Hello, everyone!
My name is Erin and I'm a Year 13 student from South Wales, currently studying Welsh, English Literature, Maths and the Welsh Baccalaureate. Alongside my studies, I manage two part time jobs, a decent social life and a psychopath of a dog so I think I'm pretty qualified to let you all know how I've kept as organised as possible throughout my studies!
1: Flexible Revision Timetables
Now it might seem like an obvious one, but yes, you do actually need to plan your time! In my experience, it's best to identify where you feel you need to do the most independent work, what lesson you'll likely have the most homework for and what your office hours are! By that I mean have a clear idea of when you definitely won't feel like doing any work because we actually need breaks! For me, I know if I come home from school at 3:15pm, I'm not going to do any work until 4pm but I'll definitely want to stop at 8pm at the latest to wind down and watch TV. On top of that, instead of writing a big timetable to follow every week for the rest of the year, change your timetable daily or weekly to suit your workload for that week. You'll feel way more productive and motivated to work if it's focussed clearly on what is imminently due!
So, for example, my timetable for Thursday of this week might look like: Home/Walk Dog at 3.15, Poetry Essay 4-5, Mechanics 5-6, Tea 6-6.30, Welsh Short Story 6.30-8, Finished!
If you do prefer set timetables, www.getrevising.co.uk is a brilliant website and make the timetable to fit around your social life for you, with reminders and alarm sent to your phone to keep you on track!
2: Make Use Of Your Free Time
I also find it really helpful to know what I'm doing in a revision break or a free lesson in school before that time arrives. This way, I know if I have 30 minutes before I start my next revision session on my timetable, I can't binge watch series 3 of Game of Thrones again because, surprisingly, it would take a little bit too long. Instead, I will get an episode of Brooklyn 99 ready on Netflix in a different room and make sure I keep to one episode before I'm back to my notes in the other room. Oh, that's important too, revise in a different room to any major distractions if you can or you'll definitely be sucked back in to a TV binge! In that break, it's important to prepare your books or paper for the next time you sit down so you can jump straight into the work instead of wasting another 10 minutes faffing about. Same goes for free lessons in school if you're lucky enough to have some like me. Before school, plan out what you intend to achieve in that free lesson, whether it is to write a bunch of flash cards or to plan a few exam question responses. If you do waste any frees, don't worry about it! It happens to us all! But instead of wasting the time altogether, make an effort to add another hour to your after school revision at some point that week so no work is falling through the gaps again!
3: Find The Revision Styles For You
YES, I SAID STYLES, WITH AN S ON THE END, WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!?!
Not every subject asks for the same revision style! I know that, for Welsh, I need hundreds of colourful sticky notes which I can read out loud a million times a day but for Maths, I need to rewrite equations over and over again followed by 2 or 3 example questions. Don't stick to one revision style if it is not effective after 2 weeks, this is an easy trap to wasting months of time revising and not learning anything. Experiment with different styles and revision websites for a few revision sessions and ask your classmates and teachers what style they find easiest too! It might change in every topic, subject or not at all but it's worth a shot! Analyse past papers for every subject if possible to judge the style of question likely to appear at exam season for you.
Here's some of my suggestions that have helped me through A level so far!
Sciences: Youtube walkthroughs, flash cards for equations, past papers
Languages: sticky notes on the wall, spider diagrams of topics/grammar techniques
Essays: writing plans for essays ordered thematically, by character or by key concept (quizlet.com is amazing for essay based subjects!)
Best of luck to you all!
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