Hello my lovelies! Today I am going to share my revision tips with you all. It is getting to that time of year where most students are knuckling down to prepare for their exams- be it GCSE’s, AS or A Levels. As you may be aware, I am currently not in education for medical reasons but I do have a few little tricks that helped me out with my GCSEs last year. So, read on to find out more!
Environment
One of my biggest distractions when revising was my phone. An endless void of procrastination, this isn’t ideal to have on your desk when you are trying to learn. I found that turning my phone off would work sometimes but one tip that I learnt from one of my friends is to move the apps around on your home screen so that social media and ‘time drainers’ are away from easy access.
Linking nicely into this is my favourite revision method. I found that for History, quick fire flashcard questions was a really great way to learn. I made a set of 50 cards- each with simple but crucial questions on them (of course being sure to write the answer on there too!). I would then give these to my mum who would divide them into 5 sets of 10. I would then answer the questions. If I got a question incorrect, it would get shuffled into one of the other sets so that I could practise it over again.
I found that this was super effective for remembering small amounts of information like dates and who did certain things, e.g. inventors. This technique must have worked well as I self taught myself a lot of information in this way and ended up getting a 7 in History (which is an old school A!)
Condensing
Another method of revision that I found worked really well for me was condensing information into easily digestible chunks. I found this particularly useful for Science. This was a subject that I struggled with (I feel that I am a more creative person really) so making the information less overwhelming really helped me feel in control. I found that watching YouTube videos made by Primrose Kitten that would summarise all of the exam paper in about an hour made it approachable. I would watch this and make notes onto index cards, noting key terms and formulae as well as bits and pieces that I struggled to remember.
These flashcards would then be super portable so I could take them along to my lessons and school before my exams and give them a last read through. I would also make a summary card of the key formulae and things that I knew I would want to read just before I entered the exam hall. For me, this method was effective and I ended up achieving 5s (old school Cs) in all three sciences- which I did not expect!
Planning
A style of revision that I felt worked really well for essay based subjects such as English Literature was planning. I would generate lots of different possible exam questions and utilise past papers and then compile these into a list. Then I would plan through these questions, using a blue pen to write the things that I knew off of the top of my head. I would then use my exercise books and the text to add details such as quotes that would be crucial for the exam in a different colour. This way I would know which parts I would need to pay extra attention to in order to get the correct content into my response.
Yourself
My top tip for exams however, is to believe in yourself. Relaxing when you walk into the exam hall and knowing that you are prepared for it and you will do your best will help immensely. I found these affirmations super helpful to reduce my exam induced anxiety. Positively assuring myself that I have done all that I can helped me to focus on recalling the information I needed for the task at hand.
So, I hope that you enjoyed this post and find it useful for either revising for your own exams or forward it to somebody who could find it useful.
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