Contents
Introduction
The purpose of revision is to re-familiarise yourself with the content you have learnt and hone your problem-solving skills for peak performance.
In this post, we’re going to look at how to spend your revision time wisely so that you have the best chances of success in exams.
Let’s begin!
How to plan your revision
A great approach for revision is to follow these three steps, in order:
- Complete remaining revision notes
- Revise topics by spaced repetition
- Practice past papers
As you may know, I recommend that you create revision notes as you complete each topic in class. This way, by the time revision comes around you will have a collection of topic summaries from which to revise.
Of course, things sometimes go wrong and you might not have completed them all. So the first step of revision is to complete any remaining revision notes so you have a full set.
The next stage is to re-familiarise yourself with the content by revising individual topics by spaced repetition. This means revising a topic once, and then revising it again at increasing intervals (e.g. 7 days later, followed by another 10 days later). Each time you revise a topic, your brain works hard to recall the facts and this hard work pushes the content more firmly into your long-term memory. As it gets lodged more securely, you can leave it for longer intervals between repetitions. Spaced repetition is a highly efficient way to revise!
When you sit down to revise a topic, here are some activities you should try:
- Reviewing your notes
- Testing recall of facts and equations
- Attempting exam style questions
- Marking your answers
- Updating your summary of that topic with what you learnt
After about a month, you will have revised all topics and you will have a lot of facts at your fingertips! At this point, you will be ready to start practicing past papers, initially untimed and then under timed conditions.
Suggested revision timetable
Here’s a suggested timeframe for the three stages:
This is, of course, just a suggestion and you can change the details depending on your needs. For example, you might want to tweak it based on how long you need for completing revision notes, how many past papers you want to attempt, and the dates (or estimated dates) of your exams.
Memorising equations and facts
A top priority when revising topics is to commit the equations and facts to your memory. The goal is to know the equations and facts by heart, understand how they are applied, and be able to spot when to use them in the exam.
The best way to achieve this is by using the following two methods of active study:
- Testing recall of equations and facts
- Applying the equations and facts to answer questions
This is labour intensive, but it is a highly reliable way of developing the problem-solving skills you need to get high marks in exams. As such, I recommend that you prioritise these methods of active study in your revision plan!
Don’t forget maths, practical skills, and units
Strong knowledge of maths, practical skills, and units will unlock a significant number of marks in quantitative problems and questions on experiments.
For this reason, I suggest that you treat maths, practical skills, and units as topics in their own right and include them in your revision plan. You don’t want to forget them!
Furthermore, some (easy!) marks are awarded for basic knowledge in these areas. You might as well take hold of that low-hanging fruit.
Start practicing past papers
As you can appreciate, the goal of practicing past papers is not necessarily to score high marks (at least at the beginning), but rather to learn as much as you can from each past paper. You want to continuously improve with each past paper you try.
With this in mind, you should initially practice past papers in untimed conditions. Attempt the whole paper, ideally without looking anything up, and then mark it strictly. Extract as much learning as you can and add what you learn to your revision summaries.
You will spot all sorts of tricks and handy reminders that can go in your revision summaries. You will be reminded of key techniques and useful facts. You will get a better feel for how to answer long-form questions. All these insights can go in your summaries, and with each iteration your knowledge and skills will improve.
Attempt past papers under timed conditions
Finally, you will be ready to try past papers under timed conditions. This will help you get used to the time constraints of the exam and get a feel for the pace that is required.
It will also help you get used to making decisions on whether to persevere with a question or cut your losses. This is normal – you do not need to get high marks on every single question to do well overall. It is generally more effective to answer all the questions you are strong on, and then consider questions in your weaker areas at the end if you have time.
In the same way as for untimed past papers, complete the whole paper and then (after a break) mark it strictly. Add what you learn to your revision summaries.
Final preparations the week before exams
You are nearly there! In the final week, you can review your revision summaries, and attempt one, maybe two, timed past papers.
If there are topics you are weaker on, do not panic. I recommend that you focus on consolidating your knowledge on your stronger topics, and look to gain a basic understanding of weaker areas. At this stage, it’s worth playing to your strengths.
Remember, revision does not have to go perfectly! There will always be weaker areas or patches of doubt. The main priority in the final week is to consolidate your position and try to relax and look after yourself before the exam.
On exam day, put external pressures to one side and try to give yourself space to calmly consider the questions at hand. At the end of the exam, you can breath a sigh of relief! Exams are tiring, so take a well-deserved break afterwards.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this post on revision! We covered planning your revision, memorising equations and facts, practicing past papers, and approaching the final week before exams.
You can use these tips to find a way to revise that works for you!
In the meantime, you might like to review the related topics of how to get an A* in A Level physics and exam technique.
Happy studying!