Chloe’s 5 Top Tips for Successful GCSE Revision!

Posted on 9 May 2018

With the exam season nearly upon us, we asked several students who are currently revising for their top tips for surviving revision. Here Chloe, aged 16, gives her top 5 tips for successful GCSE revision.

1. Make a revision timetable

Revision timetables help you to see that in fact, there is still time to revise all of your subjects!

This is one of the most common revision strategies out there, but one of the most useful. Making a revision timetable helps you to allocate revision time for all of your subjects, prioritising the ones you struggle with the most or the subjects you’d like to succeed in the most. Revision timetables help you to see that in fact, there is still time to revise all of your subjects! As long as you make sure you incorporate breaks, free time and spare sections into your timetable, it will motivate you to stick to it.

2. Have your own revision space

Having a tidy and spacious environment to work in with no distractions is motivating and prevents procrastination.

Having your own revision space is so important because having a tidy and spacious environment to work in with no distractions is motivating and prevents procrastination. Your revision space could be your dining table, a desk in your bedroom or office, or even a kitchen bench! It doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s a comfortable place that you feel happy to work in, distraction free.

3. Make the most of extracurricular revision sessions

Working in the school environment makes you more productive.

Attending after school revision sessions is a great use of time because you are free to ask your teachers any subject specific questions, and after-school revision sessions often give you the opportunity to have one to one or small group teaching. Also, if you’re like me, you might find that working in the school environment makes you more productive. Ask your teachers or look at your school’s revision timetables to see what sessions are on offer.

4. Decide which revision methods work best for each subject, and for you

Experiment with different revision techniques to find the ones that work best for you.

There is a multitude of different revision techniques out there, but some work better than others, depending on the person and depending on the subject. I find that flashcards are useful for remembering physics and maths equations and English quotations, memrise.com is useful for learning German/French/Spanish etc vocabulary, mind maps are useful for most subjects, and timelines are useful for history. Past paper questions are also extremely useful for all subjects! Experiment with different revision techniques to find the ones that work best for you.

5. And last but certainly not least, reward yourself for good work

It’s so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of exams, but remember that you need to take time out.

Rewarding yourself and having time off is arguably one of the most important things to remember to do during revision time. It’s so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of exams, but remember that you need to take time out – take a break, have a bath, go out with friends, or treat yourself with something materialistic – whatever makes you feel happy and recharged, do it! Knowing that a reward lies in wait for you is also a really good source of motivation whilst you’re revising.

So there we have it – those are my 5 top tips for successful GCSE revision, speaking from the perspective of a student myself. Good luck with your exams, and remember to treat yourself every now and then!

You can find out more about Scholastic’s range of GCSE 9–1 revision guides and exam practice books on our website: www.scholastic.co.uk/gcse .