I did mainly science / maths subjects.
My college gave us around 6-7 packs to revise.
For mid-January exams, I starting reading through my packs, highlighting info, checking and comparing the notes to the specification (to check I have enough detail and nothing is missing), around start of December. Then I started properly revising start of 2nd week in December. Problem was my mocks were in the first 2 weeks in December so I always did quite bad in them
I didn't go on how many hours I should do a day - I did a pack every 2 days. So on the first day I'd read through one pack, writing stuff down, making questions, trying to answer them at the end of the day (or after a break for lunch/dinner); I did this to a degree so at the end of the day I could basically recite the whole booklet. The 2nd day I just did the exact same, making sure to highlight everything that I couldn't remember from the previous day (I wrote the answers to the questions in pencil
I also made more questions for things I didn't remember as well). I find that whatever I forget after one day, is usually the stuff that I forget quicker/easier, so I made sure to go over that a few extra times (normally the more boring topics) and make handwritten notes for that topic. You obviously naturally forget things after a day, but the thing you're trying to do is see whole topics that you find harder to memorise (lots of complicated process / similar sounding names / boring topics rather than forgetting the odd word) and make handwritten notes for that topic. I find that if you handwrite everything then you 1. waste a lot of time 2. don't remember everything as well. I find handwritten notes are more effective for a few odd topics that are presented in a bad format. For example a list of chemical equations is very hard to memorise. But if you draw little chemicals with smiley faces with little things that help you memorise things (rhymes), it's a lot easier to memorise.
Then the next day I'd do the 2nd pack (same process), but also made sure that I can still remember everything from the previous pack first. I did this by covering the headings and trying to recite everything I could remember about that topic (anything I forgot, I highlighted etc.)
Then a week / 2 weeks before the exam I went over all the past papers, noting things that come up more than once, and things that I got wrong (due to not writing what the mark scheme wanted - basically exam technique) and if I couldn't answer a question then I'd go over that topic again. After doing a past paper a few times (until you get 100% on it - some people think this is not worth the time, but the amount of questions they repeat, even to an extent, year after year is quite surprising and can make the difference between a grade), I would do past papers from the previous specification and a few questions from different exams board.
If I would do it all again, I would start properly revising at the start of December, just to reduce stress and allowing some leeway just in case.
TSR is a great resource for notes and explanations of difficult topics. Also, for quite a few subjects a month before the exam everyone asks each other questions on the forums, which is very useful. I remember 5-6 of us going onto a whiteboard website to ask practise questions to each other. Admittedly, it took around 1 minute before a random penis got drawn on it, but it's really useful to answer questions that you've never seen before, and have your answers checked by a different person than yourself (or your teacher). Even making up your own questions and mark scheme is useful. One of the most important revision techniques is understanding the mark scheme and how to mark you own answers fairly - some mark schemes are great, and some are very vague, accepting seemly random things (and not accepting them the following year for the -almost- exact same question) and rejecting things that seem to be a model answer (*cough* AQA *cough*). TSR is a lot more fun than going over a past paper, but it does take more of your time and you can get really distracted.
My college gave us around 6-7 packs to revise.
For mid-January exams, I starting reading through my packs, highlighting info, checking and comparing the notes to the specification (to check I have enough detail and nothing is missing), around start of December. Then I started properly revising start of 2nd week in December. Problem was my mocks were in the first 2 weeks in December so I always did quite bad in them
I didn't go on how many hours I should do a day - I did a pack every 2 days. So on the first day I'd read through one pack, writing stuff down, making questions, trying to answer them at the end of the day (or after a break for lunch/dinner); I did this to a degree so at the end of the day I could basically recite the whole booklet. The 2nd day I just did the exact same, making sure to highlight everything that I couldn't remember from the previous day (I wrote the answers to the questions in pencil
I also made more questions for things I didn't remember as well). I find that whatever I forget after one day, is usually the stuff that I forget quicker/easier, so I made sure to go over that a few extra times (normally the more boring topics) and make handwritten notes for that topic. You obviously naturally forget things after a day, but the thing you're trying to do is see whole topics that you find harder to memorise (lots of complicated process / similar sounding names / boring topics rather than forgetting the odd word) and make handwritten notes for that topic. I find that if you handwrite everything then you 1. waste a lot of time 2. don't remember everything as well. I find handwritten notes are more effective for a few odd topics that are presented in a bad format. For example a list of chemical equations is very hard to memorise. But if you draw little chemicals with smiley faces with little things that help you memorise things (rhymes), it's a lot easier to memorise.Then the next day I'd do the 2nd pack (same process), but also made sure that I can still remember everything from the previous pack first. I did this by covering the headings and trying to recite everything I could remember about that topic (anything I forgot, I highlighted etc.)
Then a week / 2 weeks before the exam I went over all the past papers, noting things that come up more than once, and things that I got wrong (due to not writing what the mark scheme wanted - basically exam technique) and if I couldn't answer a question then I'd go over that topic again. After doing a past paper a few times (until you get 100% on it - some people think this is not worth the time, but the amount of questions they repeat, even to an extent, year after year is quite surprising and can make the difference between a grade), I would do past papers from the previous specification and a few questions from different exams board.
If I would do it all again, I would start properly revising at the start of December, just to reduce stress and allowing some leeway just in case.
TSR is a great resource for notes and explanations of difficult topics. Also, for quite a few subjects a month before the exam everyone asks each other questions on the forums, which is very useful. I remember 5-6 of us going onto a whiteboard website to ask practise questions to each other. Admittedly, it took around 1 minute before a random penis got drawn on it, but it's really useful to answer questions that you've never seen before, and have your answers checked by a different person than yourself (or your teacher). Even making up your own questions and mark scheme is useful. One of the most important revision techniques is understanding the mark scheme and how to mark you own answers fairly - some mark schemes are great, and some are very vague, accepting seemly random things (and not accepting them the following year for the -almost- exact same question) and rejecting things that seem to be a model answer (*cough* AQA *cough*). TSR is a lot more fun than going over a past paper, but it does take more of your time and you can get really distracted.
(edited 9 years ago)
I got A*AA
Revised for around 2-3 months id say with breaks.
First i did a solid month of content, pure content. Made sure i knew everything!! Knew the textbook by heart. Did around 2 hours a day just reading a chapter a day and rewriting it and making sure i understood it.
Then once i finished i would do a recap to make sure i havent forget anything important.
For the next month i did questions, since i did chemistry i did old spec past papers/Chemrevise questions. Biology i downloaded a pack online with like 100+ questions in it (i didnt get time to do it since i had to take a week off revising for something but i know if i did it, it would have helped a lot, as i did it for chem and thats what i got the A* in)
For the final month, it was straight past papers. Id would set a goal, eg for chem4 my goal was 90/100. Id make sure id get 90/100 in each past paper and make sure im improving by at least 2 marks with each past paper.
Its not good enough to just do the past paper, which i see most people doing now a days, you have to go through them properly, analysis the answers in the mark scheme and your answers.
One tip also when doing Past papers is try get someone like a teacher to mark it or if you do mark it yourself make sure your falsely giving yourself extra marks which is easy to do.
Also regrading notes, you can make them if they help you but i didnt see much of a point, all the information in the revision guides/textbook is useful so i used them as my notes c:
Hope this helped.
Revised for around 2-3 months id say with breaks.
First i did a solid month of content, pure content. Made sure i knew everything!! Knew the textbook by heart. Did around 2 hours a day just reading a chapter a day and rewriting it and making sure i understood it.
Then once i finished i would do a recap to make sure i havent forget anything important.
For the next month i did questions, since i did chemistry i did old spec past papers/Chemrevise questions. Biology i downloaded a pack online with like 100+ questions in it (i didnt get time to do it since i had to take a week off revising for something but i know if i did it, it would have helped a lot, as i did it for chem and thats what i got the A* in)
For the final month, it was straight past papers. Id would set a goal, eg for chem4 my goal was 90/100. Id make sure id get 90/100 in each past paper and make sure im improving by at least 2 marks with each past paper.
Its not good enough to just do the past paper, which i see most people doing now a days, you have to go through them properly, analysis the answers in the mark scheme and your answers.
One tip also when doing Past papers is try get someone like a teacher to mark it or if you do mark it yourself make sure your falsely giving yourself extra marks which is easy to do.
Also regrading notes, you can make them if they help you but i didnt see much of a point, all the information in the revision guides/textbook is useful so i used them as my notes c:
Hope this helped.
I haven't done my full A-Levels yet, but at AS I averaged 99% in Arts subjects and I figure everyone else here is science based.
Personally I started early on. I had done bits and pieces of revision near the beginning of my year, but the two weeks before Christmas I really packed it in because of my mocks. I had a set of revision cards for history and I basically just sat with all the relevant ones and cycled through them until I could reel off the content of all the cards without using visual cues. Then I practiced relevant questions in which I used the facts I had memorised, however by this point I'd already got them all so this was more exam practise than revision.
For English Lit I simply read and re-read all the poems I was studying every night with my annotations. If you can memorise them the annotations will come easy and you'll be able to regurgitate them in your exam. The same is true with history to a lesser extent, you'll find that reading things in small amounts every night is one of the best ways to recall information, although it is not by itself sufficient for a good grade. Later for English I had to memorise quotes etcetera so I simply wrote these down and read through them every night, memorising them in order because this was simply easier.
Some exams you might find you don't have to revise for much. I used to look through my Philosophy folder regularly but, as it is my favourite subject and getting to grips with content is more important than memorising it, I never had to spend significant time memorising this. Sociology is entirely memory-based so that was different, but personally I just went through my entire folder and memorised one page at a time. Some people don't like this, but I really find reading something, repeating it, reading it backwards, then forgetting it for a few mins and doing that again really helps me.
Hope this was some help
good luck with your A-Levels!
Personally I started early on. I had done bits and pieces of revision near the beginning of my year, but the two weeks before Christmas I really packed it in because of my mocks. I had a set of revision cards for history and I basically just sat with all the relevant ones and cycled through them until I could reel off the content of all the cards without using visual cues. Then I practiced relevant questions in which I used the facts I had memorised, however by this point I'd already got them all so this was more exam practise than revision.
For English Lit I simply read and re-read all the poems I was studying every night with my annotations. If you can memorise them the annotations will come easy and you'll be able to regurgitate them in your exam. The same is true with history to a lesser extent, you'll find that reading things in small amounts every night is one of the best ways to recall information, although it is not by itself sufficient for a good grade. Later for English I had to memorise quotes etcetera so I simply wrote these down and read through them every night, memorising them in order because this was simply easier.
Some exams you might find you don't have to revise for much. I used to look through my Philosophy folder regularly but, as it is my favourite subject and getting to grips with content is more important than memorising it, I never had to spend significant time memorising this. Sociology is entirely memory-based so that was different, but personally I just went through my entire folder and memorised one page at a time. Some people don't like this, but I really find reading something, repeating it, reading it backwards, then forgetting it for a few mins and doing that again really helps me.
Hope this was some help
good luck with your A-Levels!Hello..........I'm an international student..doing the 1 year accelerated CIE A-level...starting this september...i'll be doing Chem, Bio, maths, and physics....... doing both AS and A2 papers next May ,hence any guidance will be appreciated on covering my syllabi in only this year and hopefully making excellent grades......
Subjects: Maths (A*), Psychology (A*), Chemistry (A) + Biology (A*)
AS Jan exams: Started revising ~3 weeks before exams and did exclusively past papers for maybe 6-10 hours a day
AS June exams: started revising ~4-5 weeks before exams and did exclusively past papers pretty much from waking up until I went to bed (my UMS was 90+ for most exams)
A2 Jan exams: Started revising ~3 weeks before exams and did exclusively past papers for ~5-6 hours a day
A2 June exams: Started revising ~5-6 weeks before exams and did exclusively past papers for maybe 2-3 hours a day (was lax because I needed such low UMS to get As and didn't really care about A*, although I got some anyway). For OCR psychology A2 exams you pretty much know every variation of question that can come up, so I just wrote out the answers to them over and over and simply regurgitated it in the exam...
Where I couldn't answer a past paper question because I just didn't have the knowledge I read CGP revision guides. Didn't use any material from school / college.
A levels are all about memorizing utter bull**** and writing it on the page just like the mark scheme. No intelligence or thought required.
AS Jan exams: Started revising ~3 weeks before exams and did exclusively past papers for maybe 6-10 hours a day
AS June exams: started revising ~4-5 weeks before exams and did exclusively past papers pretty much from waking up until I went to bed (my UMS was 90+ for most exams)
A2 Jan exams: Started revising ~3 weeks before exams and did exclusively past papers for ~5-6 hours a day
A2 June exams: Started revising ~5-6 weeks before exams and did exclusively past papers for maybe 2-3 hours a day (was lax because I needed such low UMS to get As and didn't really care about A*, although I got some anyway). For OCR psychology A2 exams you pretty much know every variation of question that can come up, so I just wrote out the answers to them over and over and simply regurgitated it in the exam...
Where I couldn't answer a past paper question because I just didn't have the knowledge I read CGP revision guides. Didn't use any material from school / college.
A levels are all about memorizing utter bull**** and writing it on the page just like the mark scheme. No intelligence or thought required.
(edited 9 years ago)
I got A* (English literature), A* (history) and an A (RS).
A big chunk of English and history a level is the coursework. I spent basically my entire autumn term planning, writing and refining it; and got full marks in two out of three of the essays.
One thing I found to be really helpful was to ask my teachers what we were doing in the next lesson. I would then read ahead / do some extra research to make sure I had some basic knowledge of the topic before the lesson.
In terms of pure revision, I started properly in March. I based my revision notes entirely on each specification and its different units for history and RS, then revised English thematically. I finished my notes in early May, then began past papers and getting friends/parents to test me on bits. It probably averaged out at about 4 1/2 decent hours of revision each day.
Ideally, I would have liked to make notes throughout the year but A2 is so work heavy already it's probably not that achievable.
Basically, you can never start it too early! Keep reviewing your notes after each lesson and check you understand every little bit.
Good luck with your subjects!
A big chunk of English and history a level is the coursework. I spent basically my entire autumn term planning, writing and refining it; and got full marks in two out of three of the essays.
One thing I found to be really helpful was to ask my teachers what we were doing in the next lesson. I would then read ahead / do some extra research to make sure I had some basic knowledge of the topic before the lesson.
In terms of pure revision, I started properly in March. I based my revision notes entirely on each specification and its different units for history and RS, then revised English thematically. I finished my notes in early May, then began past papers and getting friends/parents to test me on bits. It probably averaged out at about 4 1/2 decent hours of revision each day.
Ideally, I would have liked to make notes throughout the year but A2 is so work heavy already it's probably not that achievable.
Basically, you can never start it too early! Keep reviewing your notes after each lesson and check you understand every little bit.
Good luck with your subjects!
Original post by FREYA2898
Did you start from the beginning?
How many hours a day/week?
How many hours a day/week?
6 A*s in A levels including all sciences and maths, 100% in all further math modules, 98% in A level lit.
Studied hardout 1 month before the exams
Did a big here and there throughout the year
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