Spending too long revising to get A*s at A Level

Memorise, understand, and especially for maths and biology do all past papers even from the year 2000 onwards, learn the mark schemes, key terms, read examiners report. The more past papers you realise they like asking certain questions -begin to selectively memorise.

I am struggling with the large amount of content for A Levels (history, biology and maths) and how to revise and memorise it all, although I haven’t had a full test yet as I am in year 12. I feel like I'm spending far too long on revision (literally 9am to 10pm on a weekend revising with a few short breaks for food), and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm aiming for all A*s or at least As because I got all 9s at GCSE and I am trying to get into Cambridge, which is the other issue because I have no time for super curriculars. I am spending a lot of time making revision resources and memorising things rather than getting on to practice papers. For biology I keep on writing revision cards from textbooks, using markschemes to highlight key terms and then writing questions on those revision cards to memorise e.g. the current topic test I’m revising for in biology I’ve made 140 questions to answer. For maths specifically ive been going through the questions in the textbook but I end up doing too many and I can’t work out which ones to do and which ones to skip and it’s taking far too long. For gcse I had mathswatch so I could see questions I’d done and harder questions but with the textbook it’s just so much harder to track and I end up spending so long correcting one question like an hour some times working some questions out. Then for history I keep on getting confused on what revision resources to use bc my teacher told me the textbook isn’t enough and she’s given us so many extra articles and stuff and I’m never sure how much to write to memorise, because I feel I’m writing far too much information in my revision resources, and my teacher even told me that there was too much content in my essay. every time I find a new resource I’ve forgotten about I keep on spending hours going back and editing my notes to add info from that article in. Any advice/ help especially specific revision techniques and time management.

I do history, biology and chemistry and what i'm doing so far is for biology, i think save my exams is really good for note taking but tbh i don't really use their questions. Instead use pmt. Honestly, that website is such a lifesaver especially when it comes to doing end of topic assessments for me. But the problem with bio is how specific the mark scheme is. For history, i've made essay plans for the topics that i'm doing by looking at past paper questions and also look at the mark schemes for them because they're actually useful for ideas on what to write in your paragraphs. If you use online flashcards i'd definitely recommend using quizlet and brainscape.

Thanks so much for the advice, I will try save my exams for revision notes as I am finding the textbooks difficult to condense and accidentally memorising kinda irrelevant information. How have you been able to memorise so much content for a level history and bio before exams, I like to review everything like within a week before exams but I’m finding it hard to do that. I use pmt for practice questions sometimes although I’m reluctant to use it for topic tests because my teachers often use the questions on there in the test, however I have started using it bc I realise how specific the markscheme is. However, one of my bio teachers is really good and teaches us the key vocab we need to use to get marks so I’m kinda ok with the specific markschemes for one side of the course. My other teacher is really passionate about biology but tends to add extra information and rewrite things and not give us what the markschemes are looking for so I am struggling more on that side ( I usually get As in my topic test but on that side I got a C). For history, how do you make essay plans for each topic if there are a limited amount of questions on each topic? E.g. I’m doing the American dream and I don’t think there’s an essay question on Truman’s character and policies in the question bank. Also for your history notes do you just use the textbook or other articles as well and if other articles how many? For example my history teacher has given me 3 textbooks plus usually like 2 articles/ a PowerPoint on the topic to make notes on and she says I need to use the main textbook as a starting point but add in extra knowledge if I want an A*. I’m just feeling like I’m adding too much extra knowledge to my notes and they’re becoming a bit of a mess because I’ve used so many different resources. My teacher also encourages us to just look up things online and add notes from e.g. Wikipedia to our notes sometimes. I just feel like this can’t be right, am I missing something? In terms of online flash cards, I tend to only use them for memorising dates or small pieces of information, never used brainscape before so I might check it out. Thanks again for the help!

I am struggling with the large amount of content for A Levels (history, biology and maths) and how to revise and memorise it all, although I haven’t had a full test yet as I am in year 12. I feel like I'm spending far too long on revision (literally 9am to 10pm on a weekend revising with a few short breaks for food), and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm aiming for all A*s or at least As because I got all 9s at GCSE and I am trying to get into Cambridge, which is the other issue because I have no time for super curriculars. I am spending a lot of time making revision resources and memorising things rather than getting on to practice papers. For biology I keep on writing revision cards from textbooks, using markschemes to highlight key terms and then writing questions on those revision cards to memorise e.g. the current topic test I’m revising for in biology I’ve made 140 questions to answer. For maths specifically ive been going through the questions in the textbook but I end up doing too many and I can’t work out which ones to do and which ones to skip and it’s taking far too long. For gcse I had mathswatch so I could see questions I’d done and harder questions but with the textbook it’s just so much harder to track and I end up spending so long correcting one question like an hour some times working some questions out. Then for history I keep on getting confused on what revision resources to use bc my teacher told me the textbook isn’t enough and she’s given us so many extra articles and stuff and I’m never sure how much to write to memorise, because I feel I’m writing far too much information in my revision resources, and my teacher even told me that there was too much content in my essay. every time I find a new resource I’ve forgotten about I keep on spending hours going back and editing my notes to add info from that article in. Any advice/ help especially specific revision techniques and time management.

Thanks so much for the advice, I will try save my exams for revision notes as I am finding the textbooks difficult to condense and accidentally memorising kinda irrelevant information. How have you been able to memorise so much content for a level history and bio before exams, I like to review everything like within a week before exams but I’m finding it hard to do that. I use pmt for practice questions sometimes although I’m reluctant to use it for topic tests because my teachers often use the questions on there in the test, however I have started using it bc I realise how specific the markscheme is. However, one of my bio teachers is really good and teaches us the key vocab we need to use to get marks so I’m kinda ok with the specific markschemes for one side of the course. My other teacher is really passionate about biology but tends to add extra information and rewrite things and not give us what the markschemes are looking for so I am struggling more on that side ( I usually get As in my topic test but on that side I got a C). For history, how do you make essay plans for each topic if there are a limited amount of questions on each topic? E.g. I’m doing the American dream and I don’t think there’s an essay question on Truman’s character and policies in the question bank. Also for your history notes do you just use the textbook or other articles as well and if other articles how many? For example my history teacher has given me 3 textbooks plus usually like 2 articles/ a PowerPoint on the topic to make notes on and she says I need to use the main textbook as a starting point but add in extra knowledge if I want an A*. I’m just feeling like I’m adding too much extra knowledge to my notes and they’re becoming a bit of a mess because I’ve used so many different resources. My teacher also encourages us to just look up things online and add notes from e.g. Wikipedia to our notes sometimes. I just feel like this can’t be right, am I missing something? In terms of online flash cards, I tend to only use them for memorising dates or small pieces of information, never used brainscape before so I might check it out. Thanks again for the help!

you’re welcome! I’m doing my mocks soon so hopefully the revision I’ve done will pay off. For history I haven’t done a proper exam yet, just essays for homework and small end of topic tests so this will be my first proper exam . I think it all comes down to structure for history icl. The way I’ve made my essay plans is, I’ll go onto save my exams and choose a topic (for example Russia) then I’ll go to each past paper and if I’m making 20 mark essay plans, I’ll go to that question and pick one of the essays to plan. Then I’ll plan out what I’ll write out for each paragraph and do that for each of the past paper question. But with my essay plans I pretty much write out entire essays and then memorise them. Ik it seems long but honestly essay plans and revision notes are what got me through GCSEs so I’m hoping it’ll be the same for a level. When I’m stuck I look at the mark scheme because it’s kinda useful in terms of what you can write and it gives me good ideas especially when I’m writing my counter arguments. For my revision notes, my school make there own booklets so we don’t use text books so I just use the booklet and make revision notes for each lesson. My teacher for Russia has given us some wider reading to do but just as homework. I tend to try and stick to the booklets because when I search stuff up online I’m not sure if it’s that accurate yk.

Ngl 13 hour revision sessions in year 12 is crazy. I didn't even do that much in the days leading up to my actual A-levels and got A*s. You really need to pace yourself.

The time is now for super-curriculars because content will ramp up in difficulty in the next year. You could probably get like an A in your year 12 exams and still get away with a predicted A*. And obvs look for work experience and stuff too if you can.

Also, can you use paragraphs, the enormous paragraph is intimidating 😂

For biology, I usually mostly revise flashcards and then test my knowledge using pmt questions. My teacher’s are pretty much the same because they use questions from there as well but tbh I like using it since they’re topic specific and I’ve used other websites like study mind but they’re not as good. I’m trying to use Brainscape more because it’s good for spaced repetition. I think it’s easier than using anki but maybe it’s just because I gave up trying to figure out how to use it but it’s pretty much the same concept. You rate how well use think you’ve answered the flashcard on a scale of 1-5 then depending on what you’ve scored it, it influences how many times that flashcard comes up again. I procrastinate a lot but the way I manage to get through all the content is thinking about how much I can get done if I actually start and telling myself I’m gonna have to know the content either way so I might as well do work yk. I use this app called flora which helps a lot with not going on my phone especially when I’m revising and I think that’s how i manage to stay focused.

Thanks for the guide on essay plans, I will definitely use them now!
Sound so helpful ur school uses booklets, shame my school doesn’t do that. I’m gonna try to stick to the textbook thing anyway because it sounds like the internet and extra articles thing isn’t that helpful and it’s taking a lot of time.
Good luck on your mocks

Brainscape sounds like a rlly good idea, like the idea of the rating system. Plus I will try and use pmt more. I always get confused with the flash card thing on how people condense so much info into flash cards. Any advice on how to do that? I might look up some example bio flash cards or something to try and work out how make them. I usually write out paper revision cards with a lot of info/ long information on them and I can’t ever really use them as flash cards because there’s too much info just to list in my head before turning the card over without any like prompts.

Thanks for the advice on procrastination. I’ve never had a problem with procrastination before but now I’m really struggling with it but I think it’s bc the long revision sessions r making me tired.

Thanks again for the advice it’s rlly helpful.

When it comes to making flashcards, i try to condense the information as much as possible and use the spec because it tells you exactly what you need to know. Sometimes when i see pre made flashcards, they have extra information which isn't necessary and icl there's too much to revise already so i don't want to revise unnecessary stuff. For Gcses, i made paper flashcards and at the beginning of the year i made them for cell structure. But when i realised how many cards i was using i switched to online ones because it's way easier and by the end of the year i'd probably have hundreds of flashcards and it just seems overwhelming.

I am struggling with the large amount of content for A Levels (history, biology and maths) and how to revise and memorise it all, although I haven’t had a full test yet as I am in year 12. I feel like I'm spending far too long on revision (literally 9am to 10pm on a weekend revising with a few short breaks for food), and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm aiming for all A*s or at least As because I got all 9s at GCSE and I am trying to get into Cambridge, which is the other issue because I have no time for super curriculars. I am spending a lot of time making revision resources and memorising things rather than getting on to practice papers. For biology I keep on writing revision cards from textbooks, using markschemes to highlight key terms and then writing questions on those revision cards to memorise e.g. the current topic test I’m revising for in biology I’ve made 140 questions to answer. For maths specifically ive been going through the questions in the textbook but I end up doing too many and I can’t work out which ones to do and which ones to skip and it’s taking far too long. For gcse I had mathswatch so I could see questions I’d done and harder questions but with the textbook it’s just so much harder to track and I end up spending so long correcting one question like an hour some times working some questions out. Then for history I keep on getting confused on what revision resources to use bc my teacher told me the textbook isn’t enough and she’s given us so many extra articles and stuff and I’m never sure how much to write to memorise, because I feel I’m writing far too much information in my revision resources, and my teacher even told me that there was too much content in my essay. every time I find a new resource I’ve forgotten about I keep on spending hours going back and editing my notes to add info from that article in. Any advice/ help especially specific revision techniques and time management.

That’s encouraging to know I don’t need to do so much revision. How do you memorise and organise so much content in a shorter timeframe tho?
I will def start doing more supercurriculars I’ve done one work experience and I’m arranging another.
I realised the paragraph was crazy after I wrote it 😂 honestly didn’t think of using the enter button.

Heyy! Just wanted to chip in for maths and bio
for bio (did it last year and got A*). As said above, I would definitely recommend online flash cards, specifically Anki and after each bio lesson look up the topic on PMT and use Mrs Estruch (life saver!!) I would also say if you can to review your flash cards everyday (even if it’s just one topic) that way all the bio info remains french in your mind and you won’t get overwhelmed trying to revise it all the end of the year. Alongside the flash cards so past paper questions and as you are in year 12 start with old spec (these are also really useful as each paper usually targets specific topics so you can focus on topics you struggle with). There are loads of past paper questions on PMT. So for bio and would say keep it simple with anki and past papers/ questions regularly in manageable amounts.
ALSO PLEASE ONLY REVISE WHAT IS ON THE SPEC unless you’re doing aqa with the essay component (in which you can learn a topic a few weeks before the exam that fits many different essay titles for extra marks - I did cystic fibrosis and would recommend if you are doing the essay)

For maths (got A two marks of A* 😤) I would first do textbook questions (starting easy to get a feel for the topic and skip to harder ones when more confident). I would again recommend doing old spec questions as there are many on PMT and saving most new spec questions for Y13 / closer to exams. If it takes you too long to correct mistakes and I would make a note of the question and come back to it later (sometimes helps to have a fresh mind); ask your peers (I used to ask a friend who did further maths) if they can explain it to you (good practice for them too!); if they can’t, go to the teacher and ask them for help; but please don’t spend hours stressing over it (trust me it doesn’t help).

Sorry for the long dissertation but hopefully some of these tips will be useful 🙂 good luck!!