-At the time of my GCSE’s I didn’t know what I wanted to do in the future – probably similar to most people here. I was boxing for England internationally and just won the European championships the year before. I didn’t know if I wanted to continue boxing as a career or do something else more academic.
I saw doing well in exams as an opportunity to do both and leave my options open. I believed that if I got poor grades that it might limit me from doing something I wanted to do in the future, if I couldn’t meet the requirements and boxing didn’t work out well for me. I saw this as motivation to get the highest possible grade in every subject to keep my options open and prevent me from being disappointed in the future.How did you plan and manage your time for revision?
-Key thing to doing well in revision is organizing yourself as early as possible.
-As soon as I got my exam dates, I would make a big timetable with all my school lessons and exam dates and times on. From there I would work backward and plan a revision session 3/4 days and the night before each exam I had. I would do 2 hours work 3 days before then 1 hour the night before, broken into 30 min chunks. I would try to have light revision sessions the night before an exam, like answering a few questions or making mind maps, rather than last minute cramming as it only makes you more stressed. If I was left with any free days with no revision sessions planned, I would then see what exams were nearby and revise the subjects I was less confident in.What are your 5 ‘top tips’ to stay on track with revision?
-100% get organized now – start making your revision tools and finding out how you revise best
-Make a timetable – little and often is best
-Do not cram last minute – you aren’t efficient, and it only adds to your stress
-Print off past papers and mark schemes for everything
-Make a spec check listHow did you make a revision plan?
-I would go off the spec to make a checklist and highlight areas I was least confident in and number them from easiest to hardest. It could have been a whole spec point or specific topics themselves. I would revise these weaker areas first and last in my overall revision for this subject.
-Using my notes and textbooks I would make a mind map on the weaker subjects then have an hour break and come back to this subject later on. I would then get a piece of paper and attempt to write down everything I could remember from the revision I just did in the same mind map format. I would then use the initial mind map to add anything I had missed or made mistakes on in a different color pen. From this I knew that these were the things I needed to concentrate on in my revision. Over time there would be less and less in the different colour, and I would become more confident in the weaker areas as I was going over these the most.
-Make yourself a schedule/ routine for revision to keep yourself motivated. Eg do one hour of revision every Tuesday and Thursday. This means you can fit your revision around thing you enjoy doing and don’t feel like revision is taking over.Did/do you set targets?
-yes – I think targets are really important to keep you on track. Set yourself short term targets such as getting a 30 mins to an hour of revision done each day or revising one area of each subject you’re studying every week. Give yourself deadlines of when you want to be finished revising various spec points in the run up to your exams. Make a list of the dates of things you want to do so you can keep track of them. Because you’re splitting your total revision into smaller and more manageable chunks over a longer period by setting the short term goals it feels more realistic to complete and you’re more likely to actually do the work. Rather than if you were to leave everything to the last minute and become overwhelmed with work which only makes you more stressed.
What techniques do you use for revision?
-I would print off as many mark schemes and past papers as I could find. I would answer or plan answers to all the questions then self mark them. This is the best way of learning exam technique and how the exam board wants you to answer questions, make sure you read the examiner’s comments so you know what to do/ not to do. Some subjects like science can reuse questions from previous years, so if you have practiced past papers you will know the model answers and get full marks to these questions.
-Make your revision materials as you go instead of leaving it to the last minute, as you won’t have time to actually make them. I used to make revision cards at the end of every lesson, so it only took 5 minutes each day rather than writing them out for hours in exam season.
-When making your revision materials make sure you look at the spec and cover every spec point. I used to do this to make ‘cheat sheets’ of all the information I needed to know for an exam, so it is condensed and all in one place.
-Do not spend hours upon hours revising – you won’t be productive. Set a 30 minute timer and get as much work done as possible with no distractions. Then get up and have a 5-10 minute break – in a different room, don’t stay seated at your desk. Come back and do another 30 minutes of work – on a different topic/ subject if possible, and continue to cycle. After 2/3 30 minute periods have a longer break.
-use revision apps like quizlet – you can make your own revision cards/ questions or use ones that other people have already made. It also tests you on the information in various different ways which helps to make it more memorable and easier to learn.
-Teach someone else the information – you have to understand the information before you can teach it!
-Get a blank sheet of paper and use the spec to give yourself headings for each spec point. Using textbooks/ notes, write down as much information as you can. Have a 15 minute break then come back and try to do the same thing but from memory, without any notes. Then fill in any missing pieces of information in a different colour pen using the first sheet. Anything in the second colour is information you need to revise.
1 piece of key advice you would provide for students in Y11?
-get organized – make your revision materials now and test yourself regularly.
