The Student Room Group

Might help you improve grades?

Hey I've been doing this thing which may help improve your grades. Ever been in that situation the night before a big exam and have no idea if you have covered everything? Opened up an exam paper to find that same sort of question you keep getting wrong?

For the past year I have been making 'reviews' of all the tests that I have done in the year. A review of a test is basically like all the stuff I did wrong in the test and topics I need to improve on. Here are the sections:

What I didn't know - those annoying tiny topics that's hard to remember like testing for ions
What I didn't understand - the things you have misconceptions about for example how bonding works
Exam techniques - those annoying questions where you have to say something specifically to get the mark (had this test where they needed 'diaphragm muscle' for the mark and diaphragm was not accepted😩
Questions - where you put questions based on the stuff above so you can test yourself - active recall

Your probably already thinking that you already do this stuff and reading this is a waste of time. But before the big test, where are the review sheets your teacher gave you to fill out? Probably in an old ringbinder that's buried at the back of your cupboard.

What I am saying - I'll get to the point now - is that you should make review notes on a notetaking app. This way before your big test you can print them all off and review what you get wrong and why you get it wrong. Doing this will completely remove the feeling of 'forgetting something'. What makes this even better is that as the year goes on you get more and more review notes on the topics you struggle with so theoretically you should have a comprehensive overview on everything you are weak on by the time you get to A-levels (theoretically). Don't think this will work? I was able to get 86% on a Biology mock - highest in the year - using my review notes and obviously exam questions. Exam questions are key. Obviously I could be lying but you wouldn't know.

The notetaking app that I use is Obsidian. It allows you to store all the review notes in a database and search for them logically - Notion but on steroids and offline. You can also create note templates and all that jazz. Pretty good - would recommend.

Anyways hope you find this useful and try to implement. I've only done this with maths bio chem so don't know how useful it is for humanities ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

TLDR; Make a note of stuff you get wrong on all tests through the year digitally --> Before the big tests print them all off and test yourself --> Score high on tests --> Sail off into the sunset
Reply 1
does this work for gcse aswell?
Reply 2
Original post by yselemon
does this work for gcse aswell?


It's abit extra for gcse but should do

Quick Reply

Latest