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

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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.

A bit off topic but what about a Remark,examiner may have made mistakes,discuss with teachers.

On topic,read this (book preview)http://books.google.com/books?id=8O0FYB9pzksC&printsec=frontcover&dq=advanced+biology+for+you&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=advanced%20biology%20for%20you&f=false page 338 to Index

From page 446 http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Biology-You-Gareth-Williams/dp/0748752986/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282473076&sr=1-1#reader_0748752986
hope that helps :biggrin:

good Luck!

Reply 121

becomingbindy

Don't spend your whole life revising, don't revise through lunch and take breaks. Quality of revision is so much more important than length of time spent revising. Making revision cards and testing myself helped me, as well as sticking key word posters up on my bedroom wall. If you have a course text book just learn that off by heart (not applicable for subjects like English but for fact based subjects). When teachers go on about how it's the wider reading that counts it's not true. I literally learnt the text books and did practice essays to get my structure right and I got A*AA. Do past papers from the internet and then mark them using the mark scheme to see where you're going wrong.

Reply 122

danceswithpoodles

Remarqable M

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

you can refer to this,more or less the same thing:

http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/studyskills/assessment_evaluation/assessment/glossary.html

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xf_R9OI7P6sJ:learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/learnhigher/Resources/resources/Essay/essay%2520titles%2520-%2520function%2520words.doc+glossary+of+exam+terminology&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk&client=firefox-a

Reply 123

sammyvine

What about revison for english, my worst subject!

Any ideas about how to revise for that because alot of it is exam technique isnt it?

Reply 124

becca-x

I'm not in A2 year so dont have A*s, but I got AAAA at AS.

This is what I did:

-Make notes on every single topic (answering and marking all summary questions as you go), using a textbook and then using a revision guide. Also, just reading your revision guides before you go to bed is quite helpful.
-Rewrite all of these notes, highlighting key stuff.
-Do tons of past papers, all of the ones that are available. Mark them and go through the mark scheme thoroughly.
-Make revision cards! They actually really work. Go over them with family/friends, and test yourself frequently.
-Do more past papers.
-Get a friend/family member to test you on random sections of your text book/revision guide.
-Repeat everything.
-If there's anything you're still unsure of, ask your teachers.
-Revise with friends, teaching others really helps to drill the stuff into your own brain.

And make sure you allow yourself enough time. I squeezed all this into 2/3 days per subject which was pretty stupid and stressful. Start as early as you can. Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 125

Revolution is my Name

There's no magical secret or anything; just know the syllabus inside out and do lots of practice (for Maths and Sciences, that is).

Reply 126

dudeydan

AAAA at AS
Very simple revision technique.
Read the revision guides and notes, then just hammer the past papers for hours.

Reply 127

ourlastmemory

first learn what you need to know. look through past papers, you will always see a pattern and theme in the questions that have been and so will get asked. i spent the first few hours of my revision time just looking at the syllabuses and then making lists from that of what needed learning and going over, it also meant i could organise my notes a bit better. the physics syllabus from the website was really useful as it basically had a whole checklist of what was expected of the candidates, so i could use that to tick things off as i learnt them.

make extensive notes at first and make sure you know them, then condense them until you have a certain amount of brief points for each topic which you know you can elaborate on, i did this for history where there was a ridiculous amount of information to learn, and just made sure i had memorised these bullet points as sort of memory joggers that i could scribble down at the beginning of an essay question and then they'd be there to take the rest of the information from.

additionally for the sort of things you're doing (e.g chemistry) make sure you can understand the topics, not just recite them. go and get extra help if you need to, just make sure it's embedded in your brain and you can follow whatever process you have to take to answer questions from beginning to end and understand WHY things work the way they do. something will just click in your brain when it all comes together, and once you've got to that stage it's in there and you can do it.

Reply 128

pukhtungirl

past papers are my best tip

Reply 129

jcp27

My best tip for essay subjects is to write endless essays. Just go through all past papers and do those questions, and then make up questions yourself and go through them and write them out. Across my subjects I reckon I probably wrote about 50 essays in the period leading up to summer exams. It helps you know if you understand the material well enough and polishes your essay technique, as well as getting you used to writing by hand for an extended period.

Another specific tip I'd advise for essay subjects is to make a quote bank and learn word for word all the quotes. It's surprisingly easy to do and they do start sticking in your head, even if you just read through the quotes once a day. Quotes make a big difference to your mark and mroe than that they really help with the structure of the essay. As a basic model, in all of my essays I would always aim to have one quote per paragraph to support the principle argument of that paragraph, or as comparison to refute.

From what the OP said, I'd suspect you may be being too intense. If you're doing it every break time and reading for 4 hours straight, then you can become over worked and your concentration levels drop and that can burn you out. What I did was to every day before I started work I would write out on a post-it note what I was planning on doing in that day. Always make it reasonable, and then work towards completing it. Even if you finish early, just leave it at that because otherwise I'd find that I would burn out pretty fast.

That is what I would advise for essay subjects, but I have no idea for science subjects. I would say though that the most important issue in essay subjects is your essay technique because even if you know the mateiral, it's incredibly difficult to score really highly if you haven't structured it tightly.

Reply 130

ghostboobs

I couldn't attend college for the last few months for various reasons so spent the weeks before exams cramming/teaching myself the syllabus for 8 hours a day and emerged with 100% in three exams (A*A*AB in total). Take plenty of breaks and drink loads of water to keep yourself fresh, otherwise it's a waste of time and demoralising.

I just wrote out key facts over and over again until they were imprinted on my memory. These could then be placed into the wider context of an essay exam question.

Make sure you know exactly what necessitates an A or A* grade as laid out by your examining board and practice regurgitating lots of information in a short space of time with past papers (for the Arts, don't know about Maths/Science at A-Level).

Anything that wasn't quite sinking in, I'd write out in clear, condensed form and stick somewhere obvious - i.e. by the bathroom mirror or above the computer monitor where I was studying.

Reading around the subject also helps to indoctrinate it into your head/allows you to immerse yourself in it which is good for boosting confidence and gives you more info to draw on in panicky exam moments.

Reply 131

deathbeforeimmortality

I did the same and didn't end up with too good anyway. I don't know where I went wrong except mess up my biggest units. That may have been it I guess.

You need to find another way or retaining information, one that suits you.

Reply 132

hwalusimo1

Wish I saw this earlier :facepalm:

....ah well, I guess the same applies to university as well in order to get a first or 2:1 :yep:

Reply 133

Joey_Barton

I got A's in Biology and Chemistry and Maths (a couple years ago, before A*s). I'd revise for an hour or two on a school night, and on weekends/pre-exam holidays I'd revise 4-5 hours a morning (so I could still hang out with pals in the afternoon), then maybe another hour or so that evening (and no more than one party a week [this wasn't too hard for me!]). I think the best thing to do is do past paper every few days, then only revise the bits you did bad in - I only revised by reading the course textbook. I had those CGP books for AS level, but found the course texts (given out by teachers) more helpful and specific to your exam board. So past papers are really helpful for checking up on your progress, and shows there's no point reading the whole textbook over and over if you're already halfway there. Also, if you've got the mark schemes at hand, it's good practise to try and write down as many points for a question as possible. E.g. in Biology a two-mark question often has 5 possible one-mark answers. Mind maps and stuff seem kind of gimmicky to me and waste time you could spend just reading and taking in the text, though they help people who have poor concentration/attention-spans (though you're brain is "plastic", remember - you can improve your concentration by practise!). Oh and also, when you're reading a textbook for the 2nd+time, try and recall the content of a paragraph in your head just before you read it, and make a mental note of all the bits you couldn't remember. This also speeds up how long it takes to read it, without compromising the amount of useful info you take in.

p.s. I got a decent first in my second year of Biology BSc last year... that took something like 10+ hours a day revision, completely savage, or 'savney'! Also, you really have to condense the textbooks you revise from into much shorter notes, cause they're all 1000+ pages, good to have friends to share that task with. those that's irrelevent for A-levels, sorry

Reply 134

the_violinist

With Chemistry for mechanisms and stuff you have to just sit down and copy them out over and over again. Use colours to high light the important bits and paste things up on your wall so you can have a quick reference :biggrin:

Reply 135

Flippin-Mad

Vanny17

Start early...in AS I started revising in my frees from october, makes the exams less stress and means you have gone over everything plenty of times to make sure it sticks in your head. Also, mix it up a bit don't stick to doing one thing for a particular subject even I find that eventually this makes everything blur into one making it more difficult to remember, you can be creative even with subjects likes sciences, try acronyms, posters which are colour co ordinated to give an extra memory trigger. If you have key terms type thing like basic memory try putting movements or a song to each one...yes it sounds and looks weird but it works if you have a bad memory like me, basically try and use all your senses for memory so you have multiple memory cues so use colour, listen to a particular song best is use a cd you know track list to and learn things in a systematic order one thing per song.
Particularly for written subjects when you make mind maps use colours and pictures and make links between as much of the material as possible to ensure you really understand how different concepts/theories link together, ask for help from teachers if your ever unsure. Also, if you struggle with essay structure write essay plans for all the topics that can come up in the exam,
And work through as many past papers as possible so you know what to expect in the exams, I find this more useful in sciency subjects, start by working through with your books and notes without a time limit, then close book without a time limit then close book with time limit and keep track of the grades you get and the type of questions you lose marks on so you can focus revision on these areas.
Also, remember to work hard but do allow time for doing stuff you enjoy and have plenty of short breaks as your attention will flag after about an hour so try taking 10/15mins breaks to refresh yourself. And have days off to destress whether this is just having a day to yourself or going out with friends its important to keep a bit of balance as if you stress to much it wont help your results.
I know this sounds like a lot but thats why its important to start early then you can get the work/life balance and do lots of preperation.
Hope this helps, but remember different things work for different people its a matter of trying as many different things until you find something that works for you...but even then keep trying new things alongside things that you have tried and work.

Reply 136

Slick 'n' Shady

RamsFanNo1

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:

Best piece on the thread thus far.
I'd rep you if it would make any difference....okay, I'll do it out of principle.

Reply 137

Tallon

past papers.
no exactly what you need to know
don't waste time you could be revising topics in the exam on things like reading around the subject tbh.