tips for revising

Mock exam season is approaching and that can often lead to a great deal of stress, affecting mental health in many ways. In this article I will be talking about some tips and tricks to ease the stress of the workload and some great ways to retain information for subjects you feel you know very little about! 


I did all my gcse's this year & am now in year 12, I managed to pass all my exams and thought that i'd share some of the ways I managed to do so & managed to keep on top of everything. The most important thing is starting to revise as soon as possible, you then don't have to cram loads of stuff in a week or two before the actual exam itself (I was guilty of this at some times, we all do it) I regret leaving some revising to the last minute because nothing stayed in, however recaps the night before are very effective, but don't teach yourself anything new within 48 hours of the exam, it will stress you out.


Revision Tips: 

• Question cards (science, maths, music etc) ! - write a question on one side of the card and the answer on the other, (spending this time writing out them will also help you remember information) start by reading the question then the answer using the card, then move onto the answer without the card, then try reading the answer and guessing the question- get friends & family to test you, see how many you get right, put these on a separate pile to the ones you get wrong, go over the ones you struggle with until you get them right, then when you know all of them go over them again a few times a week to keep them fresh in your mind. 
• Flow charts / spider diagrams - Keep these simple, try not to write full sentences as it will be too much to remember, try and use images (even if you can't draw) that you can relate to the fact, use key words and phrases, make it colourful so you can remember it. Keep everything in bullet points. 
• Stories. - I know this sounds dumb, but try and make up a story that has facts from your subject interweaved into it, I have always been very good at english so this was my go to method, I found that it was easy to remember quick stories and scenarios, write down the key facts you want to use, and try and interpret them into a story of your own that you will remember.
• Highlighters! - if you don't have highlighters, I highly advise getting some, make sure to highlight the important parts from the text, not full sentences, try and write out the unhighlighted words on a piece of paper and fill in the blanks with the "key words" you have chosen, it should be easier as the bright colours will be fresh in your mind- hence why you keep the highlighting short and snappy. 
• Recordings (speaking exams/music exams)- Recording pieces of music studied or speaking exams for languages is so useful, if you can listen to yourself speaking as many times as possible (literally until you're sick of it) it will almost come as second nature, I did my speaking exam almost a year ago and I still remember it today! Recording pieces of music for music exams is also good as you remember the parts of you're listening to it on a daily, try and pause it at parts where the music changes or you think there's something important.
• Revision guides- I'm guessing all school's give out them but if they don't, revision guides are so useful, and most of them tend to have questions to try at the back, these are great for working on in your spare time when you have a minute & they're often very effective.  

Hope you all do great in any upcoming exams!! Good luck with revising and remember to not let the workload get ahead of you, take breaks every hour and always have food and drink near you when studying, perhaps revise to acoustic / classical music, nothing fast paced or too pop that may distract you, but music is good, you can even relate certain songs to certain facts which is quite helpful also. 


All Love!! 


Emie x