How best to prepare for exams

Deadlines that seem far into the future, i.e. months away, seem elusive and easy to manage ‘another day’. Tomorrow, however, comes closer all the time and makes us feel bad if we still fail to act. In reality, the anticipation and fear of the task (the overhanging cloud) is always more ominious than the task itself. So the only way to start is to actually do it!! Even if you only start with a few pages, it will be a beginning. This sounds simple, but the truth is we often spend more time thinking and fretting about revision than actually just starting revision! And once you have started at least, that’s it.

It’s like when you’re at the edge of a scary-looking ski slope and that is the only way to make your way back home. All you need is that final push to get going as waiting any longer on top will not solve anything. On the contrary.

The best advice regarding revision is therefore super obvious, start early. The earlier, the better.

With a good amount of preparation, organisation and determination, it’s really not that bad. While embarking on the journey of exam revision, remember that this shouldn’t be a short journey - and by short, I mean a few weeks or even months before the exam.

If you put in the effort - like paying attention in class and spending time over set work- it will make your life so much easier almost immediately. Because if you actually understand a subject, it means that when it comes to revising it, the task is much simpler. If you are revising a subject that you know nothing about until the late moment you start revising it, it will be panic time. Late starts may not bode well for your exam performance (which, at the end of the day, is the most important thing) as you may be overtired and not thinking clearly.

There’s often lots to get through and lots to remember, especially with GCSEs; so starting now means that you give yourself enough time to slowly and patiently work through each subject. And it will pay off. Just imagine how amazing you will feel walking out of an exam and having aced it.

People have different approaches to structuring revision, but I found it really useful to set myself goals. I’d make a meticulous timetable for the week and plan to the hour what I was going to revise. So Monday morning 9am-12pm, let’s say, I’d plan to revise not only English, but Shakespeare Paper 1. That way you can make a list of absolutely everything you need to get through and tick it off once you’ve marked out a couple of hours a week for each bit. I’d make massive timetables that I could stick on a wall, so that I could see it (though some people prefer to do this on their computers, and that’s fine too). And the satisfaction of ticking things of your revision list…..