Revision. Which is better, notes or past papers?

I need to improve drastically in History for my next mocks, but what should I focus more on, writing a good set of notes, or practising exam technique? What should I do more on and by how much?

Reply 1

999tigger

19

Original post by CinnamonSmol

I need to improve drastically in History for my next mocks, but what should I focus more on, writing a good set of notes, or practising exam technique? What should I do more on and by how much?

Its a two stage thing. You have to master core material to get an overview of how it all works. You then make revision notes.

Have a revision plan so you get throught it at the required pace.

You then practice exams.

You cant really practice exams till youve got to grips with the core material u.e have some notes. Decide what state your notes are in. If you need to speed note taking up a but then uses a revision notes text book.. Mind maps and timelines are also goo for History.

Try and leave 25%+ of time for exam practice. If you dont have time for full essays then 15 min essay plans is good.

ps with History its just about understanding and answering the question asked.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 2

Em395

17

Learn the content and then test yourself on it (hope this is useful)

Reply 3

Sid The Kid

12

Obviously knowing the content is essential for answering questions.

However, with history (idk whether this changes from exam board etc to subject) but there is only so many questions they can ask you + the way they word the questions. So having a good understanding on how to answer questions and what to put in them is extremely important. You don't even have to write the same thing, just do a bullet point plan kind of thing.

This definitely worked for me in my AS Exam as I planned to every question, specimen, past papers, the ones in the book etc and in the exam a similar question was asked to one I had planned out.... I came out with an A.

Reply 4

GreenBell

16

Past papers. You'll understand how to answer questions based on what questions were asked before.

Reply 5

HateOCR

22

For history notes are probably more worth your time. No point doing papers without knowing the content.

Reply 6

Conniestitution

20

It depends. Do you know The content? If you do then move straight to exam papers but it always helps before you do a exam question to read the relevant information from the textbook. Eventually it’ll stick and you’ll also improve exam technique.

Reply 7

CinnamonSmol

OP

20

how would you set out a revision plan?

Reply 8

CinnamonSmol

OP

20

Original post by 999tigger

Its a two stage thing. You have to master core material to get an overview of how it all works. You then make revision notes.

Have a revision plan so you get throught it at the required pace.

You then practice exams.

You cant really practice exams till youve got to grips with the core material u.e have some notes. Decide what state your notes are in. If you need to speed note taking up a but then uses a revision notes text book.. Mind maps and timelines are also goo for History.

Try and leave 25%+ of time for exam practice. If you dont have time for full essays then 15 min essay plans is good.

ps with History its just about understanding and answering the question asked.

how would you make a revision plan? :smile:

Reply 9

Wikia

21

I'd first recommend making notes; I personally made flashcards for my history exams and they seemed to help quite a lot. After that I made practice essay plans, so essentially I'd think of any question that may come up (e.g. Henry VII's financial policy) and I'd write anything to do with that topic and have it as some kind of plan. I'd then go about writing essays. I had two history textbooks for both sides of my courses that would have questions at the end of the section that were really useful, however I'm sure if you asked your teachers they'd be able to give you questions themselves.

Personally, I've always advocated learning the content before trying the exam papers. I won't lie though, I've always had to cram revision in very late.

Revision. Which is better, notes or past papers?

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