Meet Jasmine Carey, a current student with us studying Business Studies, English Literature, History and Cambridge Pre-U. She’s joined the Marketing Team as a Journalist Marketing Intern and has written a fantastic article on revision in preparation for the upcoming exams.
Revision – one of the most important topics which should not be avoided…
With exam season rapidly approaching, it is important that revision becomes part of a student’s balanced lifestyle to allow them to reach and exceed their targets and therefore enable them to successfully move ahead with their future ambitions. With revision providing many benefits, including the fact it helps consolidate knowledge, it is important for students like yourself to construct an effective revision schedule for the build up towards exam season...
With revision being a major influence on exam success, it is important that students are aware of the benefits that even a solid few hours of revision per day can bring.Through either note taking or mind mapping, revision is a great way to build confidence before exams as not only does it allow a student to reflect on their knowledge sustained over time, but it also allows for a sense of reassurance as through revising, students often discover their many strengths within their subjects. Similarly, revising also helps a student to feel prepared for their upcoming exams, and through revising consistently, students can not only feel more confident about their own academic knowledge, but they are also able to relax knowing they have consciously helped prepare for their future in the best way they can. Not only is revision great for self-esteem when entering the exam period – especially when revising early which allows for a reduction in stress – but revision also leads to a better chance of successful exam results, and hence opens up more future possibilities…
So, with the benefits of revision enticing many aspiring students to begin devoting their time to study, how can revision become suitable for different learners? For visual learners, techniques such as illustrative mind maps and educational videos are represented as beneficial as it allows students to picture elements of these in exam situations and hence recollect the information they revised so intently. For people who have difficulty in retaining information for their long-term memory, flashcards are a beneficial way to repetitively test one’s memory and ensure it is being retained (especially helpful for the two-year period in which A levels are studied). Despite these techniques being more specific, it is also important to consider the essential revision techniques that help prepare more specifically for exam situations, including general note taking on subject content and essay practice in the form of past papers. Through using a variety and mixture of techniques, it is almost guaranteed that each individual student will be able to find a revision technique to suit their learning styles, an aspect of revision that is seen as essential by Year 12 student Antonia K. When asking Antonia about her revision technique, Antonia stated “you have to find the technique that’s right for you. The one that works the best for me is taking notes on a topic and then trying to write it out on a mind map to see how much I memorise”. As well as finding a revision technique that is right for you individually, it is also important to find access to a variety of resources to assist this revision, which can range from useful websites such as ‘revision world’ and ‘get revising’, to simple educational books. As well as this, ‘Kooth’ is represented as a very valuable addition to help students get through the intense exam period.
Not only is revision an important aspect of life outside of college, but Worthing College helps to support student’s revision while they’re studying here, hence their increasing exam success. Not only do the college aim to encourage revision activities in classrooms, ranging from Kahoot being used in lessons such as history and media to reflect on past learning to regular quizzes in subjects such as literature, the college also aim to achieve a certain level of internal assessments each year to allow students to test their knowledge and have focused improvements to aim for. In addition to these in classroom revision techniques, individual support sessions for subjects are used widely throughout the college, including business support sessions at lunchtimes and sessions for subjects such as law throughout half term. As well as this, the college feel strongly about increasing the beneficial sources accessible to students which means on a regular basis lectures for subjects such as law are held, as well as the college taking students to local universities to attend academic lectures. Through these endless opportunities, the college enables students a greater chance to reach their full potential and give them the support they need to accomplish this, including having student support services where students can confidentially explain their worries to teachers.
Despite revision being an important part of student life, being able to maintain a work and social balance is key in dealing with exam stress. Through adding social time to a revision timetable, this allows individuals to ‘recharge’ their energy and focus on something other than the intense information in front of them, allowing for productivity to be greater in the long term. As well as helping with productivity, spending time with loved ones prevents isolation in exam periods and hence helps an individual feel more supported when undertaking the challenge of exams, particularly if a student is able to express any exam worries to family and friends. From personal experience, I think having a balance is also key to preventing mental health from deteriorating as through devoting all time to study, it is easy to become mentally drained with the intense workload you are forcing upon yourself. So, does finding this suitable balance minimise all stress felt by students? Even when working to an organised schedule, it is almost inevitable that all students will still experience stress around exam time and it is important that it is dealt with effectively. Through traditional anti-stress techniques such as ‘self-care’ methods, regular exercise and getting sufficient sleep, it is important to work in a schedule that allows for regular breaks and a variety of other activities that can minimise any intense stress. Through trying to achieve this, it is very likely that you will be able to add some revision to your daily lifestyle without having to avoid all the fun aspects too!