Our Guide To A* Revision Habits – Exams

Our Guide To A* Revision Habits – Final Exam Preparation

In our final edition of our revision guide, we are going to cover preparing for your exams and summarise everything that we have covered within the A* revision guide.

Step 10: Exam preparation tips

Don’t underestimate the importance of the prep you do immediately before each exam. Get a good night’s sleep – if you’re yawning your way through the paper you won’t be at your best. Look after yourself by having a healthy balanced meal before the exam.

And do your best to keep a positive outlook. Spend some time before the exam visualising it – picture yourself getting ready at home, travelling to the exam hall, sitting down and then knocking every question out of the park. Visualisation techniques like these will help you feel naturally positive when you do the exam for real.

Step 11: Don’t revise all the time

Revising is going to keep you busy, but you don’t have to turn into some kind of study hermit. Reserving a bit of downtime will keep your mind fresh and give you things to look forward to. Build these events into your study plan so they’re as much a focus as all the work you’re doing.

Getting that chill time is simple – just cut out the pointless time-wasting. Sure, lounging around watching telly in your dressing gown might feel relaxing at the time, but you’ve now eaten into the hour when you wanted to guilt-free play tennis with your mate. Manage your time properly and you’ll fit everything in and be ready to go once exam time rolls around.

In Summary

Our 15 steps to amazing revision

1. Make a revision timetable – and make sure it’s one you can stick to
2. Find somewhere peaceful to study (and make sure it has everything you need)
3. Set study goals that you can measure yourself against each day
4. Find your motivation and get your friends and family to help you
5. Find all your class notes and plug any gaps
6. Find past papers, marking schemes and examiner’s reports
7. Write up study notes
8. Create flashcards and revision cards
9. Use mind maps to learn visually
10. Find additional revision resources and study help to increase your learning
11. Use memory techniques to help things stick
12. Make sure you build in lots of study breaks
13. Practise real exam questions from those past papers
14. Treat yourself well immediately before the exam
15. Don’t overdo it!

View other Blog series on Our Guide to A* Revision Habits here:

Our Guide to A* Revision Habits – Introduction

Guide to A* Revision Habits – Study and Motivation

Our Guide to A* Revision Habits – Notes

 A* Revision Habits – Flashcards and Mindmaps

Over the next few weeks Oxford Learning College will be running a series on revision hints and tips to help all students get the best grades possible. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to get alerts on when they are available.