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Revision Tips
1. Don't panic !
2. Make a revision plan up to the date of the exam.
3. Read through your notes and any other material that your teacher has given you, and the notes on this site.
4. Use different "tricks" to learn things you never learn from just reading through your notes
5. For each area of the syllabus try to find one quote or bible reference that is useful.
6. Use the tests and essay questions on this site (and the BBC Bitesize) to test yourself.
7. If you have taped it watch the BBC Bitesize video - watch it in snippets along with your notes.
8. Don't revise for more than about an hour at a time, then have a break.
9. On the night before the exam read through your notes.
10. DON'T try to do any "last second" revision just before the exam.
Planning Ahead
1. Work out how much time you have to revise.
2. Draw the plan - one week per A4 sheet of paper.
3. On the plan enter the fixed events which you have to attend: e.g. birthday party, Youth Club, Saturday job etc.
4. Divide the remaining time into morning, afternoon, and evening sessions of about 3 hours each
e.g. morning (9-12 a.m), afternoon (2-5 p.m) and evening (7-10 p.m.)
5. On separate pieces of paper take each of your subjects and make a list of all the topics for each one.
6. On another piece of paper re-list the topics in order of difficulty - most difficult at the top.
7. On the plan enter 3 topics for each session, one from each subject, most difficult first.
8. This plan should not take you more than one session to construct. Seeing your task laid out like this should help to give you the confidence of knowing that everything's in its place - remember you have control over what you do, not the work. By starting with the most difficult topics you should be able to get them out of the way at the beginning of the revision period. It means that you have an incentive in that it can only get easier as you work towards the examinations - light at the end of the tunnel.
9. Don't try to do topics from the same subject in the same session. You are unlikely to be able to concentrate for longer than an hour on any one topic. By changing topics you'll be fresher than doing a long stint on the same thing. An hour will give you something to aim for. Knowing that a particular pain will end after an hour is better than feeling that it's going to go on for ever - then you can switch to a different subject and a different kind of pain; variety is the spice of revision. By the end of the first week you should have revised the most difficult of your topics, after which it can only get easier, and you'll have a sense of achievement - crossing the topics off the plan as you complete them can be very satisfying!
But how do I remember it all?
Bullet Points Put important terms onto Post-It notes - stick them around the house
Coloured coding - a colour for each type of information perhaps Underlining
Highlighing Make up a rhyme, mnemonic (Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain for the colours of the rainbow), song or mime (!) to aid recall
Try teaching or explaining a particular topic to a relative or friend - (you have to understand it before you can teach it) Test yourself
Practice drawing a diagram Make up index cards of important terms - carry them around with you
Tape-record yourself reciting information - (do a 'karaoke' with yourself, leave gaps to fill in) Draw a spider's web of topic relationships
Make a presentation of key facts Make a series of podcasts for your mp3 player to listen to on the bus
and when you are in the examination ...
1. Spend the first 5 minutes reading through the exam.
2. DON'T PANIC !
3. Read through the whole of each question carefully.
4. Write in your best handwriting so the examiner can read your answers; they will not give you the benefit of the doubt if they cannot read your answer.
5. You should spend about 30 minutes on Section A, about 30 minutes of Section B and about 40 minutes on Section C. Try to answer all questions, you are likely to get more marks for good answers to all the questions than excellent answers to two thirds because you run out of time.
6. In pencil make some quick notes on each part of the question.
7. Look at the number of marks available and try to make that many points, make sure you don't answer the next part of the question.
8. For the questions that have "show you have thought of more than one point of view" make sure that you have both sides of the argument in your answer or you can only get half the marks for 5 pages on one point of view !
9. For the longer questions make some notes in the margin or on one of the blank pages to plan your answer before you start to write.
10. If you have any blank spaces - have a guess you cannot LOSE marks for a wrong answer over a space.
11. Spend the last 5 minutes reading through your answers making sure you have not made any silly mistakes.
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