Revision tips?

[K'Ehleyr]

My 16 yr old son is starting his GCSEs in the middle of May. He is now on 3 weeks Easter Hols. His school have suggested 2 hours of revision a day.

Whilst I fully understand the importance of these exams as they will stay with him for life ~ I don't want to 'over-push' him and therefore put him off the whole idea but do want to encourage him.

He has 10 subjects to study for so we have worked out a schedule of
2 X 1 hour sessions (broken down into 20 mins with 10 min break) 1 in am, 1 in evening, Mon - Friday ~ giving him 3 hours per subject over 3 weeks. And some on-line revision tests on Sunday if he finds himself stuck with anything during the week.

Baring in mind he will have 3 weeks back at school before exams begin, do you think this is enough? too much? about right?

Would also appreciate revision tips ~ he has cue cards for important notes but what other ways of revising really make the facts stick?

Any advice welcome, thanks, K.

 

[SmoothieX]

I'm sorry but I don't quite get what you are asking?

What exactly is he revising?

 

[John Picard]

Schedule his study sessions to concentrate on his weakest subjects the most, and briefly touch on the strongest subjects. I like how your schedule includes plenty of breaks; however, if he feels the need to study for two hours and then take a break, by all means do so. Constant breaks can also be a distraction.

Sleep is another important factor. He should not stay up late and then get up early to study. Also, I would interrupt the study period with a completely mindless activity, such as playing a sport with friends, video games, or whatnot. At least for me, it helps my brain process everything in the background and sometimes introduces a new perspective when I resume reviewing the material.

Meals are the final important part. Don't eat too much, but don't skip/go without.

Hope these suggestions help.

 

[cultcross]

Not to be too tactless about it, but what sort of level is he at? If he's taking 10 GCSEs I'm assuming he's of a fairly decent academic standard - if this is the case, you have very little to worry about. GCSEs are not really an intellectual stretch. However, it is of course worth getting into good habits for later exams - I've never been an advocate of revision timetables per sé - instead I set dates by which I must have done x - that way I have goals but I don't sit there feeling crappy because I didn't do my scheduled 23 hours of revision for Tuesday.

Oh, and keep him off TrekBBS - nothing makes a deadline approach quicker than a good argument in TNZ

 

[K'Ehleyr]

I'm sorry but I don't quite get what you are asking?

What exactly is he revising?

All his subjects for GCSE, set English secondary school exams ~ maths, english, sciences, ICT etc.
Just asking for tips/ideas on making revision stick ~

Schedule his study sessions to concentrate on his weakest subjects the most, and briefly touch on the strongest subjects...
Also, I would interrupt the study period with a completely mindless activity, such as playing a sport with friends, video games, or whatnot...
Meals are the final important part. Don't eat too much, but don't skip/go without.
Hope these suggestions help.

Thank you. Yes realise he may need more time with 'fact based' subjects ~ those nightmare history dates , the sciences and the dreaded Latin.
He has the afternoons off to go out with friends and like you say hopefully things will be in the back of his mind that he can check up later
And I agree about food, we are having more exact mealtimes these hols rather than the 'grabs a packet of crisps' thing

Not to be too tactless about it, but what sort of level is he at? If he's taking 10 GCSEs I'm assuming he's of a fairly decent academic standard - if this is the case, you have very little to worry about. GCSEs are not really an intellectual stretch. However, it is of course worth getting into good habits for later exams - I've never been an advocate of revision timetables per sé ...

His mock results were good but your absolutely right about getting in the habit. I do want to encourage him because my O levels were pitifully worse than I could have done. It's not a strict timetable just a 'guideline' and he can't moan at me when I drag him out of bed at 10am () because he suggested it. 'But I only said it because it was Mothers Day' that kinda wailing cuts no ice with me young man

 

[WHF]

I'm sorry but I don't quite get what you are asking?

What exactly is he revising?

All his subjects for GCSE, set English secondary school exams ~ maths, english, sciences, ICT etc.
Just asking for tips/ideas on making revision stick ~

I think the confusion comes from the fact that in North America the term used is studying instead of revising. I learned that from Red Dwarf.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

^Aha! Thank you ~ maybe I should be studying Red Dwarf

 

[Jadzia]

My normal revision plans have been more thorough than this. I even wrote a 10 page "guide to revising" for the new students when I finished college, because my revision was successful . I still have it somewhere.

I normally gave myself about 2 weeks lead in, and then time in between exams which totaled about 4 weeks. Although there was some prep time before this.

My daily plan would typically be 2 hours solid starting in the morning (no definite start time, but starting before noon. I'm laid back like that ), then 60-90 minutes for lunch, and then 2 hours solid in an afternoon, finishing about tea time. My evenings I would always have for myself.

2 hours is a nice block to work to, since most exams are about 1.5 - 2 hours long, so you can train your mind to perform well for a 2 hour block of time.

Another part of the skill is being able to dive in and out of the work effectively, so that you don't need 30 minutes to "warm up" (or equally, to cool down).

 

[SmoothieX]

I think the confusion comes from the fact that in North America the term used is studying instead of revising. I learned that from Red Dwarf.

Now I got it! Here, 'revising' means to change or edit an existing document. I was wondering why your son would be changing some standard exam.

The way I always did things for college and professional exams was to write down everything I knew about the subject material. The topics where I had little more than a title written down for, I knew I needed to review the most.

Then I would review the textbook and fill in my notes where they were the weakest. It always helped me to actually write things down rather than just read out of the text, that what worked for me to sink things into my brain. Also, it gave me a nice condensed outline to review.

How long are these exams? The longer it is, the harder it is to mentally focus for that long. I've taken a couple of 8 hour exams to get my professional engineer's license and I needed to work up to that amount of time without my brains turning into pudding or just daydreaming.

 

[cultcross]

How long are these exams? The longer it is, the harder it is to mentally focus for that long. I've taken a couple of 8 hour exams to get my professional engineer's license and I needed to work up to that amount of time without my brains turning into pudding or just daydreaming.

They vary depending on the subject, but I don't believe any are over 2hrs 15 unless he's taking a practical art exam. The mammoth exams come later if you take English to A level

 

[SmoothieX]

^ That's a good thing. 8 hours in a row is is just painful.

 

[Jadzia]

How long are these exams? The longer it is, the harder it is to mentally focus for that long. I've taken a couple of 8 hour exams to get my professional engineer's license and I needed to work up to that amount of time without my brains turning into pudding or just daydreaming.

I think 1-2 hours is typical for GCSE.

My suggestion above is what I did for all my higher level exams, and 4 days (x4 = 16 hours) per exam is roughly what I allocated.

Even though GCSE level exams is the easiest, there are more of them than what you would do at higher levels, so your revision time is being spread more thinly.

I can't really comment about GCSE's though because I didn't care about them when I did them. Some of them (eg, French) I didn't revise for at all. I don't have any regrets.

 

[cultcross]

Ironically French was one of the few I actively revised for, I have no aptitude for languages outside my own, and I spent hours memorising parrot-fashion whole pages of prepared answers to every possible question I could be asked. It worked

 

[sidious618]

Whoa, we're supposed to study for tests?!

 

[K'Ehleyr]

...The way I always did things for college and professional exams was to write down everything I knew about the subject material. The topics where I had little more than a title written down for, I knew I needed to review the most.

Then I would review the textbook and fill in my notes where they were the weakest. It always helped me to actually write things down rather than just read out of the text, that what worked for me to sink things into my brain. Also, it gave me a nice condensed outline to review.

How long are these exams? The longer it is, the harder it is to mentally focus for that long. I've taken a couple of 8 hour exams to get my professional engineer's license and I needed to work up to that amount of time without my brains turning into pudding or just daydreaming.

I like the idea of writing down what you know and then realising what you need to remember. Yes as previous posts, exams are around 2 hours ~ we're not that cruel to subject them to 8 hours ~ yet

...I can't really comment about GCSE's though because I didn't care about them when I did them. Some of them (eg, French) I didn't revise for at all. I don't have any regrets.

I didn't revise either and although I passed I 'could have done better' as all reports say.
As for French... I have threatened to help him with it ~ think I will see him running for the text books or on-line study

 

[John Picard]

As for French... I have threatened to help him with it

I can imagine his thoughts at that suggestion: "Merde!"

 

[K'Ehleyr]

As for French... I have threatened to help him with it

I can imagine his thoughts at that suggestion: "Merde!"

Oui, mais pourquoi?

 

[An Officer]

For each subject, I would read from notes, textbooks, and whatever else was relevant, then when I felt I had it all in mind, I would write out all the facts I knew from memory. I would then double check my facts, and if I had missed anything, I would spend some time memorising only the things I had missed - then write those out. If I were still missing a few things on this second attempt, I repeated the process as necessary, for only the facts I persistently missed... I went on like this until I at last left nothing behind and all facts had stuck. Taking breaks in the middle of this process is not wise.

It's probably not helpful to tell you this, but I hated revising with a passion, and this dislike was so severe that I would only do the above revision tactic on the actual morning of each subject exam, getting up at 5am and doing a couple of hours or so. I was really winging it, and wasn't sure if it would work, but since it did, and I had very good results, I guess there is something to doing as much revision as you can on the morning of the exam.

I must stress this will only work if he has been working hard throughout the two year course, and already has almost everything in his head that he needs. It's no use studying only one day for each subject if he has been slacking off in the past. However, the technique still works over long-term use - most especially then.

I wish him luck, I'm sure he won't need it. This is what some of the questions from 2007-08 were like:

Science GCSEs: what the questions look like now


1 Our moon seems to disappear during an eclipse. Some people say this is because an old lady covers the moon with her cloak. She does this so that thieves cannot steal the shiny coins on the surface. Which of these would help scientists to prove or disprove this idea?
a. collect evidence from people who believe the lady sees the thieves
b. shout to the lady that the thieves are coming
c. send a probe to the moon to search for coins
d. look for fingerprints

2 The residents of a village have been discussing the plans for a possible nuclear power station near their village. The residents have a variety of thoughts concerning the siting of the new power station. Two views are:
1. the nuclear power station will provide more employment in the area
2. any release of radioactive material would be very dangerous
Which statements are arguments in favour of siting the nuclear power station here?
a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. both 1 and 2
d. neither

3 In the periodic table above (an extract is shown to candidates), the symbol for oxygen is
a. N
b. C
c. P
d. O

4 Which compound results when sodium reacts with fluorine?
a. Sodium chloride
b. Fluorine oxide
c. Sodium oxide
d. Sodium fluoride

5 An Olympic sprinter tested positive for a banned drug. He used a drug called nandrolone. This substance is a synthetic version of the male sex hormone testosterone. It works by increasing muscle growth.
The Olympic sprinter took the banned drug because he wanted to
a. get heavier
b. train on his own
c. be healthier
d. run faster

Answers
1 c; 2 a; 3 d; 4 d; 5 d



Source:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ordered-make-dumbed-GCSE-science-tougher.html

 

[Jadzia]

6. The sky appears blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. Blue is an example of:

a. a fruit
b. a colour
c. a flower
d. a scientific instrument

 

[K'Ehleyr]

^ Ok, maybe I shouldn't panic then lol
and Jadzia, I thought it was e. A really crap boyband