Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Revision tips i have picked up

Hi,

Looking around this forum i have noticed that a few of you have been asking how do i revise? Having been through GCSE revision and AS revision i am well aware that revision is not the most interesting thing in the world and it can be a tad stressful but trust me in the end it is definitely worth it. Here are some of my tips for revision and coping with preparations for exam season.

To start with not everybody learns and revises the same. Some learn by listening, others by drawing, reading, writing and some can revise by using all three. Either way it is sometimes handy to have some advice at hand definitely when you sit down with your CGP books open and go 'now what?' So here are a few things that i found worked for me:

CGP Books - literally my best friend on the run up to exam season, they segment and breaks down information into accessible chunks, use a lot of colour in order to make it less dull (because who likes revision) and at the end of each section they have a mini quiz so you can check your progress.
Timelines - Throughout GCSE and AS i made a timeline of my topic (mainly for history e.g Civil Rights) i added all the important dates and stuck it around my room. I completed my timeline and stuck them up by January, as then i can read and take in reasonable size data at a time - over a long period it really helps to remember when things happened.
Revision Cards - great for remembering terms - write the term on one side and the definition on the other. Read it and get friends to test you - quick way to learn and you could also turn it into a fun game - who can get the most correct
Mind Maps - for more in depth of a certain topic e.g Hispanics. This way all your information on one topic is on one card. You could also use these as posters and have a quick glance over it.
Timed Practice Papers - maybe the best thing you can do as it gives you a taste of what questions you can expect (questions can be worded differently and have a different meaning), it also gives you an opportunity to get it marked by your teacher and see how you are doing - tip: use exact timings of the paper - if you should spend 20 mins on a question in an exam only spend 20 mins in practice.
Read feedback - your teacher works hard marking and feed-backing on your work so read it at the end of the day they know what the examiner wants, they have been to the training meetings, sat the exams and helped many other students to successfully pass.
Listen to recordings (especially for language) as this will help you to re hear the topic and refresh your kind quickly.

Here are some great revision sites too:

My Maths
BBC Bitesize
My Revision notes

You can get past papers/mark schemes/examiner reports from these sites

AQA
OCR
EDEXEL

The foremost important its start revision ASAP - you should be doing approximately:

GCSE - 1hr per night per subject
AS - 2hrs per night per subject
A2 - 3hrs per night per subject

It may seem a lot, however it will be worthwhile, furthermore this way you dont get the streess of the week before the exam of the panic because you havent revised. As my history teacher said there are 3 steps to exam success:

Classwork - be alert and productive in class - make most of your time and ask questions
Revision material - start almost straight after finishing a topic as this will refresh your mind and cement the knowledge you have just learnt
Refresher - this can be dine a week before the exam - hopefully by then all tour mins maps. Timelines etc will be complete - just ask your friends, teachers to give you quick tests to help you recall the knowledge and pick out any problems which are outstanding.

Ensure you attend most/all revision sessions - most teachers are more than happy to help you at lunch, after school, break, school holidays and sometimes even before school - this also ensures that you get the key parts done.

Hope this helps - feel free to ask if you need any more advice or anything clarifying :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 1

User995789

Mindmaps and listening tips etc are good. :smile:

But

I only go to the revision sessions if you know they will cover something you don't understand or if you need to clarify something. I find revising by myself is better than wasting an hour listening to something you should know, after all it is "revision"

Also its not the hours you put in but the quality. I could be colouring in crap for an hour and copying out the textbook, but if I don't understand it, what use is it?

Quality > quantity.

And PS don't believe the crap where people say they don't revise, because they really do. A lot.