i) Establish what you need to learn
There’s no point building a plan until you’ve outlined what you need to learn. For example, allocating a chunk of time to History doesn’t give you the structure you need to get the most from the revision session. You need to establish the topics that the exam board expect you to understand. This will be outlined in the course specification, often as subheads. Your teacher may also have provided a summary of this for you. If you are unsure, ask your teacher to help you identify the topics in your course specification.
CAUTION: If you are sourcing the course specification yourself make sure it’s the correct: Exam board, Module, Option and Year. There is a vast array of specifications make sure you get the right one.
ii) Fill it in!
We have designed a great planner but its a partnership between us and you. You need to make this your own.
i). Divide the topics across the weeks:
First divide your Swot HOW? topics into the time you have available / need to revise. The planner is designed to operate over a number of weeks.
ii). Populate the subject and topic columns
The next job is to populate the left hand panel of the plan. First fill in the subject column with all your subjects. The topic column will cover only the first 50% of topics in the first week with the rest populated in the second week. This is the content for your plan, all that’s left is to schedule it (well, and then actually follow it!).
iii) Scheduling the plan: allocating daily priorities
Allocate each of the topics a priority slot at the top of the plan. Your learning style and personal preferences will dictate how you do this. Some people like focus on one subject for the day, others find it less monotonous to study several subjects each day.
iv) Scheduling the plan: allocating time slots
Finally, you can now take each topic priority in a given day and allocate it a study slot in the revision periods section of the plan. At A-Level we suggest 2 hours to each subject, assuming 50 minutes of revision in each hour with a 10 minute break. The outline offers you a lot of flexibility so if at times you need a to have a longer lunch break or some time for social / wind down activities you can add them. The important thing though is to meet your priorities for the day.
v) The revision
Write yourself clear and concise notes on each topic, condensing the key points so you have reference notes to jog your memory later on. Use techniques such as spider diagrams, coloured pens and revision cards to help make these notes and facts easier to digest and recall.
The basis of studying for every exam is having good subject knowledge.
You have the ability to succeed - work hard and believe in yourself. Good luck!
