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Grow your Grades revision tips competition

Hey Grow your Graders!

Our New Year study resolutions competition did so well... we have decided to do it again!

Unfortunately its that time of the year where we have to start thinking about that dreaded word.............. revision. To ease the pain we have decided to give away a £25 Amazon voucher to a random winner in this thread!

Simply share your best revision tips here on this thread to be in with a chance to win! We will collect all the best revision and study tips and put them into an article and promote them across our social media platforms :smile:

Anything goes, don't be shy, share how you're planning on acing your exams.

Like always everyone is free to get involved, the more the merrier.

Best of luck everyone

Grow your Grades

(edited 4 years ago)

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Print off the specification for your subject so you know exactly what you need to cover and read all the examiner reports and mark schemes you can find! You'll learn how the examiners want you to answer certain questions and the examiner reports will tell you all the common mistakes made in previous years so you can avoid them.
Forget about mocks. #MocksDontMatter
-start using quizlet for heavy content subjetcs like history and re.
-finish my science(and history hopefully) notes by end of feb-mid march.
-start practice papers from march MAX
-seneca learning daily for science
-give 1-2 essay to my english language teacher every week
Past papers or even other model awnsers for the question
Keep calm, get plenty of rest (not too much) make sure you’re eating properly and exercise regularly. Don’t stress too much, you’re a student, they don’t expect you to know everything ... they just want to see you do your best. I second MinaBee as well, use the examiners report and take what they say and use it to create a better exam experience for you. Find the revision sources that you want to use and make them before the day before because that way, you can do relaxed revision on the day before. I remember I made board games to revise and the night before, I basically just had a game night! Remember to go in with a positive attitude and believe in yourself... life doesn’t end at the end of the test.
For essay subjects - practice timed essays with no notes
1) Approach Revision and study periods just as athletes approach training. Train deliberately, stop shying away at what topic you're usually bad at. Identify your mistakes and face them head on or you'll never improve.

2) Remove distractions and focus, Turn off your phone, disable your internet, discipline yourself and get stuck in.

3) Get inspiration and get to work. It's important to discover what you're working towards, but more importantly, its crucial to pan out what it takes to get there. Create a map to meeting your goal( be it a certain number of A*s or a university place) write out what it takes to get there, and start

4) Keep yourself accountable, write out what you aimed to have gotten done at the end of the day in the morning, in the evening review what you have done and if you've fallen short, critique yourself and address where you've fallen short. This is a lot easier when a friend or family member is holding you to your word.

5) Time your exam practice. In my opinion the most important, you've got to learn to think fast in the exam, even if you covered the scheme three times over it won't count for anything if you don't finish the paper in time. Practice your exam papers in exam conditions

EDIT: typo
(edited 5 years ago)
Flashcards work really well for me - I wrote down all my Physics definitions and test myself on a couple during each car journey. It really helps - both for definition learning and understanding of the key topics themselves.
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Dylann
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In subjects that require factual recall in which you are then expected to expand upon (economics, politics, history etc) use acronyms as they are like a mini plan for essays. For example, "What are the contributing factors to economic growth?". Create an acronym using the first letter of say five words related to each reason (Jobs, Banks, Investment, Infrastructure, Education) - Turn this into BEIJI (you can remember Beijing to make it easier). I haven't done economics in four years and this took me two minutes. I went into my a-level exams with about ten acronyms just like this and aced them.

Bonus tip: Don't waste time writing essays for every single past paper question in the above subjects, just write a plan and then compare to the mark scheme. Being able to plan and structure an essay is 90% of the difficulty - putting it into sentences is the easy bit.
Original post by Mapleservers
Past papers or even other model awnsers for the question


Where can you find model answers ?
Original post by Evil Homer
Hey Grow your Graders!

Our New Year study resolutions competition did so well... we have decided to do it again!

Unfortunately its that time of the year where we have to start thinking about that dreaded word.............. revision. To ease the pain we have decided to give away a £25 Amazon voucher to a random winner in this thread!

Simply share your best revision tips here on this thread to be in with a chance to win! We will collect all the best revision and study tips and put them into an article and promote them across our social media platforms :smile:

Anything goes, don't be shy, share how you're planning on acing your exams.

Like always everyone is free to get involved, the more the merrier.

Best of luck everyone

Grow your Grades



My trick was to precis all the notes recording key issues to commit to memory. Was then much easier (and less daunting) to revise from this rather than from 4 ringbinders of lecture notes. My subject was physics btw.
I'm not sure I agree with needing to actuallty print the specification but do read it. Examiners reports are useful because they often give examples of marking.

I also dont totally agree that 'mocks don't matter'. If you use the paper well it can be a great way to improve. Go through the papers and note each topic as:
RED - not a clue I need to go through this
AMBER - knew some of it but some gaps
GREEN - I know this and just need to keep practising.

Then tackle your AMBER topics first - these are quick wins and will help you go up at least a grade. The RED topics are where you need to get help - that's what teachers are there for!

Go to all the additional revision classes - may are targeted at certain topics - also my [state] school has free sessions during the Easter holidays.
[Avoid commercial revision classes as they are not targeted at specific boards and are too generic]
Here's a don't:

If you are used to regular exercise, especially if are an athlete or sportsman who trains intensively, do not be tempted to give it all up in order to gain extra time for revision. You body will miss the hormones and the routine and your mental performamce will suffer. By all means cut it back a little in a controlled way, but certainly don't give it all up.
(edited 5 years ago)
Just got my results for the Sept-Dec semester this morning. Even my lowest grade was still better than my highest grade last semester. The exam I performed best in I revised with a friend who would take my notes (sometimes without warning) and ask me to tell him everything I could remember on a topic. I usually use the cover & recall method, but don't usually speak aloud because it feels a bit silly - but he insisted it would help. I quickly realised that if I took frequent long pauses that it meant I probably didn't know the content as well as I thought I did. In reverse it also made me feel more confident when I could quickly give an answer for something I thought I wouldn't do well on. It worked so well in developing quick recall without need to prepare other supporting materials (eg - flash cards, mind maps, etc) that I started doing it at home too: I'd hide my notes and teach the stuffed animals on my desk about the conditions I needed to know for my exam. Can stuffed animals suffer from hyperthyroidism? Probably not - but mine now know the symptoms to look out for!

TL;DR - speaking aloud is great for recall and confirming if you really know the information as well as you think you do.
Also one half of my two-headed teddy bear is now currently checking both of their necks for a goitre. The other head is not pleased.
(edited 5 years ago)
The only revision 'tip' I really have is the quality of your revision will impact your exams better than the amount you do. Revising for 10 hours a day while not really getting any information in is not going to help you in comparison to 2 hours a day where you thouroughly understand all of the information.
Original post by yemenia16
Where can you find model answers ?

Ask your teacher she would be able to give you past papers that have other students answers on, It will also tell you the marks etc that they got for it also how they could improve on.
Why am I quoted in this?
Original post by Andrew97
Why am I quoted in this?

Same
For product design the best revision you can do is look around you at everyday products and think the following two questions

1)What is it's function/Why was it made
2) How was it made

If you cannot answer those two questions then google it :smile: this is the best form of practise you can do for PD exams

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