Fishy's tips for top grade revision.

Hey everyone, I've been experimenting a lot with revision techniques and I think I've found a lot of good stuff, so I'd like to share it with you, please bear in mind though that what works for me doesn't work for everyone else.

Firstly, you should revise differently for different types of subjects. the way you revise in an essay subject like politics or history will not help you in a method subject (like maths) which will not help you in a recall/knowledge subject such as psychology or biology

I do essay subjects and recall subjects so I'll give input for them (for reference, I got A in Politics and Psychology last year) If someone wants to add in some tips for method based subjects like maths feel free to below.

General tips
Lose the revision timetables - they're great for structured revision, which works for some people, but for me and anyone else who shares my horrible sense of procrastination (which I imagine is a lot of TSR :P ) then the best way to do revision is whenever you feel motivated. If you turn around and tell me that you never feel motivated you're either depressed and should see a psychiatrist or lying. Everyone has those short bursts of motivation every now and again, and the key is to work in them. The more you do that the more they appear. So work for like 20-30 miniutes when you feel motivated now and they will last longer and be more frequent come to may.

Tieing into that, work at the time of day that is best for you, and don't bother working at any other time. You may notice I'm posting this at 1:30 am, well that's because thats when I work best. I get home and take a nap for a couple hours, then am up late working. It's the best way to ensure you get into a healthy, repetative and productive revision habit. If you work outside those times you'll end up struggling for motivation

Be organised - Keep your notes in folders or on a computer. They need to be easilly acessible and readable, because if they're not there or you can't read them then you can't benifit from them

If you don't get something in class, don't try to learn it on your own, ask a friend or a teacher. If the textbook can't help you understand it the first time it won't help the next 10-20 times. Others can phrase it in a more accessible way or from a different perspective that should help you understand


Recall subjects.


- Firstly, write a big ass glossary with every key term from the textbook and any others you feel are necessary. Sit and work through it bit by bit, trying as much as possible to write the definitions from memory (think look cover write like you used to do for spellings in primary school) to ensure that you are practicing recall not just copying.

Once that's done, put the glossary at the front of your folder and just start reading it every now and again. Flash cards are another option here


- Write notes, lots of notes. For every page in your textbook you should have notes for it, that does not mean copy out of the textbook though, again you need to ensure you're praticing recall so read the textbook, close it and write what you remember, then fill in the gaps.


-If you are doing a subject like psychology or sociology where lots of studies are required, get a list of all of those studies consolidated in one place (if anyone wants one I think I have a list of all AQA AS psychology studies somehere) then reference them regularly, again pratice recall - look cover write


- Your notes must be consise, there's no point writing reams of notes only to look at them and see a wall of text. You need to be able to take a quick scan through to maximise the amount you can recall

Essay Subjects

So, all of the above is true for essay subjects as well, but additionally


- write an essay every week. Doesn't matter if you haven't got homework, and it doesn't need to be even the same subject - the objective here is to keep your writing skills sharp, since like any skill they degrade the less you use them.


- When you are doing your essays, a plan, then a conclusion then the introduction - that way your essay has a solid direction.


- Read around your subjects, if your sixth form is anything like mine you'll have heard this to death, but it really is a huge booster if you can drop in a up to date example that supports your point and isn't in the textbook, it sets your essay apart from the others and quite clearly shows your interested in the topic - these little things can make a big difference fo the examiner that has just marked 30 other papers all making the exact same points because they were in the course book.


- If possible try to write up an answer to every potential essay question - for many subjects the questions the exam boards use are largely the same just in different contexts or with different wording. So if you write up answers to all the past papers, and all the questions listed in the book then you already have the way of writing that essay in your head, you will have planned it out without stress of an exam and taken as much time on it as you want so the essay you made then will have been better, and you can then import bits of that into the one you're writing in the exam.