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Have I left revision for A2? too late for A*AA-AAA?

Hey guys,

So have i left revision too late? I feel like i have; i planned to start from the 2wk December break while revising for Jan mocks but like always i didn't

I'm doing math, bio and chem (7A2 and 3AS-resits). All my exams are in June (except a C1 resit) so i have 3 months left. If i do revise intensely from now and i'm talking every waking moment revising, so roughly 12hrs Fri-Sun and 8hrs Mon-Thur, is that enough time to get me prepared for my exams for A*AA-AAA grades?

Some things to note: Nearly finished everything for chem and math in class; i have been concentrating on HWs; I don't think there are any topics where i have to "learn" it myself at home so only revision; for AS i got ABCD in bio, chem, math and phys respectively with about a month revision for bio, few weeks for chem, a week for math and few days for physics.

Thanks for reading, I tried to keep it short.
(edited 9 years ago)

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Revising for that long every day isn't sustainable. I'd start at 6 hours a day and work up to 8-9 hours. Whether it's achievable or not depends on you; I know people that could have revised every waking moment during their college years and still flunk their exams.
Pfffft plenty of time left :biggrin:
Reply 3
I would say short effective sessions this early on about 2-3 hours a day, and step it up when you feel necessary to about 6 hours, and in the last couple weeks 8 hours.
It's far more important to have good understanding of something than just spending all your time trying to remember it, at least that's what I think :smile:
Reply 4
If it's actual revision (ie having already done the content thoroughly and just doing it again) then easily. 3 months are awesome for revision.

If, however, it's the type "I did it, not very well, so I'll go through it thorougly again", then you better get started soon!!!
Original post by *Stefan*
If it's actual revision (ie having already done the content thoroughly and just doing it again) then easily. 3 months are awesome for revision.

If, however, it's the type "I did it, not very well, so I'll go through it thorougly again", then you better get started soon!!!


Oh awesome, thanks for the reply! :smile: Well I'd say 65% is just going over and doing questions, but 35% is the "I did it, not very well, so I'll go through it thorougly again". Just out of curiosity, how much do you revise weekly and when did you start?

Original post by Anaris
I would say short effective sessions this early on about 2-3 hours a day, and step it up when you feel necessary to about 6 hours, and in the last couple weeks 8 hours.
It's far more important to have good understanding of something than just spending all your time trying to remember it, at least that's what I think :smile:


Heey thanks for the reply! :wink: Yeah, I agree with ya there on that last point. Also only 2-3hrs a day? i mean i guess i'm not really starting revision too late like i was thought :smile:. I was thinking that i'm like super duper behind on revision (compared to others who are also aiming for those grades).

Original post by Placeboo123
Pfffft plenty of time left :biggrin:


haha that's what i want to hear :smile: hopefully you're right. But i'm still going to try revise intensely till the exams just in case and if you're right then i'll be well better off in my exams haha. cheers for the reply :wink:

Original post by Jooooshy
Revising for that long every day isn't sustainable. I'd start at 6 hours a day and work up to 8-9 hours. Whether it's achievable or not depends on you; I know people that could have revised every waking moment during their college years and still flunk their exams.


Yeah that's true it depends on the person. Haha yes my hours of revision that i stated i would do is quite ambitious and im pretty sure i won't keep to it by a couple hours. I'll probs start off like you said. Thanks for the reply mate :wink:



Cheers for the responses, i feel aloooot better about it. Now it's just time for me to start revising...:cool:
Reply 6
Original post by bakedbeans247
Oh awesome, thanks for the reply! :smile: Well I'd say 65% is just going over and doing questions, but 35% is the "I did it, not very well, so I'll go through it thorougly again". Just out of curiosity, how much do you revise weekly and when did you start?


I'm doing my A-Levels in a year, so it's a bit different for me.

What I do is revise and study concurrently. Eg, in Latin, I am very close to finishing the set text but I still have some left. However, I have been revising it repeatedly ever since I begun back in September. This means that I know the text very well, and I should be able to revise it again once I finish in about 4-5 days.

I would strongly encourage you though to finish your stuff first before starting the rapid revisions. It is very difficult to do both at the same time, and it can certainly exhaust you very easily. Once you're done, just start revising carefully and with dedication!
Original post by bakedbeans247
Hey guys,

So have i left revision too late? I feel like i have; i planned to start from the 2wk December break while revising for Jan mocks but like always i didn't

I'm doing math, bio and chem (7A2 and 3AS-resits). All my exams are in June (except a C1 resit) so i have 3 months left. If i do revise intensely from now and i'm talking every waking moment revising, so roughly 12hrs Fri-Sun and 8hrs Mon-Thur, is that enough time to get me prepared for my exams for A*AA-AAA grades?

Some things to note: Nearly finished everything for chem and math in class; i have been concentrating on HWs; I don't think there are any topics where i have to "learn" it myself at home so only revision; for AS i got ABCD in bio, chem, math and phys respectively with about a month revision for bio, few weeks for chem, a week for math and few days for physics.

Thanks for reading, I tried to keep it short.


What? You got ABCD with a month of revision for AS how? When you say revision do you mean learn't things from scratch or you knew things here and there and began to study? In fact what did you recieve in AS mocks? I'm trying to devise a plan for myself...I got U's so the panic frame of mind is constant.
Original post by Cherry82
What? You got ABCD with a month of revision for AS how? When you say revision do you mean learn't things from scratch or you knew things here and there and began to study? In fact what did you recieve in AS mocks? I'm trying to devise a plan for myself...I got U's so the panic frame of mind is constant.


haha. Well yeah, i started revising after the Easter holidays finished last yr, but that's not what i planned to do at all and just like now my plan was to start from Jan :frown:

For bio there was hardly any learning for me to do and mostly just revision and past papers as my teacher went over everything pretty well. I paid a lot more attention in class/HWs/tests throughout the yr compared to my other subjects; btw i just scrapped an A by a few UMS.

For phys i didn't get C or above 1) bec i left it super late and 2) bec i had to not just revise it but learn most of it first 3) i didn't do that many past papers. Physics tbh was a complete shambles for me. See for phys i didn't pull my weight and my teach didn't pull her weight. Luckily that teacher gave my class the answers for our controlled assessments. lol.

For maths and chem i just didn't do enough past papers and revise early enough, that's why i got a really low B and a High C. Teachers did go over everything pretty well, i just didn't pay enough attention in class/test/HWs. So the only time i got to practice was a few weeks before the exams while doing past papers which i didn't have enough time to do that much.

This yr i have tried to pay more attention, but i'm not going to lie, i still wish i paid a lot more attention throughout the yr and started revising from dec/jan.

well that was a rly long post, if you read the whole thing then well done lol. Are you doing AS or A2? What grades you hoping to get and if you've done AS what did you get?
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by bakedbeans247
haha. Well yeah, i started revising after the Easter holidays finished last yr, but that's not what i planned to do at all and just like now my plan was to start from Jan :frown:

For bio there was hardly any learning for me to do and mostly just revision and past papers as my teacher went over everything pretty well. I paid a lot more attention in class/HWs/tests throughout the yr compared to my other subjects; btw i just scrapped an A by a few UMS.

For phys i didn't get C or above 1) bec i left it super late and 2) bec i had to not just revise it but learn most of it first 3) i didn't do that many past papers. Physics tbh was a complete shambles for me. See for phys i didn't pull my weight and my teach didn't pull her weight. Luckily that teacher gave my class the answers for our controlled assessments. lol.

For maths and chem i just didn't do enough past papers and revise early enough, that's why i got a really low B and a High C. Teachers did go over everything pretty well, i just didn't pay enough attention in class/test/HWs. So the only time i got to practice was a few weeks before the exams while doing past papers which i didn't have enough time to do that much.

This yr i have tried to pay more attention, but i'm not going to lie, i still wish i paid a lot more attention throughout the yr and started revising from dec/jan.

well that was a rly long post, if you read the whole thing then well done lol. Are you doing AS or A2? What grades you hoping to get and if you've done AS what did you get?


Thank you for responding, so you are in a good position then wow. Nah, it's not to long and of course I read everything :smile:. I need to learn the content though still at this time so I'm not sure how this is going to work out.
For me not even...Sad.
Hey man, if you missed 8 months for a reason, e.g. illness, then top uni's allow you to take a 3rd for resits and you have as much a chance of getting in as anyone else would who did alvls in 2 yrs. You know, just in case you didn't know.
"When you determine what you want, you have made the most important decision of your life. You have to know what you want in order to attain it."- Douglas Lurton."


"Anything is possible because with hard work there is no obstacle"- Fegan
Original post by bakedbeans247
Hey guys,

So have i left revision too late? I feel like i have; i planned to start from the 2wk December break while revising for Jan mocks but like always i didn't

I'm doing math, bio and chem (7A2 and 3AS-resits). All my exams are in June (except a C1 resit) so i have 3 months left. If i do revise intensely from now and i'm talking every waking moment revising, so roughly 12hrs Fri-Sun and 8hrs Mon-Thur, is that enough time to get me prepared for my exams for A*AA-AAA grades?

Some things to note: Nearly finished everything for chem and math in class; i have been concentrating on HWs; I don't think there are any topics where i have to "learn" it myself at home so only revision; for AS i got ABCD in bio, chem, math and phys respectively with about a month revision for bio, few weeks for chem, a week for math and few days for physics.



Thanks for reading, I tried to keep it short.

"When you determine what you want, you have made the most important decision of your life. You have to know what you want in order to attain it."- Douglas Lurton."


"Anything is possible because with hard work there is no obstacle"- Fegan
Oh wow nice you're at uni doing medicine! What does pre med mean?
Aw, no you're not an idiot. People are so shallow and judgemental honestly. I think it's terrible how one could really believe that school grades determine another person's intelligence- IQ because it really does not. You should give yourself some credit because anyone who moves onto A2 isn't exactly dumb, A2 seems challenging and difficult. And for the fact that you did Biology revision the night before and got a D grade is spectacular. Thanks so much for the reply, btw how are you? How are you finding things? What are your plans?

Yes please, it would be great to receive resources. Though the sciences I take are Physics and Chemistry. Physics is over kill, my mind for some reason couldn't connect, comprehend it. The whole concept confuses me, in class I would always ask questions that gets the teacher worried lol. Yesterday when we were going over kinematics again, I kept on asking how do these forces 'know' how to work, why is this constant, where did they come from, what is influencing so and so, why doesn't gravity do this or that. It ended up in a creationism, evolution debate lol. I swear, physics isn't for me, it gets me thinking too deep.
Easily enough time... I'm planning to finish learning everything by the end of this month, then I'm gonna try to do most of the past papers in April and May
Interesting. I agree I will definitely do so, it would save me so much stress lol. Thanks, sure do. I wish you all the best :smile:
Yea, no I respect the efforts made in the previous years. I wouldn't call them stupid because if it wasn't for those institutions and explanations, we wouldn't be where we are now. 'At best the calculations and modelling you do will remain an approximation'- Ah when you said this, it gave me chills down my spine. I think I've got issued, for some reason I want readings or findings to be fractions off perfect and so true. I guess this is something I am trying to overcome, it's why I fail practicals to be honest now thinking about it. I'm never satisfied with results,
I hope it's not too late :biggrin:. I don't think it is. I reckon if you nail down 3+ hours(I am doing 6 hours now a day from 2 hours a few days ago), then I think we could get the good grades.

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