Revision resources

[katiem333]

My eldest is struggling with the amount of stuff she has to revise.
We've bought loads of revision guides but they seem to have overwhelmed her.

Has anyone got some advice about good simple easy to use material?

Oops forgot to mention, she is doing GCSEs and Science seems to be the big problem.
Thanks for any help!

For science revision there are two strategies I recommend:

Download a past paper (Google the exam board, they all have past papers & Mark schemes available to download), work through the paper (pay really close attention to the wording of the questions) but with the revision guides/sites open. Try to write the most thorough answers. When using the mark scheme, look carefully at the language they're looking for. Answers that are similar aren't good enough, it has to be the key words used.

Working through a paper should identify areas that need more revision. For these, making mind-maps of revision chapters is my favourite method. Google Tony Buzan, How To Mindmap. Yes it's a lot of effort, but that's what good revision looks like. Follow the rules or it's not worth doing! Best thing after making a Mindmap is to then try to recreate it from memory, then use the original to fill in the gaps. Usually by the 3rd go at this she'll be able to remember the whole thing!

If text books aren't her thing, there are tonnes of useful video lessons on YouTube and Knowmia.com. Use as you would the books to make mind-maps.

Nice paper & nice pens help this!

Oh, I should say don't have her try to DO a paper in exam conditions. That'll feel like punishment! Use the papers as a tool to practice reading and answering questions and as a diagnostic for where the deeper revision needs to happen.

1. Find out what board and specification she is doing, e.g. AQA.
2. Look on the exam board website to get a list of topics for each Science subject, e.g. Biology.
3. Ask her to rate her understanding of each topic using a traffic light system. Green = confident. Amber = not sure. Red = no clue.
4. For red topics, she needs to improve her understanding. There are videos on YouTube of tutors explaining individual science topics.

If you have £50 to spare, Tassomai is an option. It's a website/app where the student learns by regularly answering multiple choice questions. My sixteen year old is finding it quite useful.

Thanks for this Indomitable.
I did try the past paper thing (with the mark scheme) but she ran off to her room and cried.
There is so much to cover that she doesn't seem to be able to make a start.
I like the nice paper and pens option and will take her to the stationery shop tomorrow and Nandos after as a treat.
Thanks also The Second Of Her Name, it is AQA and we have spent some time on the website and have downloaded quite a lot. She says she doesn't understand any of it and needs to revise all of it... Lots of red and very little green!
She has set herself such high targets and feels like a failure.
School have been helpful and have put her into a 'target' group. However she says the other children in the group are in lower sets (they are targeted C grades, she is A) and the work they cover is stuff she already knows.
I had to bite my tongue and not say 'so you do know enough for a C grade then...'
I'm sure it wasn't so bad when I was young!

iirc, there were about 6 major topics per GCSE science paper (DD1 did Edecel GCSE Science last year).

Does she have a revision timetable? Instead of saying 'science' the slots need to say P1 - generating electricity, P1 - universe, P1 - lenses and light or whatever. Then she needs e.g. 3 slots for each topic.
1st slot, make mind maps or cards
2nd slot, practice questions from old papers
3rd slot bits she was weak on in the old papers

Or.
1st slot - mum test me on topic, write down lists of what I don't know
2nd slot - learn those bits
3rd slot - practice questions

For DD we had revision cards for science, about 2 cards for every page in the revision guide. When she had a reasonable grasp on a topic we put a stickered dot on it. When she knew it well she got 2 dots. That way she could really see progress. Towards the end we used small post-its to tag the important cards she was very poor on (eg exothermic v endothermic). DD was aiming for Cs, got Bs. For your DD a similar system straight onto the revision guide might help.

Thanks for the advice.
In the end we found some science revision courses on:
www.educerelearning.co.uk/revision-courses
There is an offer so they were reasonably cheap. She seems to be getting on with it and is a lot happier.
Might try some past papers later.