Revision Advice From An A Level Student

September 28, 2016

• Effective Revision

Revision, everyone hates it, everyone struggles with it. As private tutors in London we understand this, so here is some advice from an A level student on revision tips and tricks.

Revision usually starts with the dreaded Revision timetable, which your tutor (possibly one of our private tutors in London) or teacher has set you a deadline of a couple of weeks to do, but this usually ends up being a couple of days rather than a couple of weeks. Here is my first piece of advice: Get Your Revision Timetable Done ASAP and Spend Lots of Time On It. By doing your revision timetable you often realize what you need to revise, my advice would be Go Through Each Subject With The Specification checking to see if you have all your notes finished and whether or not you know this topic very well (try a traffic light system).

When you know this you feel on top of everything and organized. At this point you know how much you need to do so you can pace yourself. It also encourages you to start as soon as possible, because rather than having this massive pressure of revision on you, it has been broken down, and you actually can see a beginning.

Now what kind of revision should you be doing? I would say this is a timescale:

So accordingly I would personally suggest that by the time you get to Easter your notes should be written (try and get them done at Christmas or half term). Then if you can revise every week, you will be in the perfect position to go over past papers and the tougher revision in Easter. This will also reduce stress, as the more prepared you are the better you will feel.

In terms of the actual revision there are a couple things to think about, firstly Group vs. Solo Revision. Group can be useful for writing notes and also for quizzing your knowledge (tip: if you seem to be getting tired at the end of a day revising, this can pick you up as it is sociable). But there can be problems with this as you may have to compromise, for example if you want to revise a certain topic but your friends don’t then your needs will be outweighed. So In Areas Of Personal Weakness It Is Best To Revise On Your Own. Revising on your own is probably the best for consolidation; use a whiteboard to test yourself. Or for the best of both worlds revising with just one friend or if your parents are free, get them to test you!

The location you revise in can also make a big difference in how productive you are. My advice is to Dedicate A Room In Your House To Just Working, so you get into the right mindset. If you start struggling then move to a different room, but never revise in your bedroom! It will be full of distraction and you may find it harder to sleep if you spend all your time in the same place. My Christmas revision was spent with two jackets on in the Dining room with no heating, just so I could isolate myself from distractions!

Another good idea is to get out of the house for example go to the Library, the journey to and from feels a bit like school, or go on walks. For GCSE I used to go on walks with a friend to quiz each other on geography, it was nice to get a change of scenery.

Finally types of revision, here’s a quick quiz; which of these is your automatic preference?

Use whichever for your revision, as both are equally good for remembering facts. Personally after years of denying the mind map I now use it for everything, from essay planning to case study facts. On that note if you are doing an essay-based subjects the best revision is probably practicing essays, as when it comes to it, it is all about technique.