Revision tips for pupils
Emma McKendrick ● Plan a realistic revision timetable and stick to it
● Do the subjects or topics you like least or find the most difficult first
● Master the art of the five-minute break—get up, move around, get some fresh air and then settle back down
● Practise, practise, practise—there’s no doubt that the more mock questions you do, the better you’ll perform
● Change your environment and method of revision if you feel that you’re getting stale in one place or using one approach
Tom Maher ● Start as you mean to go on. Revision isn’t a period of time, it’s an ongoing process of consolidation akin to watering in a new plant
● Where diagrams are required, visual mem- orisation isn’t enough: drawing and labelling take practice
● Use drills and repetition. Vocabulary and grammar are best absorbed in small chunks. Go over them again and again
● Listen to feedback. Know where you’re likely to make mistakes and understand how to achieve good marks
● Make clear notes to revise from. The more digestible the revision notes, the clearer and more coherent the thinking that will stem from them
Joseph Spence ● You understand something if you can explain it. Revise with a friend and take it in turns to explain a topic to the other person
● Make sure you spend your time revising rather than in the drawing up of the perfect revision timetable. Displacement activity is the gravest danger of the revision season
● Avoid just working in your ‘comfort zone’: identify your weaknesses with your teachers’ help and work on the hard stuff
● Identify how and when you best revise: auditory, visually or physically; morning, afternoon or evening—but admit that only an active morning can free up time later in the day
● Be realistic in your timetable: it's better to stick to a manageable schedule (45 minutes working with short breaks between)
Getting to the exam hall Emma McKendrick
● Get a good night’s sleep and eat a proper breakfast beforehand
● Take all the right equipment with you into the examination room
● Concentrate on the time you have for each question and stick to those timings
● Read all the questions very carefully (more than once!) and check you can (and do) answer what’s being asked, not what you would like to be asked
● Always make sure you write something in answer to a question; no marks can be awarded for a blank page
Tom Maher ● Start by studying subjects that you’re genuinely interested in. Excellent exam technique without a sound foundation in subject knowledge is unlikely to deliver high marks
● Practise past exam papers and familiarise yourself with marking schemes
● Be careful with cramming. Last-minute revision seems to suit certain people, but perhaps not as many as is often thought
● Know how to allocate your time in propor- tion to the amount of marks being awarded for each question
● Don’t spend time on post-mortems—move on to the next exam and refocus your energy
Joseph Spence
● Make sure that you read the paper properly and answer the question you’ve been asked, rather than the question you wish you’d been asked
● Practice makes perfect, so do as many past papers as you can—and, in problem-solving subjects such as maths, redo them
● Be very familiar with the format of the paper: work out your timing in advance
● At AS and A2, make sure you're familiar with the assessment objectives (what you need to do to reach the top band)
● Get a copy of each syllabus and identify the gaps in your knowledge
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64