The Student Room Group

Revision tips desperately needed

Hey, I will be starting year 11 in September and these are the subjects I am taking:
English Literature
English Language
Maths (Higher)
French (Higher)
History
RE
Business
Triple Science

I'm not sure how to organise my revision. Do I use folders, notebooks or just flashcards? What about maths, as most of my revision is practice questions?
Thanks
Reply 1
Original post by imaanali1
Hey, I will be starting year 11 in September and these are the subjects I am taking:
English Literature
English Language
Maths (Higher)
French (Higher)
History
RE
Business
Triple Science

I'm not sure how to organise my revision. Do I use folders, notebooks or just flashcards? What about maths, as most of my revision is practice questions?
Thanks

For revision make mind maps and keep them in folders. For flashcards I kept them in envelopes and used the spaced repetition method which you should check out. Before tests I would test myself on flashcards and keywords for a specific subject. For subjects like maths I would use my cgp maths revision guide which was a lifesaver. I would also watch many online maths videos such as the gcse maths tutor, hegarty maths and maths genie which is also great for free practice questions. For science I 100% recommend freesciencelessons and to make some notes while watching his videos. Any more questions or if you want more advice/tips please ask btw I just finished year 11😃😃
Original post by imaanali1
Hey, I will be starting year 11 in September and these are the subjects I am taking:
English Literature
English Language
Maths (Higher)
French (Higher)
History
RE
Business
Triple Science

I'm not sure how to organise my revision. Do I use folders, notebooks or just flashcards? What about maths, as most of my revision is practice questions?
Thanks


Download the practice questions... Get someone to test you on them and for each one you get wrong, revise that particular area so that you succeed next time :smile:

Bullet point notes and flash cards definitely helpful.
You could try the pomodoro technique or blurting? The best thing is to figure out the best technique for you, because revision cannot be generalised. If you’re an audio learner, listen to podcasts, visual, make mind maps/watch YouTube videos, if you like writing, make notes etc. And practice questions. Practice questions are so so important and at the end of the day, doing them will help develop exam technique.
If your revision consists of practice questions, I suggest just getting different notebooks for all subjects and practicing there. I was never a fan of folders, flashcards and etc. It can help some people but I saw it as a waste of time. Notebooks worked well for me and I got nine 9s and one 8. What grades are you on track for at the moment?

Original post by imaanali1
Hey, I will be starting year 11 in September and these are the subjects I am taking:
English Literature
English Language
Maths (Higher)
French (Higher)
History
RE
Business
Triple Science

I'm not sure how to organise my revision. Do I use folders, notebooks or just flashcards? What about maths, as most of my revision is practice questions?
Thanks
Reply 5
Original post by imaanali1
Hey, I will be starting year 11 in September and these are the subjects I am taking:
English Literature
English Language
Maths (Higher)
French (Higher)
History
RE
Business
Triple Science

I'm not sure how to organise my revision. Do I use folders, notebooks or just flashcards? What about maths, as most of my revision is practice questions?
Thanks

Hey!

Definitely keep your revision organised and tidy by making use of folders, notebooks, flashcards, etc. For English Literature, in particular, it's really important to learn key quotations in texts you've studied and that includes the poems you're taught to! You also need to understand how to answer the different questions in each of the papers - your teacher should've taught you this. Also, check out Mr Bruff and Stacey Reay on YouTube - highly recommended.

For English Language, keep practicing past/specimen papers and ensure you understand subject terminology, and try your best to read something regularly to improve the way you write - it could be a book or a broadsheet newspaper (either print copy or online).

Maths - definitely need to do a lot of practice questions and ensure you understand the topic. Make use of Hegarty Maths if your school has a subscription for that.

French - practice your vocabulary and improve your reading, writing, and speaking skills by practicing past papers and consider watching a French film or something on Netflix with the subtitles on. Duolingo is also very good for learning languages.

History - be selective with what information you note down in class. You don't need to note down literally everything except for key information and dates, etc. Also ensure you revise the topic you're learning properly by making use of flashcards, mindmaps/blurting (see Unjaded Jade's video on YouTube for info) and also spend time focusing on exam techniques.

Sciences - keep practicing exam questions/doing past/specimen papers and ensure you understand the topic well - use RAG rating. Also, check out FreeScienceLessons on YouTube - highly recommended.

I can't comment on RE or Business as I never took those subjects back when I did my GCSEs in 2017.
Reply 6
Original post by Elz15
For revision make mind maps and keep them in folders. For flashcards I kept them in envelopes and used the spaced repetition method which you should check out. Before tests I would test myself on flashcards and keywords for a specific subject. For subjects like maths I would use my cgp maths revision guide which was a lifesaver. I would also watch many online maths videos such as the gcse maths tutor, hegarty maths and maths genie which is also great for free practice questions. For science I 100% recommend freesciencelessons and to make some notes while watching his videos. Any more questions or if you want more advice/tips please ask btw I just finished year 11😃😃

Thank you! I just wanted to ask if you are doing year 11 mocks in October, in the summer holidays before year 11 should I just revise year 10 content. Since mocks are at the start of year 11, u cannot learn enough new content to have a mock test on, so i'm certain we will just be tested on all year 10 content and a few new topics in most subjects except for perhaps English Lit? Please correct me if i'm wrong.
Reply 7
Original post by imaanali1
Thank you! I just wanted to ask if you are doing year 11 mocks in October, in the summer holidays before year 11 should I just revise year 10 content. Since mocks are at the start of year 11, u cannot learn enough new content to have a mock test on, so i'm certain we will just be tested on all year 10 content and a few new topics in most subjects except for perhaps English Lit? Please correct me if i'm wrong.

For your mocks in October it may be different for each school but once we stagyed year 11 we learnt a few more topics in each subject and were tested on them but also some of our year 10 topics. Over the summer I would recommend u mainly revise year 10 content that you have studied and then maybe learn a bit of your year 11 content but for now just focus on year 10 as that's the topics that people tend to forget x if you have any more questions please ask 😃good luck for year 11. Do you have predicted grades?
Reply 8
Original post by imaanali1
Thank you! I just wanted to ask if you are doing year 11 mocks in October, in the summer holidays before year 11 should I just revise year 10 content. Since mocks are at the start of year 11, u cannot learn enough new content to have a mock test on, so i'm certain we will just be tested on all year 10 content and a few new topics in most subjects except for perhaps English Lit? Please correct me if i'm wrong.

For my school our year 11 mocks mainly focused on a few topics we'd learnt in the space of a month and some stuff we had learnt in year 10. However for summer I recommend you just focus on going over year 10 content so you're fully secure on that. If u have time u could do a bit of year 11 especially Science revision as there's a lot of topics to cover. If you have any more questions please ask and what are your predicted grades for your gcses x😀
Reply 9
Original post by Elz15
For my school our year 11 mocks mainly focused on a few topics we'd learnt in the space of a month and some stuff we had learnt in year 10. However for summer I recommend you just focus on going over year 10 content so you're fully secure on that. If u have time u could do a bit of year 11 especially Science revision as there's a lot of topics to cover. If you have any more questions please ask and what are your predicted grades for your gcses x😀

My predictions are all grade 9's, however a grade 8 for maths and french. I did well in my year 10 mocks, which is why my predictions are high and I want to ensure that I do well in my October mocks in year 11 as well especially since these grades are going towards College applications. Thank you for ur help and good luck for year 12 x :smile:
Reply 10
Original post by imaanali1
My predictions are all grade 9's, however a grade 8 for maths and french. I did well in my year 10 mocks, which is why my predictions are high and I want to ensure that I do well in my October mocks in year 11 as well especially since these grades are going towards College applications. Thank you for ur help and good luck for year 12 x :smile:

Your grades are amazing so far, because of the short time I recommend you don't do notes for all your subjects as that's a waste of time. First have a goal of grades you aspire to get for gcses; right now focus on your mocks then gcses, treat them as such. For Maths, past papers and exam questions, and for areas you don't understand you can (only at that point) write notes for. For french find your weakest area eg: listening, reading, writing and speaking. Usually it's speaking to be the hardest, I recommend asking your teacher before the exam type of general questions that would be asked, so you can prepare an answer before hand, practice then answer.
Hope all goes well!
(edited 2 years ago)
(This was copied from my response to a yr12 alevel question but the same thing applies!)

Number 1 advice:


WORK FROM THE START

-Any work is better than no work
-Do more flash cards than highlighting and re-reading
-Search and try the blurting technique and also pomodoro
-Watch Ali Abadan, unjaded jade and Ibz on YouTube (their study videos will change your life)
-Review all you work from the week at the end of the week and make notes then so you don’t have to make all your notes in one go (home notes are different to school notes)
-I know I said work (in the first point) but more in the sense of BEING CONSISTENT rather than hard, don’t work 6-8 or crazy hours a day otherwise you will burn out and that’s the worst thing
-Find a way to chill and still learn at the same time, I have some maths and physics books that cover the syllabus but are manga so its fun to read, lmk i can give you the names
-Also have study YouTube videos like exam solutions on ALL THE TIME (whenever you can) , like if your catching the bus or doing the laundry, if you can listen to something in the background, DO IT
-Find out what your teacher is teaching next lesson and watch videos and read it in the textbook, THIS WILL MAKE YOU LIFE SO EASY, cause then lessons are basically revision and any gaps you have, will be filled in lesson
-Please make sure to pay attention in class! Yes, sometimes its boring, but that’s valuable teaching and you can’t get that time back even if its online, if you pay attention and others don’t, it means you have a headstart!
-While its still early for you, try out different studying techniques for mini tests and figure out which few work best for you, but you want to pick methods that don’t make you want to fall asleep

A-levels aren’t insanely difficult, or even difficult at all if you work a little all the time from the start, its only hard when you leave 2 years worth of work to the last 6 weeks!

Most importantly,

DO
NOT
STRESS!

Stress will make you feel worse and depressed, and you have loads of time until your final exams, just follow advice, be consistent and there is no reason why you wont smash it

I probably have a few more tips but lmk if this helped!


Number 1 advice:

WORK FROM THE START

-Any work is better than no work
-Do more flash cards than highlighting and re-reading
-Search and try the blurting technique and also pomodoro
-Watch Ali Abadan, unjaded jade and Ibz on YouTube (their study videos will change your life)
-Review all you work from the week at the end of the week and make notes then so you don’t have to make all your notes in one go (home notes are different to school notes)
-I know I said work (in the first point) but more in the sense of BEING CONSISTENT rather than hard, don’t work 6-8 or crazy hours a day otherwise you will burn out and that’s the worst thing
-Find a way to chill and still learn at the same time, I have some maths and physics books that cover the syllabus but are manga so its fun to read, lmk i can give you the names
-Also have study YouTube videos like exam solutions on ALL THE TIME (whenever you can) , like if your catching the bus or doing the laundry, if you can listen to something in the background, DO IT
-Find out what your teacher is teaching next lesson and watch videos and read it in the textbook, THIS WILL MAKE YOU LIFE SO EASY, cause then lessons are basically revision and any gaps you have, will be filled in lesson
-Please make sure to pay attention in class! Yes, sometimes its boring, but that’s valuable teaching and you can’t get that time back even if its online, if you pay attention and others don’t, it means you have a headstart!
-While its still early for you, try out different studying techniques for mini tests and figure out which few work best for you, but you want to pick methods that don’t make you want to fall asleep

A-levels aren’t insanely difficult, or even difficult at all if you work a little all the time from the start, its only hard when you leave 2 years worth of work to the last 6 weeks!

Most importantly,

DO
NOT
STRESS!

Stress will make you feel worse and depressed, and you have loads of time until your final exams, just follow advice, be consistent and there is no reason why you wont smash it

I probably have a few more tips but lmk if this helped!
Reply 12
Original post by imaanali1
My predictions are all grade 9's, however a grade 8 for maths and french. I did well in my year 10 mocks, which is why my predictions are high and I want to ensure that I do well in my October mocks in year 11 as well especially since these grades are going towards College applications. Thank you for ur help and good luck for year 12 x :smile:


Wow amazing grades.🥳 Congrats. I'm getting my gcse results this Thursday ahh. Thank you so much and good luck for year 11😄😀

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