I probably started seriously revising from March and did an hour or two a day up until study leave, but I made sure I had most if not all of my flashcards made before that. I also had a revision timetable with all the topics I needed to revise so I knew what to focus on each session.
My strategy was make the flashcards, practice them, do free recall for the topics, and do lots of exam questions. I think I exhausted every past paper in existence between mocks and stuff I did at home lol. My subjects were Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Geography, (grades A*, A, A*, A* respectively) and I used pretty much the same strategy for all of them, though I didn't do as many Geography past exam questions simply because they took a long time to do and I felt pretty okay in my exam technique so that was really just about learning the content.
I had the revision guides to support my flashcards and for Bio and Chem in particular I watched quite a few YouTube videos on any topics I didn't understand or remember (best moment was watching one for a Bio practical we hadn't done, 5 minutes before the exam, that explained how to answer questions on it, and then getting in the exam and having a question on that exact practical lol). For Bio I'd also do diagrams for certain topics like transcription, translation, oxidative phosphorylation etc., as it helped me to visualise those processes - we did it a lot in class, I think my teachers called it dual coding - basically you have both the text and the images and so learning both together/integrated can help you remember it.
The slight caveat to this is I took my A-Levels last year so we had advanced information, but it was only really applicable for Geography for me. None of my other exams actually stuck to it. But technically it was still there for me to check I knew everything that was on the list since that was all stuff that would come up, but for everything except Geography I still learned all the other content (I didn't for Geography because the topic list we were given matched the number of questions, so it was very unlikely we'd be asked about anything else. Though I was slightly taking a risk on that, but I hated the amount of content I had for that subject)
Hope this helps
My strategy was make the flashcards, practice them, do free recall for the topics, and do lots of exam questions. I think I exhausted every past paper in existence between mocks and stuff I did at home lol. My subjects were Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Geography, (grades A*, A, A*, A* respectively) and I used pretty much the same strategy for all of them, though I didn't do as many Geography past exam questions simply because they took a long time to do and I felt pretty okay in my exam technique so that was really just about learning the content.
I had the revision guides to support my flashcards and for Bio and Chem in particular I watched quite a few YouTube videos on any topics I didn't understand or remember (best moment was watching one for a Bio practical we hadn't done, 5 minutes before the exam, that explained how to answer questions on it, and then getting in the exam and having a question on that exact practical lol). For Bio I'd also do diagrams for certain topics like transcription, translation, oxidative phosphorylation etc., as it helped me to visualise those processes - we did it a lot in class, I think my teachers called it dual coding - basically you have both the text and the images and so learning both together/integrated can help you remember it.
The slight caveat to this is I took my A-Levels last year so we had advanced information, but it was only really applicable for Geography for me. None of my other exams actually stuck to it. But technically it was still there for me to check I knew everything that was on the list since that was all stuff that would come up, but for everything except Geography I still learned all the other content (I didn't for Geography because the topic list we were given matched the number of questions, so it was very unlikely we'd be asked about anything else. Though I was slightly taking a risk on that, but I hated the amount of content I had for that subject)
Hope this helps
Original post by cyberhex
I probably started seriously revising from March and did an hour or two a day up until study leave, but I made sure I had most if not all of my flashcards made before that. I also had a revision timetable with all the topics I needed to revise so I knew what to focus on each session.
My strategy was make the flashcards, practice them, do free recall for the topics, and do lots of exam questions. I think I exhausted every past paper in existence between mocks and stuff I did at home lol. My subjects were Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Geography, (grades A*, A, A*, A* respectively) and I used pretty much the same strategy for all of them, though I didn't do as many Geography past exam questions simply because they took a long time to do and I felt pretty okay in my exam technique so that was really just about learning the content.
I had the revision guides to support my flashcards and for Bio and Chem in particular I watched quite a few YouTube videos on any topics I didn't understand or remember (best moment was watching one for a Bio practical we hadn't done, 5 minutes before the exam, that explained how to answer questions on it, and then getting in the exam and having a question on that exact practical lol). For Bio I'd also do diagrams for certain topics like transcription, translation, oxidative phosphorylation etc., as it helped me to visualise those processes - we did it a lot in class, I think my teachers called it dual coding - basically you have both the text and the images and so learning both together/integrated can help you remember it.
The slight caveat to this is I took my A-Levels last year so we had advanced information, but it was only really applicable for Geography for me. None of my other exams actually stuck to it. But technically it was still there for me to check I knew everything that was on the list since that was all stuff that would come up, but for everything except Geography I still learned all the other content (I didn't for Geography because the topic list we were given matched the number of questions, so it was very unlikely we'd be asked about anything else. Though I was slightly taking a risk on that, but I hated the amount of content I had for that subject)
Hope this helps
My strategy was make the flashcards, practice them, do free recall for the topics, and do lots of exam questions. I think I exhausted every past paper in existence between mocks and stuff I did at home lol. My subjects were Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Geography, (grades A*, A, A*, A* respectively) and I used pretty much the same strategy for all of them, though I didn't do as many Geography past exam questions simply because they took a long time to do and I felt pretty okay in my exam technique so that was really just about learning the content.
I had the revision guides to support my flashcards and for Bio and Chem in particular I watched quite a few YouTube videos on any topics I didn't understand or remember (best moment was watching one for a Bio practical we hadn't done, 5 minutes before the exam, that explained how to answer questions on it, and then getting in the exam and having a question on that exact practical lol). For Bio I'd also do diagrams for certain topics like transcription, translation, oxidative phosphorylation etc., as it helped me to visualise those processes - we did it a lot in class, I think my teachers called it dual coding - basically you have both the text and the images and so learning both together/integrated can help you remember it.
The slight caveat to this is I took my A-Levels last year so we had advanced information, but it was only really applicable for Geography for me. None of my other exams actually stuck to it. But technically it was still there for me to check I knew everything that was on the list since that was all stuff that would come up, but for everything except Geography I still learned all the other content (I didn't for Geography because the topic list we were given matched the number of questions, so it was very unlikely we'd be asked about anything else. Though I was slightly taking a risk on that, but I hated the amount of content I had for that subject)
Hope this helps
which exam board were you on for geography
finding this subject so difficult to do well for some reason
Original post by H_789
Former a level students how long did you revise for your exams, what revision techniques did you use and what grade did you get
Everything cyberhex said is so valid!
I did History, Clas Civ Maths and EPQ (A*.A*,A,A*) so hopefully I can help with the humanities!
For History, I was revising from Feb half term as I hadn't touched the Cold War module since I finished it in Year 12. Like Cyber said, it was so helpful to have the time consuming notes/flashcards/mindmaps all prepared before study leave. It is not enough to class re-writing notes in different formats revision!
For history, I made thematic mind maps. For example, I did Civil Rights in the USA so I went through each and every group and wrote about them socially, politically and economically. Being able to group things by themes instead of time period is what makes a good A-Level essay.
Unlike maths, you cant really practice past papers for the others as no one will mark it! But, I would definitively go through as many past papers as you can find and plan how you would write the essays and then check markscheme etc. I found huge comfort in knowing how I would structure the questions when I got into the exam room as by writing 20/30 essay plans, the knowledge/facts included stayed the same but the structure changes!
Original post by ink0011
which exam board were you on for geography
finding this subject so difficult to do well for some reason
finding this subject so difficult to do well for some reason
I was on AQA - Water/Carbon, Coasts, Hazards, Global Systems/Governance, Changing Places and Contemporary Urban Environments. It was my least favourite subject to be fair, just so much content to try and learn.
Original post by cyberhex
I probably started seriously revising from March and did an hour or two a day up until study leave, but I made sure I had most if not all of my flashcards made before that. I also had a revision timetable with all the topics I needed to revise so I knew what to focus on each session.
My strategy was make the flashcards, practice them, do free recall for the topics, and do lots of exam questions. I think I exhausted every past paper in existence between mocks and stuff I did at home lol. My subjects were Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Geography, (grades A*, A, A*, A* respectively) and I used pretty much the same strategy for all of them, though I didn't do as many Geography past exam questions simply because they took a long time to do and I felt pretty okay in my exam technique so that was really just about learning the content.
I had the revision guides to support my flashcards and for Bio and Chem in particular I watched quite a few YouTube videos on any topics I didn't understand or remember (best moment was watching one for a Bio practical we hadn't done, 5 minutes before the exam, that explained how to answer questions on it, and then getting in the exam and having a question on that exact practical lol). For Bio I'd also do diagrams for certain topics like transcription, translation, oxidative phosphorylation etc., as it helped me to visualise those processes - we did it a lot in class, I think my teachers called it dual coding - basically you have both the text and the images and so learning both together/integrated can help you remember it.
The slight caveat to this is I took my A-Levels last year so we had advanced information, but it was only really applicable for Geography for me. None of my other exams actually stuck to it. But technically it was still there for me to check I knew everything that was on the list since that was all stuff that would come up, but for everything except Geography I still learned all the other content (I didn't for Geography because the topic list we were given matched the number of questions, so it was very unlikely we'd be asked about anything else. Though I was slightly taking a risk on that, but I hated the amount of content I had for that subject)
Hope this helps
My strategy was make the flashcards, practice them, do free recall for the topics, and do lots of exam questions. I think I exhausted every past paper in existence between mocks and stuff I did at home lol. My subjects were Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Geography, (grades A*, A, A*, A* respectively) and I used pretty much the same strategy for all of them, though I didn't do as many Geography past exam questions simply because they took a long time to do and I felt pretty okay in my exam technique so that was really just about learning the content.
I had the revision guides to support my flashcards and for Bio and Chem in particular I watched quite a few YouTube videos on any topics I didn't understand or remember (best moment was watching one for a Bio practical we hadn't done, 5 minutes before the exam, that explained how to answer questions on it, and then getting in the exam and having a question on that exact practical lol). For Bio I'd also do diagrams for certain topics like transcription, translation, oxidative phosphorylation etc., as it helped me to visualise those processes - we did it a lot in class, I think my teachers called it dual coding - basically you have both the text and the images and so learning both together/integrated can help you remember it.
The slight caveat to this is I took my A-Levels last year so we had advanced information, but it was only really applicable for Geography for me. None of my other exams actually stuck to it. But technically it was still there for me to check I knew everything that was on the list since that was all stuff that would come up, but for everything except Geography I still learned all the other content (I didn't for Geography because the topic list we were given matched the number of questions, so it was very unlikely we'd be asked about anything else. Though I was slightly taking a risk on that, but I hated the amount of content I had for that subject)
Hope this helps
What did your revision timetable look like at this point in the year please?How many topics were you covering a day etc ?
Original post by anon25x
What did your revision timetable look like at this point in the year please?How many topics were you covering a day etc ?
managed to find my old timetable so make sure I answered this accurately - I did 3 topics a day, about hour each, after school pre-study leave (I had a slight advantage in that I distance learned for my entire A-Levels so I didn't have to commute home, and I didn't have after-school clubs or anything) and then during study leave I stuck to my school structure, so 6 "lessons" of about 50 minutes each, and then the 3 "after-school" hours on top. (Though, to be honest, I often didn't stick to the late sessions because I was tired at that point, but it was the only way I could fit everything in). I planned everything around so I could do each topic at least twice.
This is an example of what an exam week looked like for me during study leave, so around this time, though most of my exams were after the half-term (hopefully it's readable):
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