GCSE revision timetable -goconqr or getrevising

[mrs2cats]

We're struggling to get DS to set up a revision timetable. I was wondering if anyone had used either of the above sites and whether it's worth it. It seems they both say they're easy to set up but obviously I don't want him so busy setting up a timetable, getting distracted by the fact they're on a screen etc he doesn't actually revise.

TIA

Bump - I'm interested in this too!

Neither of my boys found GetRevising user friendly - it took ages to set up apparently and you needed to know in advance when you were going to have free time. They found it much easier to just set up a quick hand drawn timetable with, say, 4 revision slots a day and just a subject name. It's very easy then to swap or cross out or amend. But then they don't tend to do detailed timetables, just a rough cycling through the subjects with more time on those that require more memorisation.

My sons school gave him a format for a timetable. They are very keen on getting the kids to organise themselves.

Yes, keep him off the screens. A bit of paper stuck to the wall will do fine. And don't expect him to revise for long periods, build in breaks.
But they do need to be able to sit and concentrate for an hour to 90 minutes, as that's how long most GCSE papers are.

With DD I helped her make one with excel.

1. List the topics for each subject, plus do practice papers.

2. Estimate time needed for each topic for each subject and sum to get total revision time required.

3. Estimate how much revision can be done of a school evening, and at a weekend, and in holidays. be realistic and allow for breaks.

4. List every day from now until start of exams (or end of exams if you don't want any slack in the system). Insert revision sessions. Count revision sessions.

5. Compare time required for revision (from step 2), with revision sessions available (from step 4). If not enough time then you need to up the revision sessions, if more than enough then great you have time to be ill, or build in random sessions off.

6. Slot subjects into revision sessions, mixing and matching to create variety.

7. Follow the timetable, but know you can swap stuff around a bit (but not too much). Check progress against your topics list to ensure you are making required progress. If not then revision sessions will need to be increased.

Thanks for the replies.

TeenAndTween, thanks very much! That looks really helpful. I was feeling a little overwhelmed by it all but that helps.

The other thing we did was to chunk the time into groups of weeks:
Now->End of term
Easter holidays->half term
half term->End
then worked out priorities for each bit.

e.g. Now->End of term:

• revision cards for all content heavy subjects
• question answering technique for English language

Easter holidays->half term

• subjects examined before half term
• keep maths ticking over

half term-> end

• remaining exams

We aimed that half a day before every exam was on intensive final revision for that subject so that it was all 'fresh' in the mind. but it all had to have been properly revised well beforehand