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How long should I revise this Easter?

The Easter holidays start tomorrow and I was wondering how much revision (in hours) I should be doing per day. I am planning to start on Tuesday as I need to finish my revision flashcards for each unit. I am currently doing A2 biology, chemistry and maths and one chemistry resit. My minimum grades I need to achieve at the end of the year are A*AA (for biology at Oxford). I have already (kinda) made a timetable in which I do at least 9 hours a day but I'm not sure if this is too much (or not enough) :frown:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

DeadEnd_96

Original post by Parrotperson

Congratulations on your offer!!! :woo:

. I would say around 6-9 hours a day depending on your ability. Are you going to start learning the content on Tuesday, or have you already learnt the content?

Reply 2

Abstract_Prism

I keep hearing about people doing crazy hours like 10 hours a day.

I can only assume that these people are trying to make up for lost time.

I'll be doing 3-4 hours per day, and that's because I started at the beginning of February. I'm pretty-much done.

If you're only starting now or recently, then yeah, 10 hours is probably necessary.

When did you start revising? Are you only just starting?

Reply 3

SANTR

Original post by Abstract_Prism

Just out of interest, what do you mean when you say you're done?

Reply 4

LLB 4Lyfe

7am till 10pm if you're looking to get higher than a C.

Reply 5

Abstract_Prism

Original post by SANTR

Just out of interest, what do you mean when you say you're done?

Pretty much memorised the entire textbooks, nearly every single page. Of course, I've been doing tonnes of past papers as well. One of my teachers has a backlog of about 6 past papers from me. And I redo them until I get an A in them.

I only have a tiny bit more content to memorise, which I'll be finished with by the end of this month. So all of April I'll just be doing more and more past papers. But because I've already done so much, my workload won't need to be nearly as heavy as some other people's.

Reply 6

samb1234

Original post by Parrotperson

Revision is too individual to be able to answer this - there is no one size fits all approach to revision that if you follow will get you 4 A*. Ultimately how much you should be doing comes down to you and you alone, and it is you that must decide how much you need to do. Things that you might want to consider:

1. How different are your offer requirements to your current level of work e.g. topic tests, homework etc. In other words are you already working at a *AA kind of level or do you need to relearn large chunks.

2. How long can you productively work for realistically. If you will only be able to concentrate for say 4 hours, there is no point scheduling 9 hours of 'work' - you will end up procrastinating and feeling guilty about not working when you could instead be doing stuff like meeting friends, playing sport or whatever you like doing which will help you through revision.

3. When your exams are - if there are some exams that are very late and you don't need to do a lot of revision for (say for example that you need an A in s1 for example, and you are currently finding s1 very easy) then you don't necessarily have to spend lots of time on that exam now, and can better use that time for something else.

There are a lot more things to consider, but hopefully that will help you to come up with an idea for how long you should revise for, I wouldn't really pay too much attention to what other people are doing as there is such a huge variation and what works for one person won't necessarily work for another

Reply 7

Parrotperson

Original post by DeadEnd_96

Congratulations on your offer!!! :woo:

. I would say around 6-9 hours a day depending on your ability. Are you going to start learning the content on Tuesday, or have you already learnt the content?

Thank you

I have been going over the content for the last few weeks (by making the flashcards for each module) and have made sure I understand everything as well as doing several past paper questions. However we are yet to finish the content so I have only gone over the content we have been been taught (particularly in biology paper 2 module 4, C4 and acids in chemistry) I aim to have gone over all of the content covered so far by Tuesday.

Reply 8

Parrotperson

Original post by Abstract_Prism

I've been revising modules at a time since about Christmas but had to postpone for a bit to finish my EPQ. I understand most of the content, particularly for biology, it's just I'm worried that I'm going to forget it all if I don't cram everyday. Also, we haven't finished the content in lessons yet so I'm thinking that I should cram so that I can then focus on the stuff we haven't done yet :/

Reply 9

Parrotperson

Original post by samb1234

Well I feel like I am working a lot harder than I was last year. I feel like I understand most of the content so far due the fact that I have gone through most of it. I don't feel like I need to relearn it but just remember it. The only exception being hydrogen cells :frown:

It depends, I mean if it's just flashcards run throughs and past papers I feel like I could probably work for a while. I plan to have regular but short breaks though. Also, I kind of feel I need to cram as we are having mocks the week we go back :/

My first exam is on May 27th (chemistry Resit) but my next is not until 14th of June. However, I kind of wanna push myself to get beyond my target grades (particularly as last year the only person in biology to get predicted A* got a C at my school due to a dodgy paper :/)

Thank you for your advice, I'm gonna finish my revision flashcards and then see how much I want to do :smile:

Reply 10

jamessmith15