Revision

Revising isn’t something that should be challenging or difficult at all. What revising is, unfortunately, is time consuming. It takes a while. That’s why you might like to start early (nothing to do on a Sunday?)….

Fact: You’ll probably do better in the topics you revise properly. There are three problems when it comes to revision. Understanding, procrastination and technique. Let’s deal with them one by one…

Know: Your Understanding How are you going to revise if you don’t know what you’re talking about? Understanding the actual subject is required to be able to do well in it. Don’t start revising anything unless you understand it. Otherwise, you’ll waste some valuable learning time.

Teachers are there for a reason. Use them! If you teacher is unapproachable, unwilling to answer questions, etc. – don’t force answers out of them, just go to another. Approach a teacher after a lesson, during lunch or break or whatever. Just DO! You need to know this stuff as soon as possible, and a 5 minute one-on-one crash course in “the mole” or whatever can only help!

Books are the next best thing It might take a bit of searching (good books that explain well are hard to find), but there will be at least one book that will give you a clear, easy-to-understand explanation of whatever you’re trying to know.

After that is the internet. Even I will admit that the internet isn’t always that reliable, but it’s usually a good last option, as teachers sometime have fabulous websites that really make it clear. Sometimes they don’t however, so this should be a kind of last resort. Books are generally better because the publisher will pick a really clever person to write them, and words cost money to print, so editors will try to keep it short (but not always).

Go: Procrastination This is the biggest problem for me, and as far as I know loads of others.

Putting the revision off means that you waste time by saying things like “I’ll do it later” or by doing something completely different like cleaning your room or watching TV. Suddenly that can all become far more interesting when you’re trying to revise. Also, you might be very happy to revise a subject you like, but much less willing to revise something dull like RE or maths. I can’t offer you the definitive guide to not procrastinating because I myself do it all the time, but I can try to help by giving you some tips:

Remove all distractions – turn off the telly, remove all things you can fiddle with from wherever you study and make sure you have any food or drink you will want so you don’t have to take a trip to the kitchen to disrupt you “flow”.

Get someone to give you a “k” in the “a” – I couldn’t think of a better way to say it, but all you have to do is tell you family members to make sure that you revise during particular hours. Tell them that they should shout at you whenever they find you not revising, or something like that, and that they should not allow you to tell them you don’t need to. Don’t make them do that all the time, though.

Think of how satisfied you’ll feel – and how much work you’ve already done! You don’t want to throw two years of blood, sweat and tears down the drain, do you? Then revise! Results day can be either fantastic or disappointing. YOU are in control of that. You already know what you can achieve at your best. Revising will make that happen, and not revising will simply mean relatively low grades that you’re going to feel awful about. Don’t put yourself through that – REVISE!

Make use of posters, desktop wall paper…. – if you are willing to have a constant reminder of the impending GCSE exams, go far a “hang in there” poster like they had on “The Simpsons”, but harsher. Be warned – once you do you’re exams you have to remove it and forget about it, to avoid mental damage.

Start by doing a little  – try revising for 10 minutes and see how it feels. Good? No. Acceptable? Yeah. Keep going until you really need to stop.

Organise your time better using lists Flow: Killer Revision Technique I only called this part flow because it rhymes with know and go. I’m going to tell you how I revised. Only, I procrastinated a lot and so didn’t do much of it. Which was a mistake a really do regret, and hope you don’t make. That’s why the “go” step is there.

Different subjects require different revision techniques. Get the SPECIFICATION There is no excuse for it, whatsoever. Your specification (or syllabus) is a kind of fountain or knowledge. You can use it, definitively, to find out EXACTLY what you need to know. If you can’t get one off of your teachers, ask them for the exact name of the course you are doing (e.g “EdExcel Double Science 2005 B”), go to the examining board’s website, download and print out the useful pages. That is, the pages where what you need to know is listed bit by bit. Not the pages about teaching technique or how science is good for the students’ sense of morality.

Buy record cards make revision cards. Go through your specification line by line (this is where the time for revising comes in) and turn each point (or group or related points) into notes on a revision card.  The key is to compress the information down to fit on the card.  Use colours, diagrams and sometimes smaller writing. Make sure you understand what you write down and will be able to use the card later to jog your memory. You’re aiming to write little text but lots of information. It’s a skill that takes little time to develop and is really useful later on in life. Remember to keep your cards in order and to make title cards marking the start of a sub-section (like in physics, “electricity and magnetism”). Numbering your cards will be useful if you drop them because of nerves before a test.

Test yourself!  Yay! My favourite part! How are you doing? What do you need to work on? What don’t you need to work on? Revise that subject straight away if you have to – read your notes and revision card, look in the book a little. Try the test again? Score gone up? Thought so. Rinse and repeat.

Try out an exam or two  Testing yourself prepares you for this, which prepares you for the actual exam. See how it works? Clever, innit? Like with the specifications, either get some sample or past exams off of your teacher, or download them. Some publishers sell them, but bear in mind that they can’t account for all the exam boards and you might be asked things you don’t need to know or not asked things you should know. That’s why past papers or sample papers are the way to fly. As with tests, mark it, revise what you got wrong, and then try another. Give it a rest 

Don’t do everything constantly Don’t do everything constantly. Your brain will get tired and give up, and you’ll put yourself off revising other things (even more!).

Stay calm, time yourself well and just shine Stay calm, time yourself well and just shine. You’ll do fine, safe in the knowledge that you’ve done far more preparation than ANYONE else!