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How many hours are you revising each day?

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4-6 hours
Original post by alis-volatpropriis
Aw thank you, I'm still struggling, but right now I'm just trying keep positive.

For Sociology, try and find as much theorists as possible to back up any points/arguments you have. Then try and find contrasting theorists that disagree with your points. My teacher said that we should always try to critically assess our arguments, so you're showing the examiner that you're not just one sided and you can objectively look at an argument and deduct its flaws.

Yes I did political ideologies. I actually preferred it to AS. Since the ideologies were so vast, you could answer any of the questions and get a good mark as long as you know and can critically evaluate the different ideologies against each other or within each other like the different types of feminism.

I'm not gonna lie, I did a ton of revision within a short period of time. I was sleeping 2 hours a night, just to get through the content. One suggestion I have is to go to your exam boards website, look at exemplary answers for different questions. The answers that usually get high marks, have a common theme.That's what I did. I went from a D at AS to an A at A2 for politics. Nobody thought I would be able to get an A, when I said I was aiming for that, everyone in my class laughed at me.

Its about revising smart. I suggest you do a past paper, answer the hardest essay questions alone. Mark them using the mark schemes, be critical. If you're struggling with any question, then revise that area.
Sometimes being your own hardest critic can be good come exam time.

Yes I'm now studying Law & Criminology. Will you be doing law once you finish your A-levels?

I wanna study Law hopefully! You did well. Its so good to prove people wrong especially when they think/thought you couldn't achieve anything!

I just have sooo little time to learn everything. Unit 3 politics is in june and I'm so scared:frown:
Did you get A's for unit 3 and unit 4 sociology? Did you learn all the topics as well or miss some out?
Original post by xxvine
I wanna study Law hopefully! You did well. Its so good to prove people wrong especially when they think/thought you couldn't achieve anything!

I just have sooo little time to learn everything. Unit 3 politics is in june and I'm so scared:frown:
Did you get A's for unit 3 and unit 4 sociology? Did you learn all the topics as well or miss some out?


Yes its a nice feeling :colondollar:
You will do well, you're already illustrating that. I'm sure you'll get the grades you want.

Yes I got A's in unit 3 and 4 for sociology. Overall in all the sociology exams I had, except from unit 1 in AS- I got A grades.
But for unit 4 I got full UMS, so that helped with getting me the A*.

You still have time to learn what you need for politics. I didn't start revising politics properly till like a month/few weeks before the exam.

I learnt all the topics for every unit, I didn't want to risk a question coming up that I couldn't answer. When I selectively revised for my AS unit 1 I got a B grade because, I didn't revise a question that came up.
So I'd say its in your best interest to at least revise all the topics, so if anything is thrown your way, you can tackle it accordingly.

Do you have a uni offer already?
Original post by alis-volatpropriis
I know right. I don't come across people on here that have done the same A-levels as me.

I used the same method I use now at uni, that I mentioned earlier. The only difference is, I didn't attend lessons for politics between March and up until my exam. I was so focused on English Literature that I felt that I learnt better by myself, and I was struggling with a lot of mental health issues. So my attendance after January A2's was abysmal.

I ended up getting A* in Sociology, A in politics and a B in English Literature. The B still hurts, I don't know if you remember when there was all that backlash about english literature coursework getting easy marks and all that nonsense. My Coursework got marked down from an A to a B so that influenced my overall grade. Still really hurts.. lol.


Ah you did great on your grades well done!! I'm doing english lit too and i'm struggling as to how to revise. Do you have any tips? I need a B overall but atm it doesn't seem likely that I will :s-smilie: what can i do in this last month to help me :frown:


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Original post by prettyugly
Ah you did great on your grades well done!! I'm doing english lit too and i'm struggling as to how to revise. Do you have any tips? I need a B overall but atm it doesn't seem likely that I will :s-smilie: what can i do in this last month to help me :frown:


Posted from TSR Mobile


Thank you :smile:

My tips are:
1. Make sure you know your texts, inside and out. So when it comes to the exam, you're not searching the book for quotes you can use for your arguments. Right now, try and create lines of arguments for past paper questions. I cannot put anymore emphasis on how important past paper questions are. Plan your answers for past paper questions, use your texts to find quotes that support your arguments.

2. Try to be different. You don't always have to agree with the essay question. Both my English teachers used to mark papers, and they said they enjoyed reading essays that had abstract ideas that were backed up with quotes and wider reading.

3. Try and do some wider reading and find critical perspectives on your texts. If you find a political ideology that criticises your texts for being sexist for example. Try and keep that in mind. Its good when you can go beyond the scope of what examiners are looking for.

3. If I remember correctly, there should be an unseen poetry section right? For the unseen you should try and improve your poetry skills. Know your iambic pentameters, know how to deconstruct a poem and find its meaning by analysing the way the poem has been constructed, then create a line of argument in accordance with the essay question that you are given.

4. This really helped me, know what the examiner is looking for. Go onto your exam boards website, where you usually access your past paper exams. Look for exemplar essay answers for past paper questions. The ones with high marks/grades are always very similar in style. Try and decipher what makes that essay stand out, and apply that to your own work.

Good luck, you'll do great!
Original post by alis-volatpropriis
Thank you :smile:

My tips are:
1. Make sure you know your texts, inside and out. So when it comes to the exam, you're not searching the book for quotes you can use for your arguments. Right now, try and create lines of arguments for past paper questions. I cannot put anymore emphasis on how important past paper questions are. Plan your answers for past paper questions, use your texts to find quotes that support your arguments.

2. Try to be different. You don't always have to agree with the essay question. Both my English teachers used to mark papers, and they said they enjoyed reading essays that had abstract ideas that were backed up with quotes and wider reading.

3. Try and do some wider reading and find critical perspectives on your texts. If you find a political ideology that criticises your texts for being sexist for example. Try and keep that in mind. Its good when you can go beyond the scope of what examiners are looking for.

3. If I remember correctly, there should be an unseen poetry section right? For the unseen you should try and improve your poetry skills. Know your iambic pentameters, know how to deconstruct a poem and find its meaning by analysing the way the poem has been constructed, then create a line of argument in accordance with the essay question that you are given.

4. This really helped me, know what the examiner is looking for. Go onto your exam boards website, where you usually access your past paper exams. Look for exemplar essay answers for past paper questions. The ones with high marks/grades are always very similar in style. Try and decipher what makes that essay stand out, and apply that to your own work.

Good luck, you'll do great!


Thanksss a lot for the advice i'm gonna go check out some past papers, and do some planning, hope i haven't left it to late. And it's a closed book exam so we have to memorise quotes as well as critical quotes :frown:


Posted from TSR Mobile
5 exams , i just go over the whole topic + past paper (usually 2 and half hours per subject) everyday. Once i finish going over one module i start the next.
Original post by alis-volatpropriis
Aw thank you, I'm still struggling, but right now I'm just trying keep positive.

For Sociology, try and find as much theorists as possible to back up any points/arguments you have. Then try and find contrasting theorists that disagree with your points. My teacher said that we should always try to critically assess our arguments, so you're showing the examiner that you're not just one sided and you can objectively look at an argument and deduct its flaws.

Yes I did political ideologies. I actually preferred it to AS. Since the ideologies were so vast, you could answer any of the questions and get a good mark as long as you know and can critically evaluate the different ideologies against each other or within each other like the different types of feminism.

I'm not gonna lie, I did a ton of revision within a short period of time. I was sleeping 2 hours a night, just to get through the content. One suggestion I have is to go to your exam boards website, look at exemplary answers for different questions. The answers that usually get high marks, have a common theme.That's what I did. I went from a D at AS to an A at A2 for politics. Nobody thought I would be able to get an A, when I said I was aiming for that, everyone in my class laughed at me.

Its about revising smart. I suggest you do a past paper, answer the hardest essay questions alone. Mark them using the mark schemes, be critical. If you're struggling with any question, then revise that area.
Sometimes being your own hardest critic can be good come exam time.

Yes I'm now studying Law & Criminology. Will you be doing law once you finish your A-levels?

Hi I really need help. I read you comment above about revision and getting the grades you got and proving people wrong and that's what I am hoping to do. I have five exams some I am resitting from AS to get my grades up. My first one is in just over 2 weeks and I think I am going to fail them. I haven't done much revision and I don't even know what to revise its been two years since I last done that exam I am re sitting the year. I have had problems been ill and off school for six weeks only came back a month ago.
Anyone have any exam tips for history/psychology/RS/economics? :tongue:
Original post by Anonymousgirll
Hi I really need help. I read you comment above about revision and getting the grades you got and proving people wrong and that's what I am hoping to do. I have five exams some I am resitting from AS to get my grades up. My first one is in just over 2 weeks and I think I am going to fail them. I haven't done much revision and I don't even know what to revise its been two years since I last done that exam I am re sitting the year. I have had problems been ill and off school for six weeks only came back a month ago.


Hey I was in a similar situation to you in my last year of A-levels, I had a lot of resits and missed a lot of lessons. Its possible to do well even if you've left it late.

You need to just prioritise and focus on learning and remembering information, that you don't know fully.
You can achieve those grades by revising smart.

Here are my suggestions:

1. The exam that you're resitting, that you last did 2 years ago. Should be a priority as the knowledge for that will be most likely distant in your mind. I suggest you go onto your exam boards website for that exam and look at the specification for your exam. That will tell you all the content that you need to revise and will indicate the type of topics that will/can come up in your exam. Find the specifications for all your exams.

2. Using your specifications. Go over any powerpoint slides, class notes, etc until you are confident that you have all the information you need to revise from.
If you don't have any class notes yourself, TSR and http://getrevising.co.uk/ was a life saver for me when I missed lessons. You should be able to find notes for all your a-level subjects on that site and some on the study section of TSR.
At this stage you should make notes on all the key topics that will be coming up in your exams. Now you need to consolidate these notes for step 3.

3. Now you are ready for revision. Get your hands on A3 paper or use sellotape to stick together sheets of A4 until you have the size of an A3 page (if you're too broke to afford A3 like me). Make posters out of important information that you have learned and made note of from step 1, so any process that you need to remember. Any case studies, theorists, defintions, equations etc. Make your poster colourful, bright and easy to read. Stick it up around your room if you want so you can read it everyday.

4. Flash cards. I know this method doesn't work for all. But don't knock it until you've tried it. You can go onto flash card sites that can create the flash cards for you when you input the text you want on each card. Or you can do it the old school way and make them by hand. Have a question on one side, and an answer to the question on the other.
A lot of people try to consolidate tons of information until one flash card. Thats not what flash cards are for. You won't be able to remember lots of tiny writing or tons of texts on a dozen flash cards. It has to be simple and to the point.

5. If you find yourself not being able to recall important information, at this stage I read my notes, my posters, my flash cards and I use the old "look, cover and write" method. I read my notes, cover them, re-write them until I can write them from memory. I only do this for important things! Not for everything or else you will be prone to just regurgitate your notes in your exam. If I need to remember the important facts of a case, I use this method until I can recall all the facts correctly.

6. You have to go over your notes, your flash cards and your posters everyday. At this stage you should be using past papers to put what you have learned and revised into practice. I cannot emphasise on how important past papers are. When I was doing my A-levels this is what got me my A* and A grades. There is no point memorising or learning information without at some point using past papers to test your knowledge.
For your A-levels there should be a wealth of past papers out there for you to do.

7. Do not try to predict what will come up and selectively revise. I've done this before and it did not end well. Yes you can get lucky. But do you really want to walk into an exam knowing you've only prepared for 4 topics out of 6, and "hoping" only the 4 topics you revised will come up. Its better to be fully prepared than selectively prepared, so no matter what gets thrown at you. You will know how to handle it.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by idelaghetto
5 exams , i just go over the whole topic + past paper (usually 2 and half hours per subject) everyday. Once i finish going over one module i start the next.


I have 5 exams this year too. What exams do you have coming up? I have 3 business and 2 biology. :smile: I did about 4 hours in total today, did 2 past papers which make up 2 hours 30, then I just did notes for other exams which took about 1 hour 30 or so.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by MSJKSP
How much should I be revising if I have 21 GCSE exams coming up?


With GCSEs, you're so young that you're either good or you're not. Because there's so many exams in so short a time, your best option is to read the whole textbook on the day of the exam and maybe the day before. No point revising 21 exams long-term, not least because it's only GCSEs.
Original post by LaughingGas
I have 5 exams this year too. What exams do you have coming up? I have 3 business and 2 biology. :smile: I did about 4 hours in total today, did 2 past papers which make up 2 hours 30, then I just did notes for other exams which took about 1 hour 30 or so.


hey, i have 3 economics and 2 psychology ones, i did about 3 and a half today because i went out earlier ( so i have to make up for it tomorrow). I finished going over one psych topic, so two more to go!
13 exams at a level and out of motivation - i've worked since sept and its disappearing - someone motivate me!!!
Original post by krishkmistry
13 exams at a level and out of motivation - i've worked since sept and its disappearing - someone motivate me!!!


ALL OF THE HARD WORK YOU'VE PUT IN WILL PAY OFF AND YOU ONLY HAVE A COUPLE OF MONTHS LEFT AND THEN YOU CAN GET INTO YOUR DREAM UNI AND HAVE THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE.

how's that? I can also provide motivational videos with the service :wink:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Limitless!
ALL OF THE HARD WORK YOU'VE PUT IN WILL PAY OFF AND YOU ONLY HAVE A COUPLE OF MONTHS LEFT AND THEN YOU CAN GET INTO YOUR DREAM UNI AND HAVE THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE.

how's that? I can also provide motivational videos with the service :wink:

Posted from TSR Mobile



haha its good but i need words not videos :smile:
Original post by loveslinus
Hmm... The core maths bit is OK for me, but the applied module :eek:! I do mechanics and it is by far my hardest subject.


i do mechanics as my applied maths, im doing m1 atm and tbh once you get the hang of it its quite manageable... At the begining of the year i hated it because ive always hated physics amd i thought it was exactly the same but the more past papers you do the more you realise its just doing the same thing over and over again but with different numbers
:tongue:
Original post by krishkmistry
13 exams at a level and out of motivation - i've worked since sept and its disappearing - someone motivate me!!!


Take a break, then a few days before your first exam you'll be motivated.
Original post by krishkmistry
13 exams at a level and out of motivation - i've worked since sept and its disappearing - someone motivate me!!!


You got all this way to stop now? Finish what you started! You only need one last push and then you can be free from revision and relax the whole summer! Doing well in your a levels will be an added bonus to your summer and you wont have to dread results day as much because you lost motivation in the lead up to them. The future for yourself is in your hands right now, don't let it slip away... you can do it!

Hope that helped :biggrin:
Original post by LaughingGas
You got all this way to stop now? Finish what you started! You only need one last push and then you can be free from revision and relax the whole summer! Doing well in your a levels will be an added bonus to your summer and you wont have to dread results day as much because you lost motivation in the lead up to them. The future for yourself is in your hands right now, don't let it slip away... you can do it!

Hope that helped :biggrin:

It's helped me
Thanks
Egg.

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