Exam Revision Advice

Preparing for exams effectively involves careful planning, good study habits, and balancing work with rest. The following advice is designed to help you create a study routine that supports your learning and maximizes your exam performance.

Draw Up a Revision Timetable

Research indicates that study sessions lasting between 25 and 30 minutes are optimal, as concentration tends to wane beyond this period. To make your revision more productive:

  • Break your study time into focused blocks of 25–30 minutes
  • Take short breaks between blocks to refresh your mind
  • Vary the order of subjects you study to maintain interest and avoid fatigue
  • Use study planner templates available via the green button beneath the examination timetables to organise your schedule effectively

Find a Quiet, Distraction-Free Study Space

Select a location where you can work uninterrupted for extended periods. This might be a quiet corner at home, a library, or a study room. Ensure your study area is tidy, well-lit, and free from distractions such as mobile phones, television, or noisy environments.

Begin Revision Early in the Day

Your ability to concentrate and absorb information is generally higher in the morning. Starting your revision early helps you avoid the stress of last-minute cramming and allows time for review or extra practice later in the day.

Balance Work with Breaks and Exercise

Taking regular breaks is essential to maintain mental focus. Incorporate physical activity into your day, especially during intense study periods. Physical exercise increases your heart rate, improving blood circulation and oxygen delivery to the brain, which boosts productivity and reduces fatigue and stress. Even brief activities such as a walk or stretching can have significant benefits.

Use Your Support Network

Family and friends can be valuable resources during revision. Ask them to quiz you using your revision notes or past papers. Teaching or explaining concepts to others helps reinforce your own understanding. Make sure to select supportive and responsible people who encourage productive study.

How to Revise: Active Learning and Effective Revision Strategies

Active learning is a key to successful revision. Rather than passively reading notes or textbooks, engaging with material in varied and challenging ways improves understanding and recall. The following strategies will help you revise more effectively.

Identify What You Need to Learn

Before you start revising, clarify exactly what content will be assessed. Focus on areas where your knowledge is weaker or where exams will emphasise. Avoid spending excessive time on material you already understand well. If you are unsure about the assessment content, consult your teacher for guidance.

Make Summary Notes

Creating your own summary notes helps you to process and internalize information. Write down key points, definitions, formulas, or concepts in your own words. Use different formats to keep the revision process active and engaging:

  • Bullet points or concise lists
  • Diagrams or flowcharts that illustrate relationships and processes
  • Mind maps to show connections between ideas
  • Flashcards for quick recall and self-testing

Using multiple formats encourages deeper thinking and helps prevent boredom.

Review Notes Regularly Using a Spaced Schedule

Memory retention improves significantly when material is reviewed repeatedly at spaced intervals. Plan to review your notes:

  • One day after initially learning the material
  • Three days later
  • One week later
  • One month later

Without active review, research shows you may forget up to 70% of new information within three days. With consistent revision, recall can remain as high as 90%.

Engage Actively with Your Notes

Active revision means more than reading — it involves retrieval practice and testing yourself:

  • Recite key points aloud or explain them to someone else
  • Cover your notes and try to write down what you remember
  • Use flashcards to test your recall
  • Attempt practice questions or past exam papers without referring to notes

Each time you actively retrieve information, you strengthen your memory and understanding.

Summarise, using keywords

Summarising reduces the amount of material you have to remember while helping you to learn

  • Once you've studied a section, reduce the main ideas to keywords that can be memorised.

  • Start by deciding on the main (most important) idea in each paragraph.Tip: ask yourself: 'What is this paragraph/section about?'

  • Rewrite the main idea in your own words; then reduce it so you're left with a short sentence.

  • Then write a few keywords (the supporting details) under each main idea.

Distillation and re-creation

First 'distil' the material by reducing it to manageable chunks

  • Identify the keywords.

  • Underline or highlight them.

Then re-create the information by

  • Re-telling it in a different way (paraphrasing it) and/or

  • Summarising it, using your own words.


Post-its

Use Post-its to help you review/remember important facts or keywords

  • Stick the Post-its up in places where you won’t miss them.

  • Each time you see a Post-it, briefly review the information.

  • Move the Post-its around so you don’t become so used to seeing them that you no longer notice them.

  • Use different coloured Post-its and coloured pens, symbols, etc. - this helps you to remember.  


Watch The 9 Best Scientific Study Tips



Reciting aloud

Read key sections aloud – listen to yourself

  • Read each section three or four times and listen carefully. Pay attention to what you're saying.

  • Hide the page from view.

  • Recite the main points from memory.

  • Check to see if your recall was accurate.

  • Repeat these steps until you can recall the information easily and accurately.

  • Try recording what you say and play it back.

Test yourself

- The key here is using your own words

  • If you think you know something, but can't put it into your own words, you probably don't know it well enough.

  • Being able to explain something in your own words is the only way to be sure that you really understand it and know it well.


Flashcards

Studying with flashcards is a form of active learning.

Using flashcards to revise forces you to think about the material and do something with it rather than just reading it. And this definitely helps you remember what you are studying.

How to use flashcards for studying

  • As you're working through your learning material or reviewing your notes, identify any terms, concepts or formulas, etc., that you need to learn.

  • Write each question, term, concept and/or formula on a separate flashcard.

  • Write the answer or explanation on the other side of the card.

  • Use your own words whenever possible.

  • Shuffle the cards so you can't figure out any answers based on their location in the deck.

  • Look at the card on the top of the deck: Try to answer the question or explain the term.

  • If you know it, great! Put the card at the bottom of the deck.

  • If you don't know the answer, look at it, and put the card a few down in the deck (so it'll soon come up again).

  • Keep working through the deck of cards until you know all the answers.