Revision, always a dreaded stage at any point in your education. The endless limbo of both stress and fear can make for some unhappy times.
However, it doesn’t have to be quite so awful. The lead up to exams can be slightly more manageable if you have the right strategies in place.
Even if you have left much of your work until the final hours, not all hope is lost.
We have compiled some basic frameworks to make the mammoth task of last minuet revision, slightly less daunting…
Prioritise Your Workload
If time is far from on your side, you need to be realistic and don’t bite off more than you can chew.
The quickest way to prioritise your work is to look at your syllabus / notes or exam information and colour code.
For instance, the topics your more comfortable with can be green, things you need to go over can be orange and the topics your clueless with should go in red.
If you’re left looking and pages of block red, the take a breath and start at the beginning.
Try and get an early start in the morning with food and coffee. Remove all the green coded information, leave the orange until later and tackle the scary red coded work first.
You got this.
Ditch Reading
Sat looking through notes can jog your memory but ultimately, if your quickly approaching test time, then were going to have to step this up.
Flash cards are a great way to condense any information you need to remember whilst exercising your creative flair. Don’t be afraid to bust out the glitter and glue and go wild while making your sharpie-soaked exam answers.
Studding in a group can also help and break the monotony of blankly staring at words. So can doing past papers, making silly revision songs and watching webinars to spice up revising.
Breaktime
Cramming for too long will reduce the quality of your revision. Be sure to take a brake at least every two hours to get some fresh air, stretch, or treat yourself to some cat memes.
If your worried that you will be distracted, set a timer so measure your brakes, say ten minutes every two hours.
If staying focused is already an issue, then change up where you’re working. Move to the garden or even try to stand while your revise. The blood flow can help keep you engaged and on task.
Condense Those Notes
If you have been using the colour coding system from before and the exam is quickly approaching, it’s time to condense!
Take key points and any info your struggling to remember an put them anywhere you think might help. From your phone background to sticky notes on your wall, get that info in your head.
Make revision easy for yourself while you’re on the move to really maximise all the time you have before the test. Record key points onto your phone so they can be your soundtrack and you can learn on the go.
Remember the Simple Stuff
The night before the big test, de stress by putting the revision away and prepping for the day ahead.
From anything you might need for the exam (stationary etc..) to route planning your way to the exam, even preparing your food and clothes for the next day can help you prepare, save time and make the next day as easy as possible.
