You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘start your revision early’ seven billion times by now but how early is early? Are we talking months or weeks? Is there any point in revising something months in advance only to forget the information on exam day?
It can be confusing to set a start date, especially since revision seems like such a mountain to climb, but here are some tips that should help you figure out when you should start revising for A Level exams.
Are you worried about revision now?
If you’re wondering when you should start, you’re probably worried about your revision or at least thinking about it. The best way to get rid of that worry is to start revising, even if you start small. For example, you could consolidate some revision notes or organise your subjects and then set a date to get stuck in later on.
Starting now will ease your revision fears and by the time you sit down with a full plan to tackle your revision, it’ll seem like a more manageable task. Starting early is also a great time to figure out your favourite and most successful techniques for revising, making you more prepared the closer exams get.
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Planning your revision
Planning is the key to effective revision. Reports from WhatUni agree that four to five weeks (around a month before your first exam) is the minimum time you should set yourself to revise. So if your first exam is in the middle of May, you might want to start revising during or just after the Easter holidays. The 2357 method is also a good way to start planning your revision, using spaced repetition.
If you have less time than that, then don’t panic! Some students do fine with three weeks or fewer, it just depends on how many exams you have, how quickly you retain information and how you revise. If you think you have a lot of work to do, then start as early as possible. There’s no such thing as starting too early, but starting too late is easy to do if you let time run away with you.
Use mock exams to your advantage
They might seem annoying at the time, but mock exams (or mocks) can help you figure out how much work you might need to do. Which subjects did you get the worst marks on? Start revising these areas! Knowing where your knowledge gaps are makes your revision less of a giant task.
Instead of thinking ‘I have to relearn everything!’ you can see which areas you need to focus on and start with those. Think of your mocks (or practice papers) as a knowledge checklist. Download some more practice papers and use them to address the problem areas. This is also a great way to get used to exam scenarios and remove some stress as it engages active recall.
Learn from your experiences
Have you ever revised for an exam too early and forgotten the things you read first? Have you left it too late and regretted it? Think about your past exams and see what you can learn from them. If there was a technique that helped you revise for an exam try and replicate it. Similarly, if starting late let you down, don’t repeat the same mistake.
Need more help? Find out how much revision you should be doing per day.
