Revision

You’ve all been taking exams and revising for them for years now, so you should have a good idea about how best to revise for each subject, but be careful.  A level exams are the hardest you’ve been asked to sit so far.  You really do need to know your stuff if you are going to get the grades you need for your university courses and for access to the widest possible range of careers.

If you think you may have coasted through some of your exams last year, but still got lucky and got a good grade, please don’t think that the same will happen this year.  A levels are designed to find out what you really know.  But don’t worry!  All you need to do is to work hard on your revision to make sure that you go into each exam confident that you have done your very best to prepare yourself for whatever the examiners might want to throw at you.  Hard work now really will pay off!

Here are some tips on how to get the best out of your revision:

·        Plan your revision in advance, being realistic about how much time you need. 

• Easter should be filled with revision (or Christmas if you’re revising for January exams), but make sure you organise it into chunks of time that suit your learning style.  If you find it hard to concentrate beyond 30 minutes, split your revision up appropriately.  Don’t plan a two hour slog that you know you won’t finish. 

·        Come back after Easter/Christmas with all of the questions you need answers to ready to put to your teachers.  If you don’t, it’s a golden opportunity lost.

• Remember to use your NTPs for revision.  There is no better place to be than school for finding out exactly what you need for your revision. We’ve got computers, libraries, course books and experts (staff, obviously) all available to help!

·        Access as many revision sessions as you can from school.

·        As you revise, try ticking off the sessions you’ve done on a wall chart, or similar, to remind you that you are progressing!  It’ll help keep you motivated.

• Don’t be taken in by people who say they’re not revising yet/going to revise.  They are, and they will!

• Get together in study groups, and plan when you’re going to meet between now and your exams.  Teams of three work really well.  It’s good to pool your ideas to help to deal with any areas of weakness in your knowledge.  Also, planning meeting times in advance is a good way of encouraging you to make sure you have revised properly so you are prepared for those meetings.

• Identify the best way you learn, and try to incorporate that into your revision (e.g. do you learn best by reading through your notes and re-writing them in progressively shorter summaries;  do you prefer to create a series of spider diagrams covering the key points of each subject; etc…?)

• No matter how you prefer to revise, it can be useful to read your notes out onto a recorder so that you can listen to them when you’re around the house, in the car, etc.  Not only does the process of preparing and reading them out help, but it’s a relatively painless way of going over the notes again and again afterwards.

• Try preparing a subject you find particularly difficult so that you could teach it to someone else.  Then, actually teach it to your study group.  It’s good for them and great for you as you must know all there is before you can start teaching it to someone else.

·        Be proactive about seeking out staff for help and getting practice papers, etc.  Staff are amazingly busy, so it’s helpful if you ask. 

·        Use the internet, but be careful not to be sidetracked into surfing for fun or chats (try to get addresses for good websites from staff/others).  Have a look at the “Useful Websites” section of this planner for suggestions.

• Log onto the websites of your A level exam boards.  There you will find past papers, other advice and, usually, examiners’ mark schemes.  These are hugely useful as they let you see how you’re going to be assessed in the actual exam so you can make sure you’re doing the right things to get those top marks.  You’ll find their website addresses in the  “Useful Websites” section of this planner

• You can also make sure you access any web based materials created by your teachers.  Ask them about them, or simply log onto our website and have a look.

http://www.sharnbrook.beds.sch.uk

Whatever you do, please start doing it NOW, and don’t be tempted to put it off, which just makes life harder!  If you’re the sort of person that finds the first step difficult, make it a really easy one: do your revision plan, or arrange your study team meetings, or simply get out the first set of notes you’re going to revise from, open them and write that first revision title. 

Just get started!!

Happy revising everyone!