How did I do it? Well, isn’t this the million-dollar question?! Truth be told, there is no specific regime you have to follow, nor lifestyle you have to lead in order to be successful in education. I will, however, shed some light on how I made the best out of my education. These are my go-to tips for studying A-levels – though they are also very applicable to GCSEs, undergraduate education and studies further afield.
Tip 1: Know your courses!
Read the specifications of your course! This might seem like common sense but most people miss out on the best grades because they don’t know everything they need to revise. Don’t rely on your teachers to teach you everything – they are only human, and they miss stuff out! For A-Level, I did Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics and the Welsh Baccalaureate. I read the specs for each of these and wrote down all the key points I needed to know.
Tip 2: make decent notes
Personally, I cannot look at a revision book and learn the topics in it! There is far too much information and some of it is unrelated (especially for my exam board where the textbooks were ‘endorsed’ by WJEC not written by WJEC for their exams). I resolved this issue by using different WJEC resources, as well as the internet, and collated information to make succinct, eye-catching notes that suited my learning technique.
Further to this, I would often use resources from other exam boards to consolidate my understanding of a topic. Though, do be careful when using another exam board’s resources – you don’t want to learn unnecessary information.
Tip 3: Timing and Organisation
Time is a cruel mistress, especially when you’ve got 5 assignments, revision for 3 tests, badminton on a Monday, squash on a Thursday and your essay on global issues is due in all in the same week. How are you supposed to write additional notes, attend lessons and maintain a healthy lifestyle (e.g. sleeping, eating, stress-levels), whilst making time to socialise with friends, on top of all that? (Honestly, we students should get some more credit!)
I dealt with this by getting a planner (well… for me it was a bullet journal)! This allowed me to see what time I had free in amongst compulsory lessons. A planner is so useful as you can assign times, make to-do lists, produce and utilise habit trackers, jot down useful additional notes, write daily affirmations or quotes that inspire and motivate you and so much more! By having a journal, I felt that I was 100 times more organised and it really allowed me to collect my thoughts.
One additional way to stay organised is (and this is something I used during GCSEs, A-levels and still use in uni…) sorting work into folders using folder dividers. This doesn’t take long to do and saves you a lot of time in the future. This allows you to flick through work to see if pieces are missing or if additional notes are necessary so definitely sort, sort, sort!
Tip 4: Establish a Revision Technique and Stick to it
If you’re struggling with ideas on how to revise, type in ‘ways to revise’ on the internet and you will get a plethora of answers. Personally, I like to read through my notes then talk out loud like I’m giving a TED talk – I also like to work at my desk in my room. There are many other ways though:
o Using flashcards
o Using apps such as Quizlet and Kahoot
o Teaching someone else the stuff (I highly recommend this method as you have to really understand a topic to teach it to someone else).
o Writing stuff over and over again
o Having lots of notes and condensing them down to one page
o Assigning topics to each room in your house and revising in those rooms
o Chewing gum or wearing a perfume whilst you revise, then chewing the same flavoured gum or wearing the same perfume in the exam (this has actually been proven to work – smell, especially, is a very powerful sense and is able to evoke even the most obscure memories).
These are just a few of the many techniques out there… so what are you waiting for??? Go find your technique!
Tip 5: Set Small Daily Goals
It is so easy to sit and think about the impending doom of exams and the flood of revision associated with it! DON’T do this. It’s only going to cause you unneeded stress and angst (I saw this with so many people whilst doing my A-levels and it made them less productive)
To overcome this, set small goals e.g. “I’m going to revise all of respiration this morning, finish my worksheet on capacitors this afternoon, then write up my maths notes this evening.” Small, manageable goals – you can’t think of the big picture! I always liked to write out a list of what I wanted to achieve that day. Once it was complete, I’d tick it off.
Tip 6: DO PAST PAPERS
This, to me, is a complete ‘no brainer’. The exam boards literally give you the exact answers to questions. Also, exam boards have a tendency to recycle questions and/or alter them slightly so why would you purposefully jeopardise yourself by not knowing the answers! DO ALL the past papers for your current spec and any relevant ones from your old spec. Also, I also made a habit of answering relevant questions from other exam boards such as Eduqas, OCR and AQA – this gave me a wider scope on the topic which helped with answering the more obscure questions.
Tip 7: Have Something to Look Forward to
This can be something big or lots of small things. On a small scale, I would often look forward to an episode of a TV series or a movie with my family. On a big scale, I organised to partake in the Camp America scheme in the summer following my exams – this was a very fast turnover, I finished my last physics exam on Monday and flew to New York on the Saturday! This was a really great way to shake off my old life and ‘de-examify’!
Try and have something big to look forward to, despite the current situation. Knowing that you’ve got something good to come improves both motivation and mindset.
Tip 8: Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
This is so important! Everybody has different abilities, strengths, weaknesses, interests etc. You will always have people who are better than you, less capable than you and similar to you – that is life. If you want to be successful in you’re A-levels/GCSEs/degree; you have to accept when you are not the best at something, improve and expand on things you are good at, pick yourself back up and work harder when something is causing you trouble and be willing to accept some friendly competition as an impetus to be better.
If for one second, you think I flitted through A-levels as a walking-talking font of all knowledge – you’re wrong! No one does this – unless you’re Jeff Bezos and you’re studying business!
There you have it! My tops tips for being the best you can in your education. As you can see, I did not follow a strict routine or eat some special, exotic fruit which made my brain bigger. In addition to the points above; I kept my social life to a minimum, did not have a job and revised most days (yep, I was a little nerd!)
I also hasten to add that YOU DO NOT NEED 5A*s TO GET INTO OXFORD! My offer was A*AA (which is normal) or AAAA. Therefore, don’t overdo yourself – aim to do your absolute best – because you can’t be disappointed if you know there was nothing more you could do!
Massive love to you all and wishing you all huge success in your education – now go and revise… Why are you still here?
Love Abbie <3
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