Revision

This page contains useful revision advice and tips.

Revision tips and methods – strategies

When thinking about your revision it can be difficult to know where to start.  Below are some ideas to help.

  • Start revising early— i.e. months, not days before the exam. Little and often is the key to securing knowledge
  • Plan your revision using a timetable – Planning out your revision means you can spend more time revising and less time worrying you’ve forgotten something. 
  • Don’t spend ages making your notes look pretty – For diagrams, include all the details you need to learn, but don’t try to produce a work of art. 
  • Set up a nice, tidy study space – You’ll need somewhere with good lighting, your pens close by, your phone out of sight and your TV unplugged. 
  • Vary your revision with different activities – Try a variety of different revision techniques — answering practice questions, writing down notes from memory, and using Revision Guides, Flash Cards, Exam Practice Workbooks
  • Stick revision notes all around your house – So in the exam you think, “Aha, quadratic equations, they were on the fridge…”
  • Practice papers and exam questions – You’ll find it far easier to answer questions in the exam if you’ve tried similar ones at home beforehand

Creating a revision timetable

Take a calendar and create 30 / 45 /60 min slots Download a timetable app Add it to your phone calendar

  • Focus the majority of your effort on topics most likely to come up in the exam and carry the most marks.
  • Measure progress based on topic coverage rather than time studied for.
  • Adapt your timetable to accommodate for the rate at which you are able to understand and memorise information as time goes by.

Step 1 – Figure out how much time you have to revise

On your calendar, make sure you fill in your current commitments and day to day activities. For example; when you’re at school, having meals, exercising or just doing the other hobbies and activities you do during your standard week. You will then be able to create time slots you know you can commit to.

Step 2 – Prioritise your subjects/ topics

Decide which subjects you currently feel the most and least confident about. The best way to do this is to make a list. Write the subjects you’re weakest at towards the top and those where you’re strongest towards the bottom.

Step 3 – Break subjects into topics

Revise what you actually need to revise within each subject.  For example, let’s say in Maths you find multiplying fractions really difficult whilst long division is easy.  Consciously, you know you need to revise multiplying fractions, but our brains have a way of making us think we’re making worthwhile progress by revising long division.

Step 4 – Allocate 30 minute time slots to revise

Position topics you’re likely to find challenging when you know you tend to work best in the day.

  • Use colours to differentiate subjects in your calendar and make sure you write the subject and topic you need to revise
  • Find a balance between topics you’re less familiar with and those which you think you’ll be able to get through quickly.

Step 5 – What to do within each revision session

Regular testing and repetition are the key components to long term understanding and memorisation for exam day.

  • Active recall
  • Spaced repetition
  • Alternatives (mix it up)

Step 6 – Stay flexible

The key is to keep the discipline of revising when you said you were going to on your timetable and aim for a short burst of 30 minutes. Then push on if you’re feeling the momentum. If not, take a short break (5-10 minutes) and then hit the books again

Step 7 – Make your timetable achievable

Make your timetable achievable by managing your health and stress levels and by allocating time to exercise, socialise and generally forget about revision for a bit.

Best revision resources for the time of year

View the image below or click on it to open it as a PDF

Useful Revision Links

GCSEPod

  • A regular resource for those revising at any level.  Assignments are set by staff, but there are also check and challenge tasks to progress your own revision
  • Login to GCSEPod here

TASSOMAI

  • A newly launched platform for Year 11 to help support the growth of knowledge.   This can be used for all core subjects and Geography
  • Login to Tassomai here

SENECA

  • A good resource for those revising at GCSE or A-Level, but includes Key Stage 3 resources too. Seneca has lots of free revision content (with paid access to higher-level material).

Remember we also have Hegarty Maths and there is BBC Bitesize