Greetings citizens of the internet! (™Ryan Sherbet on YouTube)
I’m Jonathan Dunn, director and founder of dunnrite.co.uk, and a year 11 student who’s partway through his exams. I started my revision at the end of January, which is completely reasonable and earlier than when most people started – I think it was just over 100 days until my exams started when I began revising. This means that I have had plenty of time to master my revision techniques, and so I hope to share them with you today.
First of all, revision strategies vary from subject to subject. Also this isn’t necessarily the best way for you to revise as this is a matter of personal preference and so you should do what works best for you.
I would highly recommend a revision timetable; if you want an easy template that I used, then I would be happy to share it. It works best if you lay out pretty much all of your day and then you can visually see where you have free time. I found that 45 minute sessions with 15 minute breaks between each session works best for me. I did initially an hour and a half each day with a day off on Sundays.
I’ll start with Maths as you all should be taking that. Here past papers are key. Work through as many as you can and make sure you understand all the questions you went wrong on; take them to your teacher during lunch if you don’t get them at all.
English. Now, everyone says that you can’t revise for English; well they’re kind of right. It’s not so much revising knowledge, but improving your skills. With the language exam you want to practice the questions and take them to your teacher to get feedback. Then go back and try it again. Also read examiners reports and check out Mr Bruff, on YouTube.
Sciences. You should be taking Chemistry, Biology and Physics. Now for these I disagree with doing past papers partly. I think it’s more important to actually learn what you’re being tested on first. So read through the entire textbook. This seems like a big task, so do it in little manageable bits, like when you’re on the bus. Then read the syllabus through properly. (You can find these with a quick Google search). After reading a topic and its syllabus section, then do the past papers.
MFL. Here you should be learning as much vocab as possible. If you get a vocab book then put them onto Quizlets. I can’t recommend Quizlets enough. (Email me if you’re interested in a complete German Quizlet set of all the vocab you need). Then practice them regularly.
The other subjects are all your options, which will be different to mine, so you can work out how to revise for them yourself. I hope this has been of use. Any questions then email me.
Happy revising and good luck!
(It isn’t about luck; it’s about the hard work you put in now. Success is not by magic it’s by work!)
Jonathan Dunn
