The Student Room Group

Mocks and revision advice

Ok so, it’s almost the end of Christmas break - thankful for a routine again, that don’t really change and is stricter on timing honestly.
But with that comes mocks, and then the actual exams not long after, it feels far away but honestly if you look at it in perspective it really isn’t to far, less than half a year.
I know I should start revising, I want to, but I think I need to do a study timetable, however I have a very chaotic brain (all thanks to adhd), and struggle to stay focused and follow a self made timetable, I’ve tried like a system of “oh if I do this revision then I can do this as a reward to myself” but it just doesn’t work, I put my phone away heck I even give it to another person, I get other people to keep me accountable but nothing seems to like work. I tried focus timers, pomorado technique and notion to keep things in check and it worked for well, about 3 days.

Please can I get some advice on ways to actually stick to a study timetable and to keep focused when studying, that’s effective?

I’m hoping this place can understand where I’m coming from, since my friend just calls it laziness and my family don’t believe me 😂

Reply 1

Original post
by m.2007.
Ok so, it’s almost the end of Christmas break - thankful for a routine again, that don’t really change and is stricter on timing honestly.
But with that comes mocks, and then the actual exams not long after, it feels far away but honestly if you look at it in perspective it really isn’t to far, less than half a year.
I know I should start revising, I want to, but I think I need to do a study timetable, however I have a very chaotic brain (all thanks to adhd), and struggle to stay focused and follow a self made timetable, I’ve tried like a system of “oh if I do this revision then I can do this as a reward to myself” but it just doesn’t work, I put my phone away heck I even give it to another person, I get other people to keep me accountable but nothing seems to like work. I tried focus timers, pomorado technique and notion to keep things in check and it worked for well, about 3 days.
Please can I get some advice on ways to actually stick to a study timetable and to keep focused when studying, that’s effective?
I’m hoping this place can understand where I’m coming from, since my friend just calls it laziness and my family don’t believe me 😂

Hii, I completely understand where you're coming from - sometimes its so hard to motivate to even get started and then its really easy to get distracted! For me, I like a pared down study timetable - just like 'Biology notes' today, 'Flashcards for Geography' tomorrow - and then I have a list of other stuff that I'll do if I manage to finish my task for the day. For focussing, I just find some good music that doesn't distract me too much to put on whilst studying, or have a book I like but have read before open - then I'll alternate between studying and reading and it's less of a chore.

Ultimately, what I found with GCSEs is that as it got closer to exam time, my motivation and concentration naturally increased - but I'm in Y13 now, and that doesn't seem to be the case so far... so I get what you mean. Let me know if any of this helped!

Reply 2

Original post
by AnnoyinHuman
Hii, I completely understand where you're coming from - sometimes its so hard to motivate to even get started and then its really easy to get distracted! For me, I like a pared down study timetable - just like 'Biology notes' today, 'Flashcards for Geography' tomorrow - and then I have a list of other stuff that I'll do if I manage to finish my task for the day. For focussing, I just find some good music that doesn't distract me too much to put on whilst studying, or have a book I like but have read before open - then I'll alternate between studying and reading and it's less of a chore.
Ultimately, what I found with GCSEs is that as it got closer to exam time, my motivation and concentration naturally increased - but I'm in Y13 now, and that doesn't seem to be the case so far... so I get what you mean. Let me know if any of this helped!


Ohh ok! I’ll give these a go, it might help, thank you so much.

During GCSEs I really didn’t try, I just did the in class studying and then like a little bit of studying, and a lot of cramming, it was so chaotic!! I’m in year 13 as well and I really shouldn’t cram the A levels since they are important for uni, an well, it’s a lot of content 😭

Reply 3

Original post
by m.2007.
Ok so, it’s almost the end of Christmas break - thankful for a routine again, that don’t really change and is stricter on timing honestly.
But with that comes mocks, and then the actual exams not long after, it feels far away but honestly if you look at it in perspective it really isn’t to far, less than half a year.
I know I should start revising, I want to, but I think I need to do a study timetable, however I have a very chaotic brain (all thanks to adhd), and struggle to stay focused and follow a self made timetable, I’ve tried like a system of “oh if I do this revision then I can do this as a reward to myself” but it just doesn’t work, I put my phone away heck I even give it to another person, I get other people to keep me accountable but nothing seems to like work. I tried focus timers, pomorado technique and notion to keep things in check and it worked for well, about 3 days.
Please can I get some advice on ways to actually stick to a study timetable and to keep focused when studying, that’s effective?
I’m hoping this place can understand where I’m coming from, since my friend just calls it laziness and my family don’t believe me 😂

I can totally relate to you and I'm experiencing the same thing
For me, I focus best when I study with my friends and we decide on few things to do that day
e.g. "we will study at 2pm and finish a math paper"
Another thing that helps me is starting with my favourite subject then when I kinda hit that "focused mode" I do a different subject
I hope this sort of helped!!

Reply 4

Original post
by Ddxb
I can totally relate to you and I'm experiencing the same thing
For me, I focus best when I study with my friends and we decide on few things to do that day
e.g. "we will study at 2pm and finish a math paper"
Another thing that helps me is starting with my favourite subject then when I kinda hit that "focused mode" I do a different subject
I hope this sort of helped!!


Ohh ok ok that’s interesting, I’ll give studying my favorite subject first a go, although my favorite subject I feel I am avoiding since sociology is just so much content, but once I get going I love it 😂

I feel I’d struggle to study with friends, I’m a talker, so I’ll just end up talking and talking which is unfair on them really 😔

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