A and A* students... Share your revision tips

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I have post-it notes up all around my house. So even when I'm not revising I can still read things to ideas sink in while going about my daily business.
I have some around my desk, on my alarm clock, all over cupboards in my kitchen and my fridge.

Also, I do lots of past papers, find out where I went wrong, revise that topic, do another.

Reply 961

username944192

Original post by ManPowa

Thank You. That was really Useful.

Have you continues r.s into A2?? Is it the OCR examboard??

I did AQA and yes, I got an A at A2 and am now studying law at southampton university.

Reply 962

NabilKhan

Lots of people tend to stay away from the aspects of their subjects that they find a challenge because they lack understanding. The way i revise is i tackle those areas head on and attempt to get over that little fear. Think what i would do if that type of question came up on the exam.

1. i write down what i would do.
2. check what the textbook/syllabus/someone smart would do.
3. compare.
4. correct.

My way of tackling those subjects that a pain in the rear end.

Reply 963

RossSmith17

I'm not an A student, when it comes to revising, frankly I just can't be bothered, i'm sure a lot of people have the same problem, there so many distractions. Because of this I failed my first AS Maths and Psychology exams (an E and a U).

I now have 10 exams coming up in just over 2 weeks from now, and I decided after failing I needed to sort my act out. I researched into how I could revise effectively: which I want to share with you guys, and these methods are actually helping me revise effectively.

- I like to revise in an area with absolutely no distractions, I go to the college library after college, and when i'm there I HAVE to revise, theres nothing else I can do when I'm there, it forces me into actually doing some work.

- CGP Books. You may have used these at GCSE level, and might be a little childish but they are absolutely brilliant. They condense all the topics, give you practice questions and tests, and explain everything in a really understandable way. I really suggest looking into these books.

-Ask teachers. Obvious one but my tecahers hold workshops at lunchtimes at college. If i'm ever really confuse don something, I walk in, they explain it to me and let me go off to enjoy the rest of my lunch.

-Revise with a friend who's doing the same subject as you. It really helps me because when either one of us are stuck, we help each other which enhances our understanding of the topics.

-Revise 1 hour slots at a time and have breaks in between for fresh air. BUT, if this isn't working and the breaks put you off for a long time because you get distrcated by something, try revising for a long as you can, and the time will fly by, if you have your head into the books, filling those pages with your newfound understanding the time will fly by trust me! I was revising 3 and a hlaf hours the other day without realising!

-Do a practice paper after you feel you have understood the syllabus. Then, whatever mistakes or misunderstandings that have taken place can be corrected and revised more. You can then do another paper and see if your understanding has increased. Repeat this process until you're doing it perfectly. The internet is full of past papers, all you have to do is search and youll find loads to choose from.

-Don't run by a revision timetable (well from what I have experienced). If you run by a timetable it disallows you from doing things you want to and can cause a lot of stress. If you want to go get some new shoes, but your meant to be revising, you feel that you have to revise instead. Don't let it take over your life, but remember to do enough!

-Something I have recently tried for revising Psychology. POST-IT NOTES! Write the names of the researchers and a breif description of the experiment that they conducted on a post it note and put them on your bedroom walls. Therefore it'll be the first and last thing you see every day and it WILL stick in your head. What I have done is write the name of the experimentor on the one side of the post-it note, and the other side i've written what experiment they conducted. Whenever I walk past the post-it note and see the experimetors name, I say to myself exactly what experiment they conducted. I then turn the post-it around and see if i'm correct.

I hope these points help you guys get the grades you want, and I just hope they work for me in the forthcoming exams. Good luck everyone :smile:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 964

khoirul sadow SABC

where i can get the full past papers?? please contact me..

Eat badam.

Original post by Raj K

Eat badam.

LOL good advice

Reply 967

Raj K

Original post by Bright.Inspiration.

LOL good advice

(: lool hey good luck for dentistry! wanted to do that but changed my mind to pharmacy lol

Reply 968

canŵio

Original post by khoirul sadow SABC

where i can get the full past papers?? please contact me..

for which boards? they all have them on their websites or pastpapers.org and several other websites...

Reply 969

ilovemath

Technique:
- read over books
- read over guides
- make notes and then read notes
- make a list of all topics and then WITHOUT book go over each topic out loud
- after this check over the topic to see what you missed out/don't understand

Reply 970

Bright.Inspiration.

Original post by Raj K

(: lool hey good luck for dentistry! wanted to do that but changed my mind to pharmacy lol

Thanksss

Pharmacy is great too !

Original post by canŵio

for which boards? they all have them on their websites or pastpapers.org and several other websites...

Hey I see you got an A* biology, any advice would be amazing :smile:

Reply 971

canŵio

Original post by Bright.Inspiration.

Hey I see you got an A* biology, any advice would be amazing :smile:

i've had a lot of people ask me this, and i've got to say i was just a bit of a geek really!

i think enjoying it made quite a big difference, because i didn't have to motivate myself to revise - i was interested in the stuff so revising just felt like fun!

different people need to focus on different things, but i think with biology, exam practise is a huge part of it. i did all the little questions in the text book, and some of the past papers (i think i did all of them, but when i did my exams there were only 4 available so not that many!)

i found that by now, you do know pretty much everything you need to. the tricky bit is trying to recall it in exams! finding the links between topics is important too; remember that just because the exam you're doing isn't meant to be on respiration, or whatever, doesn't mean it won't come up!

i used to just write the bare minimum for questions, but that leaves you missing a mark here, a mark there... and losing 20 marks! you've got to always aim for full marks. which means writing down everything you can think of, even if it sounds stupid - they don't take marks off for wrong answers, they only give you marks for right answers!
when you do past papers, study the mark schemes. when you get to know what kind of responses they're looking for, you'll get better. if you're struggling with answering questions, work through a paper with the mark scheme. then do it again (even though you now know the answers, as you'll have forgotten some of them and you'll still have to think!) then move on. it's kind of a style of thinking really, it's not particularly only about fact recall.

i found that making notes wasn't actually very helpful for me, because i knew the facts and just needed to work on the answers. but it might be helpful for some people. with note making, don't make notes while you're reading, you'll just pretty much write out the text which isn't helpful. read a page or topic and then make notes. then do any questions at the bottom of the page. if you can't do them, read the page again! instead of traditional notes, i found it sometimes helpful to write mind-map/spider diagram type notes. you could start with a main topic, or not.

so for example start with 'brain'. write down everything you can think about that. but then linked with 'brain' is the nervous system, which links to muscle contraction, and part of muscle contraction involves the use of ATP which links to respiration so you might as well go through photosynthesis too, which links to plants, which could possibly link to cloning through vegetative propagation. everything is linked to the cellular control/genetics module. see what you can do?

i think i might write an article which people can add to, we should have tips from each subject about how to revise for it!

just found these:
http://www.dr-evans.com/advancedbiology/advancedbiology.html
http://www.clickbiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IMG00038-20100517-1023.jpg

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 972

brightset

1. As you're going through the course make notes from your class notes and refer back to these every now and again to get it in your head.

2. If you don't understand something in class make sure you sort this out straight away - go to your teacher that's what they're there for!

3. Make sure you follow the specification so that you're learning what you need to learn.

4. Don't revise for hours on end - have some breaks! Do something interesting/relaxing and then come back.

5. Learn how to answer the questions. This might sound silly but actually, knowing what kind of answers the examiners are looking for is a big help. I know many people who have done exams thinking they know a lot but then not getting the grades they expect because they didn't answer the question right. If you're not sure about this definitely ask your teacher :smile:

I'd definitely say that making sure you have a good work-social life balance is helpful. You don't want to be drowned in work all the time and it's good to let off some steam :smile:

Reply 973

marianne93

I think it varies by subject, I do a strange mix of subjects: maths, english lit., spanish and politics. I got 4 As at AS level.

I have to say for some subjects I don't think there is very much you CAN revise... Spanish for example, its something you either know (because you can pick it up easily) or you don't, because you don't have that kind of 'linguistic' mind required for languages.

For maths, past papers is the key. If you stumble upon a question you can't do in a past paper, go back to the textbook and do exercises on it. Then you can be sure that you're covering everything, not just the things you are comfortable with.

For essay-based subjects, making essay plans is the most valuable thing you can do. Writing out whole essays is a bit of a waste of time - unless you struggle with writing under timed conditions, that is - as long as you know what you have to write, which you can gain from writing an essay plan, there is no need to spend hours slaving over the minute details of an essay.

General advice - little and often. Revising for hours on end will only make you bored and stressed. Also, when it gets close to exams, good eating and sleeping habits are just as important as revision. 9-10 hours sleep for me every single night; let's face it, if you don't know it the night before the exam, you're never going to know it!

Reply 974

aysha.19

Original post by Raj K

Eat badam.

lol
does that help? :tongue:

Reply 975

Raj K

Original post by aysha.19

lol
does that help? :tongue:

lool yeahhh it increases the neurotransmitters in the brain

Reply 976

aysha.19

Original post by Raj K

lool yeahhh it increases the neurotransmitters in the brain

all right

Reply 977

amber109

Original post by Raj K

Eat badam.

hahahhaha lool your a joker! But its truee, almonds increase concentration!

Reply 978

Raj K

Original post by amber109

hahahhaha lool your a joker! But its truee, almonds increase concentration!

:P LOL which is why i eat them everyday ahaaa!

Reply 979

thetobbit

Revision should be just that, revision. Not speed-learning most of your course using a revision book.

Pay attention in class, finish homework, do extra work (esp. for essay subjects) etc and when it comes to revision, you will be just refreshing and fortifying.

I've done this more so this year (A2), but even in getting AAAB at AS a large bulk of my success was down to handing in essays for teachers to mark etc.

Now I hate to advertise but theres a website (free) which you can use to make online flashcards and then test yourself on them. www.quizlet.com
I used it for Biology and it made learning the feck loads of definitions much easier.
If you don't want to use that website, buy yourself some flashcards and use them (However don't rely on them solely, revision should be a varied experience to keep you interested)

Oh and know the exam. Know what questions/marks are asked, how they award marks etc, do some past papers at home/school. This way when you're in the exam you can write in the knowledge that you are making it easier for the examiner to "tick the boxes" as it were.

Good Luck :wink: