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A Level Revision Help

I am currently a year 12 student studying Maths (Edexcel), Physics (AQA) and Biology (AQA).

We are around 5/6 months into year 12 and so far i am not doing great in my end of topic tests. I struggle with revision as i am unable to find a technique that i find works best - furthermore i struggle to find motivation to complete revision everyday, but i know i really want to do well in my subjects.

Any tips/help is appreciated.

Reply 1

jacksmith23

Original post by Binomia59748

I am currently a year 12 student studying Maths (Edexcel), Physics (AQA) and Biology (AQA).
We are around 5/6 months into year 12 and so far i am not doing great in my end of topic tests. I struggle with revision as i am unable to find a technique that i find works best - furthermore i struggle to find motivation to complete revision everyday, but i know i really want to do well in my subjects.
Any tips/help is appreciated.

routine, make one, it doesn't have to be like 4 hours. start with 1 hour a day, and if you need more time, then slowly increase it. plan you weeks by haveing a day of rest where you do that. do you hw, questions on the topic and some techniques that worked in gcse should work for a level for you.

Reply 2

BCU Student Rep

Official Rep

Original post by Binomia59748

I am currently a year 12 student studying Maths (Edexcel), Physics (AQA) and Biology (AQA).
We are around 5/6 months into year 12 and so far i am not doing great in my end of topic tests. I struggle with revision as i am unable to find a technique that i find works best - furthermore i struggle to find motivation to complete revision everyday, but i know i really want to do well in my subjects.
Any tips/help is appreciated.

Hi @Binomia59748,

I did biology for my a-levels as well, and just like you the beginning was a rough start for me as well- but here are some tips I adopted in Y13 that I wish I had done sooner.

1) Working alongside your spec points: I referred to my spec points constantly throughout my revision sessions, assuring that I'm covering the bullet points stated and nothing more (as it won't be asked in the exam). This also helped me filter through textbooks and helped me identify the exact information I needed to know.

2) Summarising every topic: after we had finished a topic (and just before we had an end of topic test) I would go through the entire topic and refine any notes I had made earlier- once again, refined my notes with the help of the spec points. I summarised these topics using the cornell note method. I found that this was also really helpful by the time mock exams came because I had a summary sheet to help me refresh on the topic.

3) Flashcards & Blurting: not many revision techniques worked for me either, but these two I found the most useful with biology. Biology is very content heavy and therefore requires lots of memorising. I found that these two techniques helped me memorise the fastest.

Hope this helps,
Danish
BCU Student Rep

Reply 3

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post by Binomia59748

I am currently a year 12 student studying Maths (Edexcel), Physics (AQA) and Biology (AQA).
We are around 5/6 months into year 12 and so far i am not doing great in my end of topic tests. I struggle with revision as i am unable to find a technique that i find works best - furthermore i struggle to find motivation to complete revision everyday, but i know i really want to do well in my subjects.
Any tips/help is appreciated.

Hiya, I'm currently a 3rd year astrophysics and cosmology student at Lancaster Uni and it's really hard to say one way to revise but I can give you suggestions based off what worked for me when I did physics and maths at A- Level:

1) get rid of distractions if you find yourself procrastinating too much.
• it's really easy to grab your phone and spend ages looking at something on there rather than revision but remind yourself you have a limited amount of time to revise and can always take regular breaks, so use revision time effectively!
• I used to keep my phone in another room or hide it so I wouldn't use it whilst revising.

2) know what it is you need to revise.
• go through your exam board specifications (all available to you online on exam board websites) and look through each topic and make sure you know everything it says you should. It's a great way to find gaps in your knowledge as they have the basis of everything you can be tested on.
• Make sure you prioritise your weaker topics as there isn't much point revising things you already know. Do revise them to a certain degree, just don't spend too much time focused on topics you are confident in.
• I've seen other students use a "traffic light" method to outline what is more important for them to revise with red being the most important topics (they struggle with those the most) and green being topics they are comfortable with (just need to refresh you memory on those).

3) make a plan
• some people find scheduling out revision really effective when making sure they get everything done / having a structured plan to make sure you reach daily targets so if it's something you would want to try, I'd recommend it

4) fill in your gaps before you start practicing
• do all your notetaking before you answer practice questions / past papers, especially with physics
• I would make short mind maps or page summaries of topics for physics and use them for when I start answering questions so everything I need to know is condensed and easy to access in a way I can revise it / use it effectively
• I used physics and maths tutor (https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/) for some summary page content for all subjects and used science shorts (https://scienceshorts.net/) for physics. They have video run-throughs of exam papers / making mind maps, etc, so highly recommend them.

5) active revision
• make sure you're not just reading notes / highlighting / rewriting content as that wont make you remember any info!
• make your own revision cards / mindmaps / quizzes
• timed recall: write as much as you can about a topic for 15 mins without looking at your notes. Then after you've reached your time limit, go through your notes for and see what's missing. With a different colour, go back and add as much as you can remember for 5 mins and keep repeating so you are activiely recalling information.
• do past papers and look at markschemes, they're the key to forming well-worded answers in physics!
• do practice questions and if possible, ask your teacher to give feedback on them
• spaced repitition also works very well, making sure you can still remember something 15 mins, an hour, a few hours, the next day after you revise it.

Finally, make sure you prioritise consistency and quality over spending hours sat trying to revise without it being effective. Revision is different for everyone so make yours catered to you. Ask others for advice or help, especially your teachers, they have so many resources available for students to use so just ask them!

In terms of being able to understand concepts but struggling to apply them to questions, try and see if it tends to be associated with particular topics. If it isn't, then look at the questions type, e.g. is it a long, worded answer or are they multi-step calculations? Sometimes there are questions that use ambiguous language / require you to understand particular wording to make assumptions that are key to get an answer, so I'd recommend having a look and seeing what it is specifically that is catching you out and see if it something you can address yourself or if you require someone else to explain specific techniques or knowledge to you instead.

When deciding what to prioritise first, go through your exam board specification and have a look topic by topic at what it is you struggle with the most / what would require the most work and start off with those topics, making your way downto the one you find the easiest or the one that you tend to understand the best. This is so you spend enough time covering topics you need more practice in and don't just focus on ones you can already do well in.

I hope all this helps and make sure you start your revision early and pace yourself. Wishing you all the best for your exams! If you have any other queries, feel free to ask!

-- Arya (Lancaster University Student Ambassador)