Study tips for exams
1. Start revising early - This means months, not days before the exam. However, if you haven’t started yet,
it’s never too late. Make a timetable to plan your revision and stick to it.
2. Don't spend a long time making your notes look pretty - This is a time-waster. For diagrams, include all
of the details you need to learn, but don't try to produce a work of art.
3. Take short breaks - Every hour, not every 10 minutes.
4. Use revision guides - If available and recommended.
5. In study leave, start revising early - A good time to start revision is 9am. That way you'll get your day's
work done much quicker and you will have time to relax in the evening.
6. Stick revision notes all around your house - This is so you can associate a topic with something in your
house and visual an answer in the exam. You may think, "aha, quadratic equations, they were on the
fridge..."
7. Get drinks and snacks - This is so you don't make excuses to stop every 10 minutes.
8. Sit at a proper desk - Don't try to revise in bed. You will fall asleep.
9. Don't put it off - Procrastination is the long word for putting things off and it means rearranging stuff
on your desk, getting a sudden urge after 15 years to tidy your room, playing the guitar, thinking about
the weekend, painting your toenails ... sit down at your desk and get on with it.
10. Don't just read your notes - You have to write stuff down. This is the basic of "how to revise".
11. Don't turn yourself into a revision zombie - If you stop doing anything else but revision you'll turn into
a zombie. It's really important you keep time to do things you enjoy like movies, shopping, sports,
frisbee, rock-climbing, making model planes. When you're doing these things, try to relax and totally
forget about revision.
12. Do practice exam papers - This is especially important as you get close to the exams.
13. Read the exam timetable properly - Double check so you don't miss an exam and have plenty of time to
prepare for it.
14. Find the right environment to revise - This is not in front of the television or listening to the radio
(music can sometimes be okay, but you need to find the right kind. It's got to be something that's just
there in the background that you're not thinking about at all). Music without singing is better as you
won't be tempted to dance around your room or sing along.
15. Don't hang around the nervous paranoid - If other people’s nerves make you nervous then avoid them
on the morning of the exam. It’s likely they will stress you out, which doesn't help at all.
16. Check in with your teachers - Teachers all want you to do well and they will give you any help they can,
but they expect you to have done some work first. Take control of your own learning by:
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Re-reading your notes
Looking at previous examples
Checking the answers and working backward
Checking Woodbook for notes/powerpoints/examples
STUDY TIPS FOR EXAMS | 19 OCTOBER 2015