Revision, revision, revision

That’s what I seem to have been doing for the whole Christmas holidays so far! I don’t like revising at the best of times (who does?) but I have a particularly strong dislike for it during the festive period.

There are so many things I’d rather be doing but unfortunately both of my exams are in the first two days of the exam period (and ones on my birthday to make it even better) so there isn’t that long to revise and now I’m in second year there’s the added pressure of the grades counting towards my degree.

I mentioned in my last post I would be writing this about the way I organise my revision:

• Always go over everything briefly – even if you just skim over your notes it’s worth making sure you’ve not forgotten that REALLY important bit of information that you were told in the otherwise easiest lecture of the term.
• Prioritise what you don’t know – Spending loads of time on what you are good at won’t change anything, you will just end up really good at the stuff you were already good at and will still have no idea about the stuff you weren’t.
• Make a plan – a cliché but it works – although I never make a really strict, detailed plan. I prefer to work out how many lectures I have for each topic and work out how many I need to get through per day. I find this much easier to stick too because if some days I get an extra one done it means a day when I am busier with other things I can do one less.
• Work out how you revise best – for me I write up all my notes after each lecture with panopto (adding in the bits I missed and highlighting important things), then I type them up nearer the exams and finally I go through each one again testing myself to check what I know and don’t know. I also make a note of what I don’t know so that I can go back and look at it again.
• Be realistic about which days you will be able to do revision – for me I knew there was no point planning to do any on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day.
• Always leave yourself at least a day (if possible two or three) before the exam that you will have finished revision by and you can go back and focus on the things you found hard/ need to look at again.
• DO THE PRACTICE QUESTIONS – if there are any example exam questions available do them! They will give you a better idea of what you will need to know and how you need to answer them.
• Don’t leave it all to the last minute – this isn’t a rule that will suit everyone, some people find cramming works. I don’t I would just end up as a stressed heap on the floor wishing that I had my life together and hadn’t tried to learn 3 months of lectures in 3 days! The rule I stick to? Don’t do any revising after 6pm the night before the exam. Occasionally I will look over an equation in the morning or something that is purely memory based but I generally avoid doing anything.

Obviously these are just tips, what works for me doesn’t work for everyone but I hope it might help if you have no idea where to start! Good luck everyone!

B x