Those of you whose Year 11s are steadily revising.......

[BertrandRussell]

How do they organize it?

A subject a day? Past papers? Notes? Revision guides?

Ds has asked me to spend some time this evening helping him make a plan. And I have no idea. Dd just got on with it, and i was a real Last Minute Larry myself- cramming my short term memory, offloading and instantly forgetting. So secretly I can't get my head round anyone revising this early!
Any advice?

I had some links here which might be useful, about how best to revise and how to organise a revision timetable:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/2822454-Study-tips-and-websites-for-those-with-children-in-Y11

The most useful things to be aware of in terms of effective revision are:

Spaced practice: Don't just revise a topic once, make sure you come back to it at increasing intervals. Last minute Larry revisers know that stuff falls instantly out of your brain once the exam is over, but if you do spaced practice, it actually stays there so you can remember more.

Interleaved practice: Don't practice the same type of question over and over because you just get used to doing the same method over and over, then get to the exam, read the question and can't decide which method. Mix stuff up, so if you're doing percentages, don't just do a bunch of percentage of questions, then percentage off, then reverse percentage. Do them randomly so you have to decide which type of percentage question it is first.

Retrieval practice: Practice the act of remembering key facts, by testing yourself. E.g. Don't do always maths questions by reading the notes first then doing the questions. Do some unseen questions so you have to remember the formula for the area of a circle without having just seen it. Flash cards are also good for this.

Noblegiraffe - my DS is in year 10. Please come and move in with us next school year!

Thank you so much. Ds is brilliant at applying what he knows-his science teacher said that he didn't do as well in his mocks as he was expected to do because he got full marks for all the questions where they were given data and had to interpret it, he just hadn't learned the basic facts he needed for the other type of question. Same with Spanish- he is good at the reading and the speaking- writing, where he has to know the rules thoroughly-not so much. Time for flashcards, methinks..........