revising

what is the most effective revision techniques? I have my gcses in 2 weeks and im never able to revise as I always get distracted and never able to focus. does anyone struggle with this? if so how do you overcome it?

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by mariaia

what is the most effective revision techniques? I have my gcses in 2 weeks and im never able to revise as I always get distracted and never able to focus. does anyone struggle with this? if so how do you overcome it?

It depends on the specific technique and strategy. If you're just re-reading the material as opposed to learning it, then I am not surprised that you're distracted and never seem to be able to focus.

The revision techniques that I have found particularly useful include:

•

Active recall - see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE, https://aliabdaal.com/activerecallstudytechnique/
Active recall is particularly useful for subjects that involve a lot of facts

•

Flash cards
Helps with active recall when something was learnt quite a while ago, and you need a refresh or need to memorise something perfectly

•

Practice papers/exam practice - look for plenty of past papers and work on the problems, ideally under timed conditions
You are ultimately working towards your exams, so it pays to work through a paper and see where you can improve i.e. keep your eye on the ball

•

Analyse a particular topic from multiple points of view
Works particularly well for essays; prevents you from just seeing things one way and it helps develop critical thinking

•

One page summaries/mind maps
These help you review material; they meant to show you the bigger picture and jog your memory. If you can't fit everything on one page, then it's too detailed. If you need to keep referring to the material and including it on the map, then you haven't learnt the material well enough.

As you only have 2 weeks left until your exams, I would prioritise using practice papers or exam practice. It's the most efficient revision method that I know of. If you had a few months to play around with, the other methods would prove more useful.
If you do have a few weeks before your next exam, the one page summeries are usually helpful.

I use revision guides to help me review material that I am particularly weak on and need to go back to basic with.

Exams are also like 60% strategy and 40% content. Knowing your stuff doesn't necessarily mean you will do well; you need to have the right strategy in the exam. You can spend 3-5 hours getting full marks on a 2 hour exam, but that's not going to happen; you will have a time constraint and it's there to test your ability.

If you want further specific tips, you would probably be better off looking them up on YouTube for your specific GCSE subject (and they need to be by the subject, because you will be tested differently on different subjects and you can perform differently in different subjects depending on you as a person). There are a number of people who managed to get all 9s; try to learn from them.

Reply 2

Melanie10

5

I like doing flashcards, it's easier for me to memorise stuff easily but I guess it's about what works for you so check out some other techniques as well https://edumentors.co.uk/blog/top-9-revision-techniques-for-gcses-a-levels/

Reply 3

mariaia

OP

4

Original post by MindMax2000

It depends on the specific technique and strategy. If you're just re-reading the material as opposed to learning it, then I am not surprised that you're distracted and never seem to be able to focus.

The revision techniques that I have found particularly useful include:

•

Active recall - see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE, https://aliabdaal.com/activerecallstudytechnique/
Active recall is particularly useful for subjects that involve a lot of facts

•

Flash cards
Helps with active recall when something was learnt quite a while ago, and you need a refresh or need to memorise something perfectly

•

Practice papers/exam practice - look for plenty of past papers and work on the problems, ideally under timed conditions
You are ultimately working towards your exams, so it pays to work through a paper and see where you can improve i.e. keep your eye on the ball

•

Analyse a particular topic from multiple points of view
Works particularly well for essays; prevents you from just seeing things one way and it helps develop critical thinking

•

One page summaries/mind maps
These help you review material; they meant to show you the bigger picture and jog your memory. If you can't fit everything on one page, then it's too detailed. If you need to keep referring to the material and including it on the map, then you haven't learnt the material well enough.

As you only have 2 weeks left until your exams, I would prioritise using practice papers or exam practice. It's the most efficient revision method that I know of. If you had a few months to play around with, the other methods would prove more useful.
If you do have a few weeks before your next exam, the one page summeries are usually helpful.

I use revision guides to help me review material that I am particularly weak on and need to go back to basic with.

Exams are also like 60% strategy and 40% content. Knowing your stuff doesn't necessarily mean you will do well; you need to have the right strategy in the exam. You can spend 3-5 hours getting full marks on a 2 hour exam, but that's not going to happen; you will have a time constraint and it's there to test your ability.

If you want further specific tips, you would probably be better off looking them up on YouTube for your specific GCSE subject (and they need to be by the subject, because you will be tested differently on different subjects and you can perform differently in different subjects depending on you as a person). There are a number of people who managed to get all 9s; try to learn from them.

thank you !!

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