Revision can seem daunting when you're approaching exam season and it's only natural to have a bit of a panic and think "how am I ever going to revise everything in time?!". It's good to get into certain habits when it comes to revision so you don't feel to panicky and you are confident in yourself and feeling prepared when the exams are approaching. 1. Make a list of all the topics for each subject- you could do this from a contents page of a text book or directly from the specification. But BE SPECIFIC! It's so much easier to break each topic down as much as possible. For example in AS Biology, the overall topic is 'Biological Molecules', but I would break this down into 'Proteins', 'Lipids', 'Carbohydrates' etc. This really helps you to keep track of exactly what you have revised. Although the initial thought of writing down every topic may be overwhelming in itself, as you begin to work through it and tick more things off, the idea of revision should start to become less scary your list will keep getting shorter. Just make sure you do this in time for your exam and have time to cover everything! As a guide, in my A2 exams in June, I made big topic lists in February as a tracker to tick of everything that I was confident in.
2. Plan on Sundays for the whole week- I only started doing this from January but it has made a huge difference to my organisation! I often worked from my large topic lists and selected a few to revise each day of the week. This really helped me to feel on top of my revision as I could see exactly what needed doing each week without looking too far ahead. Be realistic, don't plan too much for each day as you don't want to be stressed that you're not sticking to it. Depending on how big each topic is, you could say 30-60 minutes on each topic. For this, I'd recommend a weekly planner so you can keep everything together. You don't want to write any important lists on bits of paper and have them go missing! 3. Start early so you don't have a large workload in exam season- this is SO important, especially for A-Level students! Try and revise and fully understand each topic as you do it in class, so when it comes to your exams you will simply need to 'review' it, as oppose to learning it again. Try and complete past paper questions as you go along, so it doesn't come as a shock later on. Maybe ask your teachers to set end of topic tests if they don't already. My friends and I did this in our lessons and it really gave us that extra push to revise throughout the year, and made exam season that little bit easier! 4. Talk to other people in the same position as you, who also want to succeed and have similar goals. Everyone finds revision overwhelming at some point, and there's no-one better to discuss it with than someone in exactly the same position! It's nice to be able to help each other out but also just to know that you're not the only one. 5. Ask your teacher if you are struggling to structure your revision. It's likely they will have taught other year groups before you, so they will be more familiar with structuring revision and when you should start on different aspects of your revision. Teachers are there to help and you should utilise them as much as you can! If you are revising for upcoming exams, I really hope your revision is going well and not seeming too daunting for you. It will all be worth it in the end! x