Student Advice

How to revise

Ben Maples  · Aug 21st 2024

How do you revise? How do you revise so well that it’s almost impossible to fail? These are the questions every student wants to know the answer to, if only it were that simple.

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We can’t all be perfect when we do our revision and we can’t always get it right, especially when we’re looking into how to revise for a test. When looking into the different ways to revise, you need to make sure that you have the correct attitude to make it work. A good attitude is the first prong in your fork of attack.

So how can you revise and how to motivate yourself to revise? Well, we’ve got some great revision tips for you here.

How to revise GCSEs

How to Revise Effectively

There is a difference between simply revising and revising effectively. Revising effectively means you might be able to revise for shorter periods of time and still have a better revision session than someone who has revised for a few hours longer.

  • Eat a Good Breakfast: There is a reason why “Breakfast is the most important meal of a day” is a catchy and known saying that isn’t an Old Wives’ Tale!
  • Creating a Revision Timetable: A revision guide is a great way to ensure you stick to your studies. Students can work out what subjects need the most attention and correspond revision with their exam timetable – allowing them to feel prepared for each exam when it takes place.
  • Read the Examiner’s Report: It may sound odd, but you should read the examiner’s report on that year’s GCSE exam paper too, this is particularly good if you’re looking for how to revise for English Language or how to revise for English Literature.
  • Study with Friends: Studying with your friends is a great way to study. The positive aspect of group revision is that you can ask your friends questions about the topic in areas you don’t understand.
  • Use Past Exam Papers: Download and obtain as many past papers as you can for all of your subjects, either from your school or college or from the examining board’s website – AQA, Pearson and WJEC have loads of past papers on their websites that are easy to download and print out.
Science is a tough one to revise, so the best thing for you to do is to focus on the stuff that you struggle with.

Avoid Distractions

Turn off your mobile phone, iPod, Spotify account. One of the most successful ways to avoid distractions when studying is to study in a different room, or away from technological devices that can claim your attention.

Don’t be tempted to reply to text messages that aren’t important or urgent, or to check Facebook every twenty minutes. So stop procrastinating during revision and jump right in!

How to revise A Levels

How to Revise for Maths

Looking for how to revise Maths? Check your theories and train yourself to use the formulas that you learn in your Mathematics course in different scenarios, the more you use these scenarios in different contexts, the easier it will be for you to learn everything you need.

Be practical about things, revising Maths isn’t always easy, so you need to give yourself a chance and the best way to do that is by constantly writing things out and trying again and again to perfect the mathematical equations that you have to learn, the more you write these things down, the easier it will be.

History can be tough because, in a lot of essay questions, you will be asked to give your opinion on the era that you’re talking about.

How to Revise for English

Whether you're looking for how to revise an English Literature course> or how to revise an English Language course, all the techniques are the same for English.

The best thing for you to do is to test out your English skills by engaging in creative writing tasks as often as possible, make sure you read the books on your required reading list and try out your knowledge of English by learning the different spelling of certain words you may have difficulty with.

How to Revise Science

Science is a tough one to revise, so the best thing for you to do is to focus on the stuff that you struggle with.

If you find yourself struggling with chemical formulas or how to work out what everything on the Periodic Table of Elements is, then you can make sure you do as much revision as possible on it, taking in each element and studying it as much as possible. No, unfortunately, watching episodes of Breaking Bad don’t count as revising science!

How to revise

How to Revise History

History can be tough because, in a lot of essay questions, you will be asked to give your opinion on the era that you’re talking about. It’s not always easy to come up with an argument without all the facts, so make sure you select the period of time that you’re studying and really knuckle down on it.

A History course is a subject that requires an opinion just as much as it does fact, the fact that many students are able to formulate such cohesive arguments and opinions is what makes it such a fun subject.

There is a difference between simply revising and revising effectively.

How to Revise GCSEs

GCSEs are your first foray into the world of vitally important examinations. These exams may not have too much of an impact on the working world, but they will help you out a lot when it comes to applying to university.

You should revise for your GCSEs one at a time. When you have your GCSE exam timetable, use it to study for your exams as they come along, don’t spend all the time revising for a Geography course whilst you have an IT exam coming up.

Revising effectively means you might be able to revise for shorter periods of time and still have a better revision session.

How to Revise for A Levels

A-Levels are slightly different from GCSEs and are also a paradox as they are both easier and harder to study for.

They are harder to study for as they are a lot more difficult than GCSEs, however, they are easier to manage the revision workload than GCSEs as there are fewer subjects in them. As with GCSEs, take them as they come, revise throughout the year, devote time to each individual subject and learn as much as you can about your own technique.

Your own technique for writing etc will be imperative to revising as this will help shape your answers when it comes to the exams themselves.

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