For those doing retakes......Biology B1

The Art of Revision

Hello all.

This blog is designed mainly for my Year 10's who no doubt are developing abandonment issues at this current moment in time, however everyone is welcome. Before getting on to revision, a personal note to my Year 10 classes. Thank you for everything. I really enjoyed teaching all of you. It really was a pleasure. 

Anyway, step away from the sentimental paragraph and crack on with revision. 

Too many teachers assume pupils know how to revise. This is not the case. Like any other subject or lesson you have to be taught the skills in the first place. Teaching revision is very difficult. Simply put, we are all different and we will all revise in a very personal way. If something works for you, use it. If something doesn't work, dismiss, move on and try another method. However there are some universal truths about revision. 

Before you embark on the journey to an A* (or whatever your target grade is) there are certain things you need to do;

1. Make a timetable. You will very rarely be revising one subject for one exam. It is more likely that you will have many exams all in a short period of time. This means it is impossible to revise one subject, take an exam and then start revising another. You will simply not have enough time. Make a revision timetable, stick to it and you will find you remember more and you won't panic between exams. 

2. Relax. Don't revise 12 hours a day. It doesn't work. You need to revise in short bursts and build in times to relax. Take breaks. If you have revised well for 30-45 minutes, get up, go and do whatever makes you happy (as long as it is legal) for 20 minutes. Just 20 minutes. Don't spend the rest of the day relaxing. Go back to the revision. 

3. Sleep. Get plenty of sleep. Don't revise until 1 in the morning and then lie in. Get at least 8 hours sleep, every night. Get up early-ish and go to bed early-ish. If your body is not well rested neither is your mind. The 30 minutes revision you do tired is worth 5 minutes of revision you do well rested.

4. Be active. Reading alone is not enough. Draw mind maps (which will be featured later on this blog), write notes, edit diagrams, draw pictures, make up stories, write mnemonics, tell someone about what you have learnt, even if they aren't listening you verbalising it helps you to remember. Whatever it is that helps you, do it! Reading notes is a place to start but should never be all you do. 

5. Test yourself. Past papers and tests are very important. Test yourself at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of your revision. When you first sit down to revise, look at the whole unit and do a test on it (past paper, bitesize or whatever). Whatever you did badly on, that is the area you will revise the most. When you have done a fair amount of revision (couple of days or a week) test yourself again. If all is going well do a bit more revision on the other areas and finally test yourself again. You need to know your weaknesses and strengths. Only then can you really revise effectively.

5 universal truths for revision. There will be some mindmaps and methods of revision appearing on here over the coming weeks. Keep on the look out. Any questions, comments etc please leave them on here, join my twitter account or however you want to contact me just get in touch.

Revision is your road map, the grade is your destination and hopefully I can offer you some short cuts to get there. Think of me as the revision Sat Nav.