Since the first GCSE revision thread has appeared, and I know what I was like last year, I have created a thread so you can post tips of how to revise, keep calm etc. If you have any more, then feel free to add them below

GCSE REVISION TIPS

• It is never too late to start revising. Starting in March/April is usually a good time. Make sure you have a specification for all your subjects (the ones for science are especially useful, as they are like mini revision guides) and ask your teacher for notes on anything you’ve missed
• Make a revision timetable. Ok, they don’t work for everyone, but you don’t know until you’ve tried it. Even if you make one and only loosely to stick to it, it is better than nothing. Good site for this is www.bbc.co.uk/onelife, go to education > revision > revision planners
• Your brain can only concentrate for 30-45 minutes, so it is more productive to do lots of little revision sessions than 2 long ones. Have frequent breaks
• Find how you learn best, and use it to your advantage. Are you a visual, kinaesthetic or auditory learner?
• Put posters round your room – you sub consciously take them in
• Make some fun plans for after GCSEs, so you have something to look forward to
• Get rid of distractions when you revise, turn off phone, make sure family doesn’t interrupt you
• It is vital you continue to eat and sleep well in the run up to exams, so plenty of fruit and veg, and drink lots of water. It is unlikely that working til the early hours will benefit you in any way.
• Study with friends. I remember doing Music revision over the phone to a friend. It makes it more enjoyable, and is helpful as one of the best ways to see if you know a topic is to teach it to someone else.
• Tape GCSE revision programmes. The BBC do some at about 2am, and you can find when these are on the website or in the Radio Times or something. They’re not in masses of detail, but can be helpful
• Be creative with revision by using coloured pens, posters, highlighters
• Do lots of practice papers. This is one of the best ways to revise. Either do a whole paper and see where you need to improve, or revise a section and then do the questions related with what you’ve just learnt. AQA (www.aqa.org.uk), OCR (www.ocr.org.uk/) and Edxecel (www.edexcel.org.uk) have some practice papers you can download.
• Mix study with fun! If you’re anything like me, you’ll panic and want to revise all the time, but doing something with friends or going out to eat is just what you need during revision time. A balance is vital.
• Get subject specific revision guides. CGP are especially good for Science and Collins is good for Maths.
• If you feel tired/ill or a session isn’t going well, leave it and come back to it later, otherwise it’ll be counterproductive
• In the exam, take deep breaths before you open the paper. That is the worst time. Always read the question carefully, highlight/annotate things if you need to. Work at your own pace, but keep an eye on the clock. Take water in with you.
• Use mneumonics and other techniques to remember information. For my Physics exam, I remembered all the equations in some silly long mneumonic which I remembered and as soon as I got into the exam I wrote down on the question paper. I did the same with Maths.
• Reward yourself, a friend of mine had a strategy, where they'd buy a box of chocolates and for every 200 words of an essay they wrote, they'd have a chocolate.
• Don't revise all day. Say for a day in the Easter holidays, get up at a reasonable time, say 9, and aim to start work by 10. With the time you have left, work for half, and relax for half. Have an hour for lunch, where you fully relax before going to back to studying.
• Revision is a good excuse to go and buy some cool stationery
• Don't watch the clock, rather have aims, but bear in mind your concentration level goes down after 45 minutes. For instance, you could aim to have revised p35 of the revision guide. If it is going well then keep on going, but don't just stare at a page for 30 minutes just because that is when your brain is concentrating
• Use different media, and vary your revision. One subject, you could watch a video and take notes, the next you could make a poster. My History teacher for AS got us to revise for our first test by giving us a table, and we had to cut it up and stick the things in the table in order of importance. You could make flash cards with questions on one side and answers on the other.

Yay Nicki! Since I am due to start today, I really appreciate this! I personally suck at revising (have never actually revised for an exam yet which is terrible) and need to learn how to do it. I'm definitely going to make some posters, because I never thought about that before and I'm SURE it will help.

If anyone is looking for revision guides, I recommend the CGP black books with a purple stripe for most subjects - they include everything for every level of every board

I have some more tips, but better practice what I preach and go and do some work. I'll add things like good revision sites and other tips later.

Thanks a lot, Nicki! I think I'll try the posters around the room thing, which I've never thought of before. I started last night, with a bit of ICT, and this morning, with a bit of Physics. It's going okay, although I'm in a frenzy that I've started too late.... plus I've got 9 exams before the May half term, so to think that I will be sitting exams in the upcoming half term is very scary indeed!

I've got the specification for every single subject, and though some of them are really general, a lot of them (science, ICT, History) are quite specific. I always use the specification to absorb the main points, then elaborate them using colourful revision guides (cos the specs are really monotonous).

I'll share some revision websites that might be of use (I hope I'm allowed to post links?):

General
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gcsebitesize/
http://www.s-cool.co.uk

English & Lit
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk
http://www.englishbiz.co.uk.
http://www.sparknotes.com

Languages
http://www.languagesonline.co.uk

ICT
http://www.ictgcse.com/
http://www.theteacher99.btinternet.co.uk/theteacher/gcse/

History
http://www.johndclare.net


I don't think I'm using colours/diagrams enough though, and am scared also that my method of revising (textbook - notes - questions - past papers) is too... traditional (?) that it won't stay in my memory. I don't know how to start using colours though... just put random things in colour? But I don't know how that would help, really...

I think it would be quite cool if you revise with someone over MSN, especially for languages, like practicing spontaneous questions. If anyone wants to do that my address is in my profile

No, doesn't matter if your method is traditional. I do exactly the same but with a few posters and post its thrown in. There isn't a one size fits all method, everyone revises differently

I could help with GCSE French, but not sure how much has stayed in my brain since GCSE PM me for my MSN address.

More links:

General
Buster Tests - www.bustertests.co.uk
BBC One Life - www.bbc.co.uk/onelife

History
Gidz - www.gidz.co.uk
School History - www.schoolhistory.co.uk

English
Spark Notes - www.sparknotes.com

Music
BBC Revision is fab - has lots of listening examples - www.bbc.co.uk/gcsebitesize

Science
8886 - www.8886.co.uk
WPBS - www.wpbschoolhouse.btinternet.co.uk (Chemistry)

I do that with a French person who is taking an English GCSE equivalent this summer. We have conversations for 30 minutes in English, thrn 30 minutes in French. It improves your reading skills a lot!

Junko, I rekcon the "traditional" past paper method isn't amazing for everyone, and doesn't help you learn everything, but it does give you a great all round preparation for the exam, so you know what to expect and which bits are likely tocome up, and that's why teachers love it so much. I am usually a more traditional person when we do classtime revision - I just summarize topics (and then lose the notes), or me and my friend will quiz each other.

My tip:
If you do a humanity where you need to learn, say, a historical event, or a religious festival, or something involving people, then try having some actions. My friend sucks at remembering the Jewish holidays, so I took her through each of them with actions for each bit, and during our mock exam, I could see her actually acting out Rosh Hashana Apparently she now applies this to a lot of subjects, because she is a drama person, and finds actions very easy to remember. Whatever works for you I guess. Some of my musicy friends have songs to remember lists, and I know some people who will draw diagrams for absolutely everything to memorize it.

For Jane Eyre, one of my teacher's revision tips was:

Live like Jane Eyre. Get up at dawn, straighten your hair (if curly), have burnt porridge for breakfast and stand on a stool for a bit

Thanks Nicki and everyone.
I've decided to start on the firt full day of the hols (Next thurs) though it helps that I've already written revision notes for all my subjects so just have random bits to add.
I'll go buy stationary because I need more highlighters! And I've just printed off my revision timetable on the bbc site.

How many subjects do you guys revise per day?

You could also use the SAM Learning website for revision.

Car Expert

Yeah, SAM learning is okay although your school needs to have registered with it.

Thanks for the advice again CPPF, I generally do 2-3 subjects a day, and I try to contrast them: e.g. I wouldn't do an English Lit and a History one on the same day, as they are both very essayish, or do two languages!

Well for A Levels, I do 2 subjects per day. So much easier to handle than GCSEs. For GCSE I did 3-4, and made a list of my subjects with the one I found hardest at the top, so I did that one first.

My tip: don't revise on your bed as you have a tendency to fall asleep. And try and get a past paper with markscheme to go through carefully so you can see exactly what they want you to write. A lot of it is based on key words you need to include; knowing them is the shortcut to the high marks.

Don't forget that you don't *need* to revise for every exam. You do a lot in school, without even realising it!

I didn't revise for either of the English papers, the ICT papers, music lostening or the German and french listening and reading papers. The only thing I did for the above was reread the set texts, absolutely nothing for ICT and because I'd learned vocab consistenly throughout year 10 and 11, there was not much I cold do for languages. I didn;t so the final music or german listening in the end, but if I had done them I wouldn;t have revised for them.

With your strengths in mind, work out what you need to revise, so Maths, science, history, geography- basically all the subjects based on fact. Subjects which need your opinion or a specialied response, you don't need to pay so much attention to.

Thought I'd bump this thread back up, as it has some useful revision tips for those taken GCSE exams this summer (such as myself)

Car Expert

I was going to say it sounded familiar.

I'll think of some more stuff to contribute later

Interesting.... *Hasn't even thought about revision* I don't do revising!!!!!!

^ I'm worried that I haven't started!

Bumping is illegal CE. Didn't you read the Forum Rules ?

Forum rules? Never noticed they were there...



Car Expert

ARGH! Revision!
Now that's what I should really be doing.....(she says, going off to inspect another few threads...)

Seriously though, I'm not revising yet. My aim for the holidays is not to forget anything - I had mock AS-levels a few weeks ago, and so revised for those. Plus I'm off on gold d of e in a few days, so couldn't do anything then anyway!

But tips - do papers. The absolute best way of revising, especially for maths and sciences. If you get something wrong, check your notes, do it again.
Languages - talk to your friends in the language, watch a foreign DVD, read a foreign magazine. Good "break" from the hard stuff while still helping.

Unfortunately, we don't have mocks for AS or A2, so I haven't revised anything

Not so helpful if you're the only one doing the language... Anyone doing Spanish or German feel like an MSN conversation in said language?

Hehe, I love talking to people on MSN in French/Spanish

Lol...

I've never spoken Spanish in my life (I know nossing!) but I'll give it a go in German if you like!

I studied German up until Year 9, so if I can remember anything about it from three or four years ago, I'll see how it works out! Lol...

I didn't take gcse and im not sure how it works, but i took AS and A2. When i was revising, i split my 2 weeks easter holiday into half, first half doing revision for all the subjects. In the second half (second week) of the holiday I spent the time reading past papers and memorizing mark schemes. I didn't write any answers down as i feel this wastes time and so i wouldn't be able to finish all of the past papers from year 2001 to 2005 (plus December and June exams). I cant speak for other subjects, but if you do physics (AQA/B), chemistry(AQA), biology (OCR), maths (Edexcel) and chinese (Edexcel), im sure that you will be alright if you just read through the papers and MEMORISE the mark schemes, provided that you know your knowledge very well. The mark schemes are REALLY useful, as the questions keep repeating themselves from year to year. I wrote down only the main points only in physics and chemistry (but not for those questions with communication marks) in order to save time.

Im sure memorising the mark schemes works for GCSE science. But of course, we at least need to know the stuff in textbooks.

btw, don't eat too much snacks during revision as they can make ppl fat very easily...

GCSE ppl: good luck with ur exams! i know theres lots of information from the books to remember...

AS ppl: AS was the happiest time i have had and the stuffs are not that difficult. However, unis will give offers based on the results you get! On the good side, you can always resit the modules in A2. Good luck!

A2 ppl: A2 is significantly more difficult than AS and this summer is the last chance to meet the uni offers and there is no chance to resit any modules anymore (unless you repeat)! so GOOD LUCK!

For uni ppl: LOTS TO DO!! I have no idea how to revise and use the time efficiently cos theres too much to do. I got 8 papers to sit this year before specialising... Nearly half of my 6 weeks easter holiday has passed already and I couldn't see Im very productive in terms of work done... exams will be fun... Good luck!

*cries*

Just a thought I've been thinking about. You're supposed to remember a much lower percentage of what you read or write than what you teach - so try and teach other people, whether they're on the same syllabus and just don't get stuff or whether they're not even doing your subject and are just willing to sit there and listen. I remember revising for a big end-of-year science exam in a lesson and did loads of explaining for other people. I'm convinced it helped me remember stuff as well as them and it was actually vaguely fun too

I've done a tiny bit - I don't intend to do too much (especially as I can't do any whatsoever next week and I'm only revising for Y10 pre-mocks that count for very little!) but I guess it's probably worth doing some.