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Spend all my bloody time revising but nothing has ****ing gone in. HELP

Mr C Back

1

....

(edited 14 years ago)

Reply 1

didgeridoo12uk

16

well what subjects are you doing?

if it's science / maths i can help.

the first stage is to do a couple of past papers, this should hopefully identify what you can and can't do.

when you've found a whole in your knowledge go to your textbook/notes, read the relevant sections and try a few example questions with the book open. then concisely write down a few bullet points / key equations that you feel are most relevant. stick these up on your wall somewhere.

couple of days later do some more past papers, if you get stuck on the same area as before, take a look at the concise notes you made and try the question again. amend your notes if you need to.

and literally just carry on like this. after a week or so you should have effectively shrunk your textbook down to a couple of sides of A4 with everything on you need to know. keep doing past papers (they really are the key) until you get to a point where you don't have to refer to your notes anymore. but make sure a couple of weeks before your exam you go over your notes and again do a few past papers just to jog your memory

(edited 14 years ago)

Reply 2

username549578

13

Your revision technique probably isn't very good. How do you revise? Just read straight from the book?

Reply 3

mother_eve3088

3

Have you tried writing things down , first with lots of detail, then less detail, working down to one word bullet points that you get people to test you on?

It works best for me :smile:

EDIT : Confused as to how i got negged for THAT. C'mon TSR, lets not be pathetic..

(edited 14 years ago)

Reply 4

ellie-wellie

It's half term. Exams aren't for ages!

Reply 5

lonely14

15

Maybe your revision method is wrong. How do you revise? :curious:

Anyway Internet is full of tips on how to revise effectively.

Reply 6

ilyking

understand it, don't try to memorise everything. Only look at the important things because a lot of text books have chronic waffling syndrome :biggrin:

unless your doing something like biology or history where everything is essentially memorising then :facepalm2:

(edited 14 years ago)

Reply 7

DiZZeeKiD

16

Will from Inbetweeners flashbacks "is This a word?!?!"

I advise energy drinks.

Jokes aside, you will remember much more than you think you will, you're just panicking because the moment of truth is drawing near. Chiiiiiill, you will be fine.

Reply 8

Bubbles0ox

16

Original post by mother_eve3088

Have you tried writing things down , first with lots of detail, then less detail, working down to one word bullet points that you get people to test you on?

It works best for me :smile:

this is good!
ill remember that
+ rep for you :smile:

(edited 14 years ago)

Reply 9

Infinite_Spectrum

4

Take breaks whilst revising-reflect on each section you've learnt, test yourself etc. You're not supposed to spend the whole time revising.

Reply 10

Vanny17

19

A similar more drastic thing happened to me last year. I made a thread and got immense help on how to revise effectively :smile:

. My grades and revision skills have improved :smile:

. Here is the thread.
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=27125414#post27125414&stat_userid=340360&stat_usergroupid=12&stat_membergroupids=&stat_widgettype=gutter&stat_widgetname=widget_reputation_received

Go through the replies and use the one that will work best for YOU. Hope I helped. Oh, also do 50minutes to 1hour revision then take 5-15minutes breaks. Trust me, it WILL work. :smile:

(edited 14 years ago)

Reply 11

LifeIsGood

12

You're panicking, stop.

Use the time efficiently and don't overdo it either. Make a list of 3-4 tasks to do each day and stick to them. You'll be fine. And do lots of past papers :smile:

Reply 12

lonely14

15

Original post by ilyking

understand it, don't try to memorise everything. Only look at the important things because a lot of text books have chronic waffling syndrome :biggrin:

unless your doing something like biology or history where everything is essentially memorising then :facepalm2:

You can't write long essays in History by just memorising facts.

Reply 13

ilyking

Original post by lonely14

You can't write long essays in History by just memorising facts.

I thought history was memorising facts, i dont study it so I wouldn't have known

Reply 14

Madmaz

1

I've found that flash cards work really well.
-Ask yourself a question on one side then write the answer on the other.
-For languages do translations
- Definitions
- Dates

Works for everything! Plus writing it on different colours and stuff helps me :smile:

Reply 15

TlanTlan

6

Summarised notes from a revision guide then every question i can get my hands on, and i do the questions twice!

Reply 16

Danyarl

9

The only reason you can't remember anything is because you're not giving yourself the time to think. Trust me when I say that, I've experienced it myself.

You're most likely using half of your brainpower worrying about what you need to revise next / the fact that you 'can't remember anything' / that feeling of 'I'm not good enough'. You're forgetting to actually think properly.

Advice:

•

Take the rest of the half term off and try to think about work as little as possible.

•

Spend time with friends and family as (as mad as it sounds) you'll do better spending some time with them than spending all of your time studying.

•

Don't get obsessed with revision techniques/timetables/deadlines for now. Work to learn, don't work to achieve. Worry about that later.

•

Remember that you still have plenty of time.

•

Don't view taking breaks as laziness. You're not a robot.

•

Try to get into the mindset that time spent learning doesn't equal success.

•

Take time to focus on one very specific topic of one unit of one module of one subject, don't try and recall everything at once. I'd estimate with 90% certainty that the reason you can't remember anything is because you don't actually know what you're trying to remember.

•

Distinguish between learning and revising. Revising is skimming over notes to spark a memory. If you're doing that and you still can't remember things, it may be the case that you've not actually given yourself the time to digest the information in the first place - learning.

•

Most importantly, try to remember what interests you about your subjects, and if it doesn't interest you, do your best to try and connect it with something interesting. We remember things because we're interested. We don't remember things because we're under stress.

•

There is absolutely no advantage to getting stressed out now. Zilch, zero, nil, nada, null. Stress is made for short bursts to help us react to situations when we're in danger. Not for trying to recall the reasons behind Bismarck's introduction of the Kulturkampf in 20th century Germany. Stress prevents you from achieving deep concentration or from thinking clearly. It has a negative impact on you and everyone around you, and the worst part of it is, even if you have a panic attack, the problem's still there! When you feel yourself getting stressed, take a break.

Please, don't get yourself into the same situation that I did with stressing out over work. Take a break. It's all up there, believe me, you just need to give yourself the time to think things through.

And remember that looking through self-help articles on the internet is not 'taking a break'!

:smile:

Reply 17

Mr C Back

OP

1

Original post by Danyarl

The only reason you can't remember anything is because you're not giving yourself the time to think. Trust me when I say that, I've experienced it myself.

You're most likely using half of your brainpower worrying about what you need to revise next / the fact that you 'can't remember anything' / that feeling of 'I'm not good enough'. You're forgetting to actually think properly.

Advice:

•

Take the rest of the half term off and try to think about work as little as possible.

•

Spend time with friends and family as (as mad as it sounds) you'll do better spending some time with them than spending all of your time studying.

•

Don't get obsessed with revision techniques/timetables/deadlines for now. Work to learn, don't work to achieve. Worry about that later.

•

Remember that you still have plenty of time.

•

Don't view taking breaks as laziness. You're not a robot.

•

Try to get into the mindset that time spent learning doesn't equal success.

•

Take time to focus on one very specific topic of one unit of one module of one subject, don't try and recall everything at once. I'd estimate with 90% certainty that the reason you can't remember anything is because you don't actually know what you're trying to remember.

•

Distinguish between learning and revising. Revising is skimming over notes to spark a memory. If you're doing that and you still can't remember things, it may be the case that you've not actually given yourself the time to digest the information in the first place - learning.

•

Most importantly, try to remember what interests you about your subjects, and if it doesn't interest you, do your best to try and connect it with something interesting. We remember things because we're interested. We don't remember things because we're under stress.

•

There is absolutely no advantage to getting stressed out now. Zilch, zero, nil, nada, null. Stress is made for short bursts to help us react to situations when we're in danger. Not for trying to recall the reasons behind Bismarck's introduction of the Kulturkampf in 20th century Germany. Stress prevents you from achieving deep concentration or from thinking clearly. It has a negative impact on you and everyone around you, and the worst part of it is, even if you have a panic attack, the problem's still there! When you feel yourself getting stressed, take a break.

Please, don't get yourself into the same situation that I did with stressing out over work. Take a break. It's all up there, believe me, you just need to give yourself the time to think things through.

And remember that looking through self-help articles on the internet is not 'taking a break'!

:smile:

Thanks and this is great advice but their are stresses that i cannot get rid of. I am doing four as level, these are biology, chemistry, psychology, and english lit. I had january moduals in which i did unit one for bio, chem, and psy and i am surer i failed them as in i did not answer hardly any questions i deffo did fail them badly. I will have to retake these THREE moduals along with unit two for 4 as subjects. Now i actually need 2 As and 2 Bs and i am not sure if this is even possible :frown:

, along with this my chemistry teacher said he may not allow me to take the retake and inturn kinda kick me off the course and i need chemistry :frown:

, I dont know what the **** to do.

Reply 18

Danyarl

9

Original post by Mr C Back

Thanks and this is great advice but their are stresses that i cannot get rid of. I am doing four as level, these are biology, chemistry, psychology, and english lit. I had january moduals in which i did unit one for bio, chem, and psy and i am surer i failed them as in i did not answer hardly any questions i deffo did fail them badly. I will have to retake these THREE moduals along with unit two for 4 as subjects. Now i actually need 2 As and 2 Bs and i am not sure if this is even possible :frown:

, along with this my chemistry teacher said he may not allow me to take the retake and inturn kinda kick me off the course and i need chemistry :frown:

, I dont know what the **** to do.

You're in a very difficult situation, obviously. However, do all that you can to minimize the stress that you're under. Try not to speculate on your results before they come. I know, it's far easier said than done. I'm in a very similar situation to you - I'm extremely worried about my January exam results. But what can we do for now? If we do badly, we can look on it as a learning experience; obviously something went wrong if we didn't do as well as we'd hoped. The best thing we can do for now is focus on what we can improve, as hard as that may be.

I highly doubt your Chemistry teacher would do such a thing. Often teachers make offhand comments like this with little regard to the effect it might have on students like yourself. Your school would gain very little from having a smaller amount of students on it's courses. If you really are worried, discuss it with your teacher, but remember they're saying this because they want you to focus on the course, not on a fear of failure.

Something I do when I get stressed out with work is to forget about exams, homework, class tests or deadlines. I focus on learning. There's a reason why you chose these subjects after all, even if that reason isn't enjoyment. There's a theory that your mind can work in two stages: learning and performance. Learning is the stage when you are mentally 'open' (willing to learn new concepts), which is how we should be in class. Performance is the stage we are in in exams, when our mind is under a great deal of pressure and is better at spewing out information than learning. My guess is that you've got yourself tangled in the performance stage long before you should have due to exam stresses. It's not your fault with the pressure you're under, but follow the advice I posted previously to try and get yourself out of it.

I insist that you take a break. Believe me, force-feeding your mind more information won't work. Exercise, socialise and rest. The amount of times you've heard that advice is probably mind-numbing, but I think you'll be surprised by how helpful they'll be to you after what you've been putting yourself through.

(edited 14 years ago)

Reply 19

The_question

11

Do past papers constantly.

Spend all my bloody time revising but nothing has ****ing gone in. HELP

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