Tips for all!

My name is Siobhan and I’m a third-year student at the University of Central Lancashire. This is a great idea and it’s so nice to see so much advice from everyone else! Here’s some things that really helped me when I was doing my A-Levels 😊

Active recall: For your memory-based subjects such as history, biology, psychology etc then this is an amazing way to get those higher grades. I personally used already made resources online such as Quizlet, so I wouldn't have to use up my revision time making flashcards. Make sure that it is the same exam board that you will be doing though!

Past papers: These are the gold standard for any type of revision but are especially best for science-based subjects due to the specific marking criteria. I would try and do as many of these as possible to get familiar with the kind of answers they are looking for and to also get you in exam mode. Creating an ‘exam’ environment when you are doing them can be beneficial too in preparing you for the real thing! Past papers should be available online, but if not, then you could ask your teacher if they have any 😊

Teaching others: One of the best ways of remembering info for your exams is to teach others about it. I did this for A-level psychology, and this helped me get an A*. I used to run little group sessions with others, and we would teach each other about a certain topic and question each other about this. This is such an effective way to reinforce information to your long-term memory which will help a lot in exams.

Colour co-ordinate: One thing that I found myself doing in GCSE’s is wasting time going over stuff that I was good at. To stop this and really identify the areas I struggled in, I used a mind map and colour coordinated information. I would choose a topic, write everything I know in green, stuff I needed prompts for in orange and then stuff I didn’t know at all in red. I did this for subjects like religious studies which helped so much in knowing what I need to go over on.

Different methods will work for different people and subjects, but I hope that this has been helpful. If anyone has any questions, then just let me know 😊

Siobhan (Student Ambassador for the University of Central Lancashire)

I did Chemistry and Maths for my A-levels around two years ago and got a pretty good grade for my exam (A and A*). So here are some tips that really helped me to achieve good grades.
For Chemistry, do not just memorize stuff. Try to actually understand the information, why things happen, it will be much easier to remember under pressure. For me, past papers work the best. Once you’ve gone through a topic, do practice questions straight away. A lot of questions repeat the same style and pattern but make sure to go through all of them. After you have covered all the topics, try to practice under a real exam environment, set the timer and do it within the time frame, then check the answers with the mark schemes. Practicing past papers will help you familiarize yourself with types of answers and keywords that they are looking for.
Regarding Maths, do not solely focus on methods and formulas, try to understand what is going on and what is going on behind the wordy questions. Practicing past papers will help a lot in Math as well so make sure to practice past papers, take your time to comprehend the mark schemes and go over the mistakes you made. Also, try to mix up the topics when revising.

I understand A-levels are really hard and some days you feel like you are just stuck in one place. However, practicing a bit every day, stay consistent and the results will be worth it. You’re learning more than you think, even when it feels slow.
Good luck with your A-levels! You can do it! 😊