should i transfer my digital flashcards to paper?

hi! i would love to give you advice, but it's hard to make it specific without a little more context. would it be alright if i asked what year group you're in and whether you mean end-of-school-year or january exams when you say 'mocks'?

i have 100s. i feel like id burn out, but idk if this is what i should do.

im also crying about my mocks regularly and im going away on holiday and i cant even relax because people expect so much from me

Flashcards
Two questions:
Why would you like to put them on paper?
Where/how do you store digital flashcards?

If you give a bit more context, I can give some slightly better advice. I do have some experience with changing up revision methods and going physical and digital.

Crying over mocks
Mocks are stressful, but they're just mocks!* There's not a lot of advice I can give you, as I don't know your situation and you know yourself best. Consider what your mocks mean to you. Do they amount to any entry requirements, or could you see them as a tool to help you know where you need to work on? By reframing mocks as a tool to help you, you can look at them as something which doesn't stress you.

I've noticed that you're worried about what people expect from you, which plays into how you feel about mocks. Keep that high expectation aimed at the grades you can get once you do really well after look at mocks as a tool to help you, and putting in the effort you've put in to making your flashcards. You clearly put in effort, so focus on keeping on putting in effort in a way which is sustainable for your mental health. If you can't keep your mental health in a good place, it will affect how effectively you can study - so don't feel shame if you're feeling stressed, look at it analytically and figure out how you can make it affect you less.

*Please don't start worrying about how you'll feel when you do the real thing. I have a lot of very high achieving friends who were really stressed for mocks, and we're all now weirdly calm now we're in the middle of doing our exams. It will be ok, focus on the present!

Going on holiday
Take the time off. Don't take your flashcards with you, physically or digitally. By giving your mind and body time to rest, you're actually preparing it to perform more effectively. By separating rest and work time by not bringing flashcards with you, you're making it clear in your mind that when it's time to study, you need to work and not rest.

Good luck. Look after yourself!

Because I can take them to school and I use goodnotes study sets on my ipad

i would say that unless you think it'll help you learn to have them on paper, then i wouldn't bother transferring them, especially if you think it will add extra stress.

are you able to take your ipad into school sometimes? i know everyone uses their revision materials differently, but what i did was write my flashcards on a topic once i got home afterschool based off of the notes i had written, and then i mostly used them during study leave, only actually taking them into school on the day of my exams. could you maybe do that?


regarding your stress: i agree with the other responder. unless you need to dramatically increase your grades now in order to get higher predicted grades for UCAS (and if you do, i would say that even if your school claims that your predicted grades are 100% based off of these exams, some teachers will be willing to give you a chance to show in a different way that you're working hard to improve, sometimes with extra homework in september or something), these exams should be a tool for you, to show you your strengths and weaknesses within each subject, not something that requires excessive stress.

i agree that it would be healthy for you to take a break from studying while you're on holiday. if you're crying frequently then you're definitely placing too much pressure on yourself, and you won't be in a position to learn very well. depending on the type of holiday that it is, i would suggest taking along a book (or something similarly relaxing if you don't enjoy reading? i’ve gotta be honest, idk what non-readers do with their time) and look into some mindfulness techniques. i’ve found that breathing exercise videos designed to calm people from panic attacks can be helpful when i’ve worked myself into a state about my exams (although of course what works for me might not work for you). you might also want to check if your school has a counsellor that you can talk to? my younger brother is similarly stressed about gcse's, and i think he's finding it helpful talking to one.


the family pressure is not something i’ve got much advice for, sorry. remember that the only person that your a-levels effect in the long run is you. if they kick up a fuss about you not working on holiday then you could maybe tell them that your school recommended that students take a break over halfterm? but also, if they book a holiday just before your exams and then expect you to work throughout the holiday while they're all relaxing and having fun then that's pretty terrible of them.


i hope that some of this has been helpful. if you have any other questions feel free to ask, i'd be happy to try and help

i dont think i can take my ipad in, no



my

i have 100s. i feel like id burn out, but idk if this is what i should do.

im also crying about my mocks regularly and im going away on holiday and i cant even relax because people expect so much from me

i have 100s. i feel like id burn out, but idk if this is what i should do.

im also crying about my mocks regularly and im going away on holiday and i cant even relax because people expect so much from me

I would suggest summarising by topic and not sub-topic (if that's what you're doing) - for example, for biology, instead of writing one flashcard for every sub-topic in bioenergetics (like aerobic respiration and then another flashcard for anaerobic respiration), summarise an entire topic onto a page - you can do this in a mindmap, bullet points, sections, however you feel like. But the aim is to condense your notes, so that they don't overwhelm you whenever you look at them.

One more thing I want to add on the topic of flashcards, is that try not to become to dependent on flashcards themselves, use past papers/exam-based questions as your primary source of revision (PMT, MME revise, Study mind, savemyexams and Maths genie have great resources). It's best to familiarise yourself with the info first (use flashcards first) and then move onto familiarising yourself with the mark scheme and the style of questions being asked - because you would then be giving yourself some exam practice.

I'm sorry you feel stressed, know that this will pass and you will be absolutely fine!
Treat mocks as a way to identify the areas you need to focus on! It will help you feel much better when you realise you're strong in certain areas and also give you confidence to tackle the harder areas. Whenever you feel stressed, take some time out, it doesn't matter if you have tonnes to revise, just take half-an-hour to spend some time doing something you enjoy, then come back and start your revision properly - this way, when you come back you can get some good quality revision done instead of you sitting down at your desk stressing out, without any break.
Always remember, that it's better to have an hour of efficient revision than 6 hours of useless, wasted revision. So prioritise quality over quantity when studying.
Talk to someone when you're stressed, I know how it feels when you have so many expectations coming from all sides, but have a conversation with relatives, parents or even siblings and make them understand how much you're working hard - I'm sure they will encourage you and support you.

One last thing, you're going on holiday! Use this time to get a well-deserved break, some nice sleep and have fun! Take care of yourself and use this time to take a proper break away from all the stress and studying.
You can do this, keep pushing forward and I'm sure that everything will work out!
I hope that helps and good luck with your end of years/mocks!

Thank you , pls could u show me a example of a summary note like you mentioned ?

Happy to help!

- Measles - fever, red skin rash, can be fatal; inhalation of infected droplets; vaccinations, painkillers

- HIV - flu-like at first, damaged immune system + development of AIDs; drug users sharing needles; antiretroviral drugs, clean needles
- TMV - Mosaic patterns of discolouration on leaves of plants, less chlorophyll means less glucose made means less growth; direct contact, infected soil, vectors; removing infected plants

- Salmonella - abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever; contaminated food, unhygienic food preparation; vaccinaing poultry to control spread
- Gonorrhoea - pain when urinating; antibiotics
- Malaria - fever, vomiting; plasmodium parasites - vectors; antimalarial medicine, mosquito nets, control vector breeding
- Rose black spot - Purple or black spots on leaves, turns yellow and falls off early; WATER OR AIR ; antifungal medicine, removing + destroying infected plants

- Non-specific barriers - skin (produces antimicrobials that kill bacteria, physical barrier to disease); stomach (produces HCl acid that kills pathogens); throat/nose/bronchus (cilia + mucus that trap and waft pathogens to throat to be swallowed down to the stomach)
- Phagocytosis - phagocyte detects chemicals released from pathogen + moves towards it; then surrounds and engulfs pathogen; uses enzymes to destroy pathogen
- Antibodies - Produced by lymphocytes + bind to and destroy specific pathogens
- Antitoxins - Produced by lymphocytes + bind to and neutralise toxins released by pathogens
- Stages of drug testing - Preclinical testing: test on live cells, tissues + animals (for toxicity); clinical testing: test on healthy volunteers with low dosage (for efficacy/safety) + small numbers of patients (for efficacy + optimum dosage); two groups = one is test group (real drug) + one is control group (placebo, with no active ingredient in it)
- Vaccination - small quantities of dead or inactive forms of the pathogen is injected into the body; this stimulates lymphocyte production and makes antibodies to destroy these pathogens; if the pathogen enters the body again, the memory cells would quickly make the correct antibodies to defend against the pathogens

I couldn't upload it as a pdf, so I just copy and pasted it here.
Above is the notes I made for the entire aqa biology topic of infection and response, I used the specification and freesciencelessons/cognito to make them, and I first typed it onto a google doc then wrote it down into neat notes.
Best way to make notes is to use the spec and summarise it a LOT.
You can also use past paper mark schemes as well.
I hope you find those useful

do i have to write them onto paper?