This is the most important part and yet, we always assume that all students know how to study and revise. This is not the case. Read these documents and links and personalize the advice so that it suits you. What works for one student will not necessarily work for another! Studying and revising are very personal. Email me if you have any tips you would like to add.

Starting on a two year examination course is like nothing you have ever done before. So there are many pitfalls that you can avoid if you are careful. The first few weeks are vital because if you get off to a good start you gain confidence in yourself and you will be able to enjoy the subject knowing that it is not going to be a horrendous chore for the next two years nor wishing that you never opted for the subject.

One problem students have in adjusting to GCSE/A Level is that the final examinations appear to be so far away that it is easy to believe that you can carry on just as you did for the last several years. This is definitely not the case. Your chances of getting the best grade you can are much higher if, from the very beginning, you make an effort to develop good study habits.

You will also have to develop the study skills that are required both to understand the subject or to process the information successfully and efficiently.

Doing well at GCSE/A Level is not just a matter of magic, it requires a lot of hard work and determination.

The most important point is that you have to think carefully about how you are going to do your work and organize it. You have to plan your studies properly.

Here are some important tips on how to start your GCSE or A Level.

1. It is vital that you make a good set of class notes. These notes are yours and it is up to you to make sure that they will be useful when you have to do revision. Answer ALL the questions on the work sheets, including those set from the text book. Make any additional notes in the margins to help your understanding.

2. Keep your file well organized. You must have an A4 ring file that you can keep all your day-to-day notes and a large file at home to keep all the completed units.

3. Experimental reports and homework must be included in your file at the appropriate place, not just at the end of the unit. Always give a clear reference to the textbook or class notes.

4. Use your homework diary properly, make a clear record of the work you have to do and when it should be handed in. Don't leave things to the last minute. Keep up-to-date and hand your work in on time. There is an awful lot of material to go through in order to finish the syllabus: once you get behind catching up becomes very difficult.

5. Work where you will be least disturbed and can concentrate hardest.

Homework should always be done properly at home.  Do not rush it or skip over it. There are many different types of homework so it is important that you not only understand what you have to do but also why you have to do it.

1) Consolidation and review of lesson. The graph above shows the amount of information that your memory can recall. If you do not review the work you have done earlier in the day you quickly forget most of the information. However if you do review the work you will remember much more. So revision for the end of unit test will be much easier.
 

2) Development of your own understanding of the material cover in the lesson. This is best achieved by writing about the topic or answering questions and/or reading.
 

3) Development of your own ideas. This could be extension work or an essay.
 

4) Research work. You will be given work where you have to use your text book or other reference book. Often it is better to do this type of book work in your own time so that more class time can be spent on experiment and demonstrations.
 

5) Write up of experiments.
 

6) Revision for test.

It is usually at this time of year that nerves first begin to affect those preparing for GCSE and A Level examinations. So what can parents and teachers do to help pupils keep their cool?

Although there is no magic formula for exam success, it is vital that students are encouraged to remain self-confident. A successful student must be an effective communicator - something that will be impossible if he is crippled by nerves.

The purpose of the examination, after all, is to test the candidate’s ability to read and comprehend the questions set and then provide an answer that ‘matches’ them. A common failure among pupils is that, instead of addressing the question on the exam paper, they try to answer one they had hoped to see and for which they had prepared.

Many pupils find examination skills difficult to grasp because they do not understand the need to learn a basic methodology and then practise it. The fact is that success comes only through regular and repeated practice of past exam questions.

In any exam, it is important not to begin by immediately answering the questions. Rather, pupils should read all the information in the paper to understand what it means, then carefully read over the questions. Only after doing this should they begin to write their answers.

Students who will be sitting exams this summer should remember that the key to success is focusing on the questions and having confidence in their abilities. Confidence will improve grades. And there is no substitute for the old adage that practice makes perfect.

Why should you revise?

You cannot expect to remember all the science that you have studied unless you revise it. It is important to fix it all in your memory so that you can recall it in a test.
 

Where should you revise?

In a quiet room, with a table and a clock. The room should be comfortably and brightly lighted. A reading lamp on the table helps you to concentrate on your work and reduces eye-strain.
 

When should you revise?

Start your revision early each evening, before your brain gets tired.
 

How should you revise?

If you sit down to revise without thinking of a definite finishing time, you will find that your teaming efficiency falls lower and lower and fewer.

If you sit down to revise, saying to yourself that you will definitely stop after 2 hours, then you learning efficiency falls at the beginning but rises towards the end as your brain realises it is coming to the end of the session (see the graph).

We can use this U-shaped curve to help us work more efficiently by splitting a 3 hour session into 4 shorter sessions, each of about 25 minutes with a short, planned break between them. The breaks must be planned beforehand so that the graph rises near the end of each short session.

For example, if you start your revision at 6.00 pm, you should look at your clock or watch and say to yourself, "I will work until 6.25 pm and then stop - not earlier and not later". At 6.25 pm you should leave the table for a relaxation break of 10 minutes (or less), returning by 6.35 pm when you should say to yourself, "I will work until 7.00 pm and then stop not earlier and not later". Continuing in this way is more efficient and causes less strain on you.
 
 

How often should you revise?

The graph below shows of the amount of information that your memory can recall at different times after you have finished a revision session.

Surprisingly, the graph rises at the beginning. This is because your brain is still sorting out the information that you have been learning. The graph soon falls rapidly so that after 1 day you may remember only about a quarter of what you had learned.
 

There are two ways of improving your recall and raising this graph:

If you briefly revise the same work again after 10 minutes (at the high point of the graph) then the graph falls much more slowly. This fits in with your 10 minute break between revision sessions. Using the example on the opposite page, when you return to your table at 6.35 pm, the first thing you should do is review, briefly the work you learned before 6.25 pm.
 

The graph can be lifted again by briefly reviewing the work after 1 day and then again after 1 week. That is, on Tuesday night your should look through the work you learned on Monday night and the work you learned on the previous Tuesday night, so that it is fixed quite firmly in your long-term memory. So make sure you start your revision a few days before the test, do not leave it to the day before - you will only recall 25% of the work.

PICTURES IN THE MIND

Another method of improving your memory is by taking care to try to understand all parts of your work. This makes all the graphs higher. If you learn your work in a parrot-fashion (as you have to do with telephone numbers), all these graphs will be lower. On the occasions when you have to learn facts by heart, try to picture them as exaggerated, colourful images in your mind.

For many pupils, ‘mind mapping’ is an effective tool both in study preparation and in planning the answer in the exam room. The technique is also a way of providing structure. Starting with a central point – a topic area in the case of revision, or the question in an exam situation – the pupil constructs a spider diagram linking the key areas for discussion.
 

Remember : The most important points about revision are that it must occur often and be repeated at the right intervals.