For people that got A's or A*'s last year - AS/A2 what is your study routine?

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Reply 40

Susanoo

Ah, you must have had a big cock .

Have to rep you for your sig :rofl:

Reply 41

bonana567

when i took my AS maths it was the only exam i was doing... week before the exam i played COD 8hours + a day and during the lobbies I would do past papers with my friends over the mic... got an A in the end yeaaaaah booiiii :wink:

Reply 42

Delaney

Start of the year to begging of study leave = Arse around
Study leave = Get the work done

Job done

Reply 43

Marie-Claire

Original post by meatzaper

My first reaction was to say 'you had it coming'... but nah what did it feel like??

Pneumonia? Like a really bad chest infection, times ten, with the addition of possible death. And tachycardia. Tbh I don't remember too well, I was really out of it for the first couple of days. Not being able to sit up or do stuff for myself was the worst like.

Reply 44

diamonddust

Original post by rugbygreg

Relax until the crimbo holiday, Cram like hell (have crimbo eve , day , boxing day , new years eve , new years day off).
Relax until Easter , Cram like hell.
Repeat for A2

This was my revision for AS. It only worked for the subjects I was 'naturally' good at.
Warning: Do NOT try to cram the whole of AS Chemistry the night before the exam. You will die from boredom and if you survive to take the exam and are rubbish at Chemistry, like me, you will probably fail. :tongue:

For every other subject, cramming is the way to go! Considering I'm doing 3 essay subjects, this 'revision' technique will work perfectly!
Going to start lightly now though because it takes me ages to get into cram mode.

I can only revise when I'm under pressure. I can't revise now because I'm not stressed, even though I should be considering how many lessons I've missed today. :rolleyes:

Reply 45

TWF

I didn't get an A, but I did get an A on two of my AS unit 1's. Some people are saying cram it all in.... it might get you a few B's like me, but you will never sustain an A grade by cramming a month worth of revision 2 weeks before the exams unless you remember your class work well. If you do hard subjects and want an A, you need to spread your revision out, and once you get near the exam you should be done revising and move onto past papers and summarising your revision. Especially at A2, cramming will not do you any favours. I think my mistake was revising too close to the exam and not going through past papers early enough.

Reply 46

meatzaper

Original post by Marie-Claire

don't know what a chest infection feels like either :s-smilie:

... but at least your all better now

Reply 47

michaa

my first aim is to understand
and then apply what i understanded
then make a summary notes for my self for the wrong answers i made through the whole year
looking for perfection :wink:

Reply 48

Zezzy

I found making a timetable usually a waste of time, I'd never stick to it and i'd find that I needed to spend extra time on certain topics that didn't make sense or i'd have allocated too much time to do one thing that turned out to be quite straightforward. It also takes agesssss to make a timetable, the time's better off spent revising for some people. If you find it hard to get down and actually do your revision (and I take it you don't because you made this thread and therefore seem quite keen) then a timetable might be effective.

For revision I could NEVER do the past papers before revising. If i tried to do them before going through any notes id FAIL terribly and feel really demotivated. I went through my notes making like a hitchhikers guide on how to do certain questions etc and basically covering all angles and aspects. Then did the past papers and looked at places I went wrong to improve my exam technique.

Hope all goes well.

Zezzy

Reply 49

giorgio_grande

hey, it depends on the subjects you take, but i was all essay subjects and found it useful to look back at my better past essays and try and reformulate them into concise essay plans for each potential topic in the exam. i just included arguments, sources and examples :smile:

saying that i really didnt start revising until study leave and did fine.. good luck!

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 50

Baula

Original post by iheartmondays

Do you have a study timetable..?
*an uploaded one would be fantastic* - I'll give my rep to the best one!

How many hours did you do?

If I'm honest, I didn't follow a study timetable until it got really lcose to exams (few weeks before)
I don't know if it's the same as at a college but I went to a sixth form so I had homework every lesson to do. I put all my efforts into every homework, especially the practice essays so I could get feedback from the teacher on where to improve.

I also made a blog (for literature) and put in things I had learned each lesson... We kind of had to but me and a friend were the only ones that actually did this. It worked as a really good revision tool in the end :tongue:

Reply 51

Steelie

I never bothered with making a timetable or planning revision. For geography, about two months before the exam I started typing up my classroom notes and using them as a barebones structure to add more case studies, research etc. Not only did it help me remember important details, but it shows you're capable of independent study and self-motivation.

For English Lit, it was a case of making sure I knew the important sections of the texts inside out, rather than the whole thing. Found it more useful than over-analysing every chapter, line, stanza or whatever. Similar thing to geog for the rest - building up a contextual knowledge around key aspects and themes. Job's a good'un.

I got A*s in both subjects so it worked for me at least :wink:

My overall advice though would be don't copy someone else's revision strategy - everyone's different and remembers things in different ways. Find what works best for you.

Reply 52

Unkempt_One

I don't have any routine, I just do what needs to be done.

Reply 53

M Loy is God

I literally skim read through the CGP books for my GCSE's the night before the exam.

Turned up got all As and A*s.

My routine this year. Attempt to start revising.

Reply 54

nerdman09

Do homework right before the lesson, or 'forget' to hand it in and give it in the day after. Don't listen in class. 6 weeks before exams start thinking about preparation i.e. print off sh*t loads of past papers. 5 weeks make notes on textbook for each subject. Between weeks 3 and 2 read over notes many times. Then 2 weeks before exams past papers. Guaranteed A*s await you

Reply 55

jack999

bashing and revision....straight up for 2weeks before exam

got me AAAB

Reply 56

padari

Study hard to achieve something ...

let this guy be a inspiration to you
http://u.bb/2oB

Reply 57

narusku

Original post by forgottensecret

For quotes and such: Memory palace
I recommend that for any appliance of structuring quotes into your essays and even dates for the less mathematical.
For the rest, just past papers and looking over what I did in class. The hardest for me was the "learning by definition", which I found tedious, pointless and simply not education in the original sense. Although, I did get through it in the end :smile:

Hehe, just realised this was for AS/A2, ah well, a bit of Scottish input never hurt anyone!

Do you personally have a memory palace, if so, what is it?

Reply 58

Contrad!ction.

Original post by forgottensecret

Is it a literal subscribe, or a "I'll frequently come back to this" subscribe, because me don't know how to :frown:

There's a 'thread tools' button. Click that and a drop-down will appear. Click 'watch this thread'. That's a literal subscribe for ya. :smile:

I don't use timetables. Our head of 6th Form made us all sit down and make them. Haven't touched it since. I have to be in the right mood for my revision. I just do past paper, find a weakness, work on weakness, understand it, do new past paper and find any more weaknesses. Rinse, repeat.

Reply 59

forgottensecret

Original post by narusku

Do you personally have a memory palace, if so, what is it?

My personal memory palace is simply my house. I used it for my Higher English exam in May, and I'd still say I'm able to regurgitate quite a fair bit, if not all of it if pushed. This is the beauty of the whole concept, because it is a place which is recognisable, which you see everyday, you can make connections much easier between quotes and places in your house therefore installing it in long term memory for months.
The best way to perfect the memory palace is for the objects or the quotes which you are attempting to remember (WHICH YOU WILL!) to be as completely and utterly imaginative as possible. For example, for The Great Gatsby, "a "cousin of Kaiser Wilhelms" has for me Hitler sitting on my front couch. Then for "a white flannel suit, silve shirt and gold-coloured tie", I have a man dressed ostentatiously and completely out of place in my kitchen. Many of the greatest memory experts all testify to using this method and by it I was able to acheive an A band 1 in Higher English - so it does the job! Just keep the thoughts as utterly farfetched as you can conjure and you shall be fine :biggrin:

Also worth noting, is how short a time, the whole method takes as opposed to the CONSTANT reading over of notes. This method is as fun as quote memorising can be tbh and not a whole monotonous session of revision.
Here is the article where I got it from which is really good for going into more detail and some examples of them :smile:

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Memory-Palace