What’s the best way to revise for an A’level exam?

[Cushionsarecomfy]

Please can you give me your top tips for exams success, I would really appreciate it. Subjects are maths, physics and chemistry. DS has coasted, not done much work but managed to do well so is not massively used to revising. He’s got a lot riding on getting good results this summer so needs to start putting in effective effort now.

I did the same at a level along with biology and I found making revision notes in bright colours quite helpful- the actual condensing information was more useful than the reading over the notes but that's helpful too.
Maybe he could try explaining concepts to you- teaching someone really consolidates. Maybe he could buddy up with someone to study with?
Practice practice practice exam questions even with sciences and maths there's only so many ways they can ask the same content so this is key.
For biology I recorded myself reading bits and then listening to it- as it was largely memorisation but this is less useful for the others where you need to understand the information and be able to apply it.

Good luck!

Thanks for taking the time to reply. He’s going to print off past papers and keep working through them. He just can’t seem to get his head around making revision notes.

Lots of practice. You have to fall in love with what you are studying. I am learning German and am surprised by the effort and dedication it needs. But that is normal

For those subjects I’d focus on understanding the theory and main concepts and then go through past papers to ensure you can apply it.

The biggest thing, as has been said, is to keep practising. Even if questions seem very similar, don't go "oh I've done one like that already", but practise identifying the right approach and finding the solution, over and over.

For the things he has to memorise... make notes. Then summarise those notes. Then summarise the summaries. It's the act of writing it which will help the memories stick... passive reading does not have the same effect.

And spread out the learning, and the practising, and the memorising. Cramming it last minute is a strategy that works for very few people.

Read ‘The Revision Revolution’ by Helen Howell. Absolute game changer.