keep fresh, have a good night's sleep beforehand. It doesn't matter how much study you've done for it, if you're a tired, worrying, hungry/thirsty mess going in you're gonna **** up as it all goes out of the window.
Know what's expected of you. Sometimes out of two "right" answers, only one will get the marks.
mel0n
Why are you giving revision tips when you don't even revise? :colonhash: reading your politics textbook a day before your exam does not constitute revision :naughty: :p:

OP, why are you doing 4 hours at a time? Your concentration levels will drop after about 15 or 20 minutes!! When you feel that you're getting a bit bored or tired just get up, and go for a walk or for a drink of water or to eat something :smile: or alternatively if you really don't want to take such a break you could maybe change your revision technique after the 20 minutes or so? So maybe if you've been reading a text book for 20 mins, instead go on online for a 'break' but search for stuff regarding the subject you're revising.

Also, past papers are really helpful! Do them in the time it says on the paper, then go over them with a different colour and mark them and if there's any wrong answers, write in the right one next to it :smile:

With Sociology - I've not done it personally but is it a bit like Psychology? Do you have studies and findings that you have to remember? I was slightly obsessed with Psychology (:frown:) and on post it notes I'd write names of psychologists and on other post it notes I would write different figures and findings from studies and I stuck them all over the wardrobe so I would see them when I woke up :ninja: yeah, I have no life :frown:

I love Psychology :cry2:

LOLWTF :lolwut: Do I know you? Have you been stalking me irl? :shifty:
"only revise for 1 hour at a time, any more than that and your brain will get tired and you wont remember anything".
Tell people who say the above phrase to **** off.

Work bloody hard, for hours at a time. Take a positive attitude towards your revision and remove yourself from all distractions. Go to a public library where there is no company and therefore nothing better to do (such as talking to people etc).

Going back to the removal of all 'better/more fun things to do' dont take your phone with you. Do take an ipod but listen to music with no lyrics and only use it to zone out backround noise if you can't revise in silence.

Dont take breaks for the reason of 'its not possible to revise for more than 1 hour without taking a break', take breaks when you notice that your concentration level has dropped to the point where you can't revise properly.

Wake up at a decent time, if you wake up at 9 or 10am and get yourself down to your local public library you can do 5 or 6 hours of revision with 2 or 3 30 min breaks, then chill for the rest of the day. This is much nicer than working 30 mins at a time all day like some people seem to do =/

Know yourself and use this to your advantage, personally i know that if i'm revising at home (rarely happens) watching tv as a break never works, i find myself just wanting to watch it for longer than i plan and it takes a lot of willpower for me to end the break. Knowing this means i'm able to simply not watch tv during breaks and therefore save myself the hassle.

That's enough for now, i may come back to this at some point, those are just my main tips. They may be a little controvercial but i got 2 high A's and a B which was 5 ums from an A so they've worked well enough for me.
Papa Caesar
Maths is all about past paper questions. Physics is about past papers, but also definitions, rules, and formulae. For both of these, know what's on the formula sheets, and what isn't, and don't waste any time memorising what is already given.

For formulae at least, I disagree. In my opinion memorising formulae makes the exams just that much easier. Otherwise you will just waste precious seconds looking things up, and if you have them memorised and understood you will probably be much less likely to make a mistake as well.
Reply 70
Teach others, i found the best way to get my A in math was to help the rest of the class!
I'm more determined to get an A this year! i won't slack as i did last year, one of the bad habits i'm going to quit is going on computer every day after school, but ofcourse I won't stop playing football or socialising. I will ofcourse plan to minimise these activities, but neither am I going to study like a mad dog!
Reply 72
Makaveli_The_Don
LOLWTF :lolwut: Do I know you? Have you been stalking me irl? :shifty:


I see how it is.
i got 2 A*s, an A and a B and i only really got those grades by re-writing notes and simplifying them till they're short enough to keep reading over and over, and i also stuck them around my room so they were the last thing i saw at night and first thing i woke up to. Also, colour coding revisions notes is a good way to get them to stick in your head. Or if you're into doing past papers; get as many as you can from the past exams for the subject and count what sort of questions come up the most, so they're probably less likley to come up again (teacher usually do this anyway). I did this for my law exam and i knew the essays off by heart by predicting what was gunna come up, it got me full marks in every exam i sat for law :smile:
mel0n
I see how it is.

What :puppyeyes:
Reply 75
Neomaster121
This is basically it. Just start basically in March slowly and increase the amount of work you do each day each week make sure your comfortable (aka don't try do too much then think omg i can't do it) also get a good night rest everyday.


I suppose, but it's best to get a rhythm working quickly. Only spend a couple of weeks finding out how much work you can handle before settling in a routine. Spending months trying to get the balance will leave you strapped for time - not a wise idea.

Neomaster121
Don't rely on your teachers to teach you. I found in my 2 years of A levels rely on teachers and classes and you fail.


Not necessarily. Don't rely on teachers you feel don't help you much. Be prepared to spend hours teaching yourself things they didn't go over well enough in class.

However, if your teachers are good - do everything they ask of you and a bit more. Always stay on top of your work - otherwise you'll find yourself slipping behind.
Revision is 40% of it really.
40% is understanding
and the last 20% is purely skill.Unfortunately you can't learn skill.
I know some people who learn everything by heart and end up with Cs and Bs.
My method is first to read the whole textbook.
Read EVERYTHING.
Anything you don't understand write it in a A4 paper.
After your done take the list of things you don't understand and solve it.Either by your teacher or internet etc.You can't learn what you don't understand.
Then just keep going through the textbook again sumarizing everything in a small notebook.
Afterwards just keep rereading the summarized work.
About 20-30 times should be enough then another 3-5 times the morning of the exam.
Good luck.
For those who do sociology, if you get a booklet of some sort, condence all that infomation into an essay and revise that essay becuase thats essentially what you will need for the exam.
For psychology, do past papers.
for english lit - good luck. Seriously, my advice would be focus on a section of the exam and absolutely nail that section and hope for the best on the other part plus making sure you get close to full marks on coursework.

revise constantly.
Reply 78
Thanks for all the replies. May you find success in all you are currently doing and in the future. You all have been of the greatest help to me. I can't thank you all enough. :smile:
Just get on with it.

I did memorising chapters from the textbook in small chunks, like pages at a time then whole chapters.

Also I did it in short bursts, normally sessions of no more than one hour/hour and a half.

I didn't revise much until may and June, mostly late June. I made a really general timetable which i stuck too, it pretty much detailed what subject on which day, I'd advise you to follow something similar.

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