Am I doing too much?

Easter Holidays are coming up and having condensed most of my notes of my subjects into shorter ones, I'm going to start properly revising. I've made up my revision timetable and ended up with 8 and a half hours a day revision for almost every day of the Easter Holidays.

Is it too much?

I'm aiming for all A*s, with one or two blips in perhaps Music or French, as my controlled assessments were AWFUL, but the lowest I'll accept is an A.

I have 12 subjects to revise for so it's a hefty amount, even after doing a few early in my GCSE career, so it should be considered that I have a lot to revise for.

Any advice? Am I wrong? Right? Improvements?

Reply 1

tory88

Do whatever you think will make you feel well prepared for each exam. But yes, that is a massive amount - more than I do for my university physics exams (second year at a top 10 university).

Reply 2

Lara5

Dude! 8 and a half hours a day? Are you insane? I understand you want to get the best results possible on your exams, but if you revise for 8 and a half hours a day:
- You won't be able to retain all that information (The human brain can't really focus on anything for more than 2.5 hours)
- You'll get stressed out for not being able to retain everything
- You'll get frustrated
- You probably won't get A*s because of all the points mentioned above...
But if you're really set on studying that much, try taking a half hour break every 2-3 hours. It makes a world of difference!
Oh and don't forget to sleep at least 8 hours a night, and have healthy snacks on hand when revising... Trust me, it helps!

Reply 3

Lunch_Box

Original post by aprocrastinator

I've made up my revision timetable and ended up with 8 and a half hours a day revision for almost every day of the Easter Holidays.

If you start now you'll have an extra week to take the stress off that. 8 hours a day is a lot. I won't be doing that, even for A level.

Reply 4

aprocrastinator

Whoa guys!! I'm not that crazy - I've built in breaks for food and relaxing - 4 and an half hours if I remember right. I know how important it is for breaks so I haven't forgotten those. And i would like to start earlier but I'm still condensing my notes whilst doing homework and such, so easter's my big chance.

Reply 5

Robbie242

Original post by aprocrastinator

This. I do this at alevel so it doesn't seem excessive but at gcse you really don't need to do this much, you could cut off 2hours from that and you'd still do great

Reply 6

TheJoshwha

That is how much you should do for that many exams at A-level. Concern is, that this may cause you to burn out, and you will run out of things to go over and get bored. I would say around 4 hours per day, and a couple of hours a day whilst you are at school :smile:

Besides, you don't need all A*'s. As long as you get 5A*'s-A, and a decent language GCSE, that is all that even the top unis will want :smile:

Reply 7

aprocrastinator

OK thanks for your advice guys! I don't think I'm going to strictly follow this time table. It's a guide. If I feel I'm going over the same stuff, which is possible, I'll take a break. 8 and a half hours does sound a little scary if I'm honest...

And Josh, that may possibly be true, but I don't think I would be satisfied with 5 A*s, since I've been predicted all A*s.

Reply 8

TheJoshwha

I only got 2 A*'s at GCSE and now my pride is in my A-levels, but if you really want to excel, then go ahead, and I wish you the best of luck!

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Reply 9

eggfriedrice

I swear there isn't even that much information to cover in GCSE, at least not enough for 8 hours a day.

Reply 10

LadyHaha

I'd say no more than 5 hours a day - 8.5 is the same as a normal working day - this is a holiday, you need a break, otherwise you won't relax and unwind, so will wear yourself out, which may have a detrimental impact on your exams.

Reply 11

SoRo

I've also heard that no more than 4-5 hours a day

otherwise its too much and youll go into overload, get stressed, get ill and not do well

Reply 12

AvocatDuDiable

I actually laughed seeing a thread called 'Am I doing too much?' by someone called 'aprocrastinator'!

Reply 13

aprocrastinator

Ha ha Avocat, I amused myself when I realised that! I'm not really a procrastinator at all :P

OK, I'll think about readjusting my timetable. It does seem a bit hefty.

Reply 14

ryanboi

Original post by aprocrastinator

Ha ha Avocat, I amused myself when I realised that! I'm not really a procrastinator at all :P

OK, I'll think about readjusting my timetable. It does seem a bit hefty.

Thats a bit excessive really. 4-5 hours seems more realistic. You are doing GCSEs, the easy stuff? Some subjects like Maths, Sciences and P.E, you dont need to revise much/at all and can still get an A*.