Sixth form revision guide 2018

By the time you get to Sixth Form you are an old hand at exams and have probably developed an understanding of the habits and techniques that work best for you. Nevertheless, this guide is here to remind you of the basics, and perhaps even introduce you to some new ideas as you plan and carry out your revision.

Your A Level exams will obviously be the most in-depth and rigorous assessment of your skills and knowledge in a subject that you have encountered to date. However, many students find the process of preparing and taking A Levels to be less painful than their GSCSE exams. This is probably because you can concentrate your efforts in just three or four subjects which, it is hoped, you have developed an in-depth understanding of over the course. Plus of course you are older and wiser, with a more developed brain and a maturity that you may not have had at GCSE. Because A Levels are more specialist qualifications than GCSE, it follows that a general guide such as this can only ever be of limited use. You should speak to the real experts – your subject teachers – to get their advice on the best way to prepare for assessment in their subject. In all subjects one common theme is likely to emerge – the need to practise applying your knowledge to past paper questions, including under timed conditions. This must play an important role in your exam preparation in all subjects.

As the saying goes, the harder you work, the luckier you get. However, it is important to maintain a balance in your life as you prepare for and take your exams. Whilst there are still more students who under-perform against their potential because they haven’t worked hard enough, there are also a number who under-perform because they have pushed themselves too hard. Inevitably in the build up to exams the balance of your life should shift towards a greater emphasis on academic work, but not to the exclusion of everything else. So, before we get onto the 5 Golden Rules for revision, here are the 4 Key enablers of revision success:

The 4 Key Enablers: Get enough sleep.

Take some regular exercise.

Keep a reasonably healthy diet.

Engage in some regular social activity (in person, not just online).

The 5 Golden Rules Start Revision Early We don’t mean before sunrise (although some find this effective!) we mean that you need to start at least 12-10 weeks ahead of the exam series. For you that means starting your revision effort early in the half term before the Easter holidays.

This avoids MASSED LEARNING (known to most of us as cramming) as this is‌.

Starting early is good news because this way the knowledge that you have will be stored in your long-term memory and you are less likely to forget the chunks that may have previously let you down in exams.

In practice: 1. Revise a topic for 45 mins (more than this and the ability of the brain to process information is significantly reduced).

2. Have a 15 min break.

3. Test yourself or get someone to test you and note your score/recall capability and what tripped you up.

4. Revise the same topic for 20-30 mins the day after.

5. Have a 10 min break.

6. Test yourself again and note your score/recall capability and what tripped you up.

7. Leave that topic for three days before revising it again for 10-20 mins.

8. Have a 5 min break.

9. Test yourself again and note your score/recall capability and now see if you’ve improved on those ‘trip ups’.

10. Then you need to come back to the same topic every 5-7 days or so just to check that it’s still there in the long-term memory. It’s ideal here to use the revision flash cards that you’ve created through your SCIENTIFIC note making (see exam tools).

What this means is that you’ll have a number of topics from different subjects on the go during each stage of your revision schedule and you’ll be coming back to them in cycles as outlined above. This shouldn’t be chaos (we’ll come to planning tools later) although to think about it now you may be nervous about it. It’s about technique and this works – according to all the memory experts – they know what they’re talking about.

What we mean here is that a maximum revision period of 45 minutes (no gadget distractions – see rule 3) is sensible before having a 10-20-minute break to refresh your mind, stretch the legs and grab a snack. You can then get back to it by testing yourself on what you just did before moving on to the next topic revision session. This may be shorter if you are coming back to revising one that you’ve done in the days before (remember the spaced learning technique).

How long should you be doing each day/night?

Well there’s no definite answer here as you will all have different commitments to fit in around your revision – but let’s face it these are important life changing exams! Over the 12-10-week period we recommend that you do at least 2 hours 5 nights a week increasing to at least 5 hours a day when on study leave (this does not include breaks!). This is where your revision schedule planning becomes important – more later on that.

If this sounds like too much sacrifice, then it may help to remember that the time you are investing here will directly affect your future career and earning power. The time you put in now can earn you more money and job contentment in the future. Surely that’s worth you being tough minded for the next 12-10 weeks.

Ensure a Social Media/Gadget Shut Down This will be tough for some of you but could be the make or break of your success in these exams. Switch off your mobile phone. Incoming calls, texts, tweets and other things that go bing or bong are just too tempting, especially if the alternative is memorising irregular verbs.

Turn off the computer, too, unless you are visiting revision websites that have been recommended by your teachers where you get given lots and lots of nice green ticks when you get the answers right.

Seriously, you can’t possibly allow your brain to take in the necessary knowledge if you are constantly bombarded with bing bongs or even the thought that you might be. Turn it off for a maximum of 45 minutes – you can do it! During your break you could switch on and re-engage with cyber socialising but be disciplined enough to get back to it when your break is up.

Get Your Family or Friends on Board the Revision Bandwagon The journey towards being properly prepared for your exams can be lonely if you try and do it all alone. It’s often very useful and reassuring to get your parents, brothers and sisters or friends (study buddies) to be a part of your journey.

1. Get someone to test you on the topic you’ve just covered. They could ask you the questions you’ve been preparing for or listen while you try and remember the key terms. * Note to someone – Be supportive and encouraging. Revision is tough.

2. Be the lecturer. Give a short lecture style presentation to someone. For those who feel the need why not dress up as a university lecturer to do it (fake moustache and glasses?). This isn’t a joke, humour makes the process enjoyable and memorable.

3. Do a revision session with a trusty study buddy. It can be really motivating and comforting to go through your revision journey with another student who is determined to make the most of their revision time like you. You can take notes together, practice past papers, test each other on key terms and play revision games (to be outlined later).

Get Organised to Make an Effective Start There is no better way to feel a sense of

control over your revision journey than by spending your first session for each subject on getting organised. This may take you a few hours to do it properly but will be well worth the effort as you will then have less clutter (on your desk and in your mind) to slow you down.

Here comes a list (an effective revision strategy for some!) on what you need to get organised. Tick them off in this booklet to be sure that you’ve got it covered.

1. Create an overall revision timetable. Use the template we provide or your own if you prefer but you should highlight on the timetable when you will sit down to do your studying.

This will depend on your circumstances but remember that you should be spending at least 2 hours a night revising and at least 5 hours a day when on study leave. Share this with your revision bandwagon (parents/study buddy) so that they can support you and encourage you at these times.

2. Get a copy of the subject syllabus or subject revision checklist. These are crucial in making sure that you know what you’ve done and what’s still left to do. You should tick them off when you’ve revised them first time and then highlight them in green when you are confident you know the topic really well. Ask your teachers for the checklist if you don’t have one.

3. Highlight the topics in each subject that you are less confident in.

Using the syllabus or subject revision checklist you should highlight in pink/red highlighter pen which topics are a priority in each subject.

These are likely to be the topics you revise first so that you know you are making real progress towards better grades.

4. Make sure that you have all the revision notes, guides, text books and website links you’ll need for each subject. This may mean that you have to ask your teachers for additional copies if you’ve lost them. If you don’t have all the things you need you’ll not get the grades you need.

5. Buy new folders, pens, highlighters and plastic wallets and other revision stationery.

A trip to Tesco (there are other retail outlets!) is well worth your effort. To have everything at hand and new puts you in the right frame of mind to make a great start to your revision.

Now organise your revision space You can’t study effectively in clutter and mess. If you are untidy, then for the next 12-10 weeks your revision space will be uncharacteristically and efficiently tidy. Seriously it’s worth the effort. Spending 5 or 10 minutes each day to make sure things are filed and neat in the right places will give you a sense of control and purpose. Stick your revision timetable in a prominent place on or near your revision space.

Revision Tools & Strategies OK so you follow the 5 Golden Rules and you are really on your way to revising very effectively. This will give you the sense of control that you need to reduce worry and allow you to remember far more knowledge when you sit those all-important exams.

BUT you need some ‘real’ tools to actually help you. We don’t want you having to spend extra time thinking about how to go about making your notes and learning what’s in them.

On the next page you’ll find a list of the tools that will really help you to organise and prepare your revision. Make sure you USE THEM. Step one will be to take them home and show them to your revision bandwagon – that generally means your parents.

These tools are Scientifically proven to improve your preparation for exams. So, use them to improve your chances of getting the best grades. Using them does not mean that your revision will take longer! It will save you time in the long term and improve the overall efficiency of your revision journey.

Revision Strategies Explained The following revision strategies are effective but remember that we are all different and what works best for one may not work quite so well for the next. They should be part of your continuous revision journeys. We recommend trying them out and seeing what you feel works best for you. Often using a variety of strategies is most effective as it helps to keep motivation up.

Strategy 1 – Reading and note making (a non-negotiable no brainer!)

Using the revision tools, we have provided you need to read through your revision guides, class notes and websites and add the knowledge and examples to your subject revision and key terms sheets. Once this is done you should put these precious revision sheets in a file or folder so that you can come back to them (Spaced Learning) without any hassle or panic! Remember to:

- Use highlighters to emphasise key points.

- Use different coloured pens to make learning more memorable.

- Use different coloured sheets for each subject. This helps for organisation.

- Use plastic wallets to keep your sheets in perfect condition!

Strategy 2 – PPP AKA Past Paper Practice (another non-negotiable no brainer) It would be very silly not to practice what you are going to have to do! This is called specificity, but you don’t really need to know that.

Some teachers will provide you with these or they may tell you to find them on the exam board websites.

We suggest that you plan to complete some past paper questions relating to the topic that you have just revised in a session. This will keep everything trained on the real exam. Spot on.

Don’t forget you’ll need the MARK SCHEME! Otherwise you’ll never know if you are on the right track. You could ask your study buddy or another bandwagon member to mark them.

Doing this regularly can help you build your confidence and master those key terms.

Strategy 3 – Condense your notes onto REVISION FLASH CARDS Once you have done the hard yards and produced your detailed subject topic revision sheets it is now a very effective strategy to make some concise bullet point prompt notes on revision flash cards. You can buy some when you go on that ‘get organised’ trip to Tesco (other supermarkets are available).

When you transfer the more detailed revision notes to your flash cards you are aiming to try and recall all the knowledge you need for answering exam questions from abbreviated notes such as key terms, dates questions or equations.

It may be that you must go back to your revision sheets if you forget things just to remind yourself and you can add the bits you forgot to the revision flash card so that you are prompted to remember the ‘trip-ups’.

Flash cards are good for testing yourself on key terms or processes too. You can put the answers or diagrams on the back so that you can check you are on track.

It is important to keep your flash cards well organised. At the very least you should keep them together by subject using an elastic band.

Strategy 4 – Add some COLOUR, HIGHLIGHTS and some ART to make things vivid!

This is a easy thing to do and yet it really does help you to remember the knowledge you need to get those top grades. Changing pen colour and highlighting the really important information such as key terms and examples helps to ‘compartmentalise’ the knowledge and this can help you to recall it in the exam.

Adding your own pictures to some of your notes can also be helpful for knowledge recall.

We not talking awesome art here, stick men stuff will do! An image is often easy to remember and as long as you’ve done your revision properly just the thought of an image can allow you remember loads of information.

Strategy 5 – Voice Recordings Can Help For some making a voice recording of your revision notes from your sheets can really help to embed the knowledge in your long-term memory. This method saves you having to read the information again and again and instead you hear it.

You can use your iPad or your phone.

You can then plug in your earphones and listen to your revision at any time. On the bus, eating breakfast, on a nice stress relieving walk and even in bed if that floats your boat! Give it a go – you may find it really helps.

Strategy 6 – Give a lecture to your Bandwagon When you’ve got going on your revision journey and have done enough to feel confident of the subject/topic it’s sometimes useful to stand up in front of the people in your REVISION BANDWAGON and give them a traditional lecture on the stuff you’ve learned. Try and be enthusiastic to make it interesting (you never know you may enjoy it so much that you want to become a teacher!) as this way it will live stronger in your memory.

You can even give your Bandwagon a test at the end. This is an indirect way of testing yourself. Happy days…..

Top Tip – Lecture your mum/dad/brother/sister while they are making dinner. This is especially useful if they are preparing a Sunday Roast as it takes lots of prep which = time….

Strategy 7 – The Revision Dice Game This one is for the final stages of your revision journey. When you’ve done all that needs doing (revision sheets, flash cards all done) you can change the way you revise to spice things up a bit.

All you need is a dice and the following instructions. It’s best played with or in front of those in your revision BANDWAGON….

Rules First choose which subject and topic you are playing with…

Then if you throw a: 1. Write down 5 key terms associated with the topic.

2. Draw a picture of a key process, theory or event to do with topic and label it accordingly.

3. Write a description or definition of the topic or a key term within it.

4. Invent an appropriate question about the topic which may be asked in the exam write it down and answer it.

5. Do 2 minutes of flash card revision on the area that you find most difficult to remember.

6. Give a 2-minute mini-lecture on a key aspect of the topic.