We understand that studying for your GCSEs or A Levels can be stressful, especially if this is your first time going through an exam sitting. You’ll go a long way to easing the stress and going into your exams confident if you follow these five simple revision tips:
Create a REALISTIC plan
Across Thames Tuition, our tutors have a tremendous amount of experience sitting and preparing students for exam periods. We can all agree that the secret to being successful in your exams is to plan carefully and make sure that your plan is realistic.
Put the exams in your calendar and work backwards to ensure that you are reaching checkpoints at the right times. This will help you to plan evenly for all of your exams and allow you to be as prepared as possible. You don’t want to get to the day before an exam and realise that you haven’t allocated nearly enough time to that subject.
Be realistic! It is not realistic to schedule 10 hours of revision every day. We want you to revise smart, and enjoy your time off. You might want to factor in a day off and see family or friends. Being realistic can help to keep you motivated and relaxed as exams approach.
Take breaks
Put the exams in your calendar and work backwards to ensure that you are reaching checkpoints at the right times. This will help you to plan evenly for all of your exams and allow you to be as prepared as possible. You don’t want to get to the day before an exam and realise that you haven’t allocated nearly enough time to that subject.
Be realistic! It is not realistic to schedule 10 hours of revision every day. We want you to revise smart, and enjoy your time off. You might want to factor in a day off and see family or friends. Being realistic can help to keep you motivated and relaxed as exams approach.
Exercise
Exercise is fantastic for your brain and overall health. It releases dopamine and can help you think more clearly.
Always remember that you shouldn’t sacrifice a healthy lifestyle in order to revise for an exam.
Be realistic! It is not realistic to schedule 10 hours of revision every day. We want you to revise smart, and enjoy your time off. You might want to factor in a day off and see family or friends. Being realistic can help to keep you motivated and relaxed as exams approach.
Test yourself
In mathematical subjects it is very important to not hide from exam style questions. When revising, it is very easy to read textbooks and make notes but lots of us delay doing practice questions because we are scared of getting things wrong.
Make the mistakes, they are important! Any successful revision plan in science and maths includes lots of exam-style questions and past papers. The more you test yourself, the more you can learn about how the questions are structured and where the gaps in your knowledge lie.
Be realistic! It is not realistic to schedule 10 hours of revision every day. We want you to revise smart, and enjoy your time off. You might want to factor in a day off and see family or friends. Being realistic can help to keep you motivated and relaxed as exams approach.
Use the mark schemes in the RIGHT WAY
Mark schemes can be extremely helpful when used correctly!
Firstly, don’t look at the mark scheme whilst doing a paper or before you are satisfied that you have answered everything you can. It’s important to not trick yourself into thinking you would have known how to do a certain question.
Once you have finished the paper, study your answers alongside the mark scheme and remember: Nobody knows or cares what mark you get in a past paper!
This is your chance to learn from the mark scheme. Don’t be concerned about whether you got the mark or not but focus on if you could improve your answer next time to align with the mark scheme. Even if you think you would have been awarded the marks for your answer, look to see if it is phrased better in the mark scheme or if there are certain terms that keep coming up.
We recommend 40 minutes or revision and a 20 minute break. In your break, have a healthy snack, get some fresh air or listen to some music. Anything that allows you to destress and come back to your revision refreshed and focussed.
