The latest Bethany blog has been written by Mr Davies, Head of History and Politics at Bethany. With exam season upon us, Mr Davies gives advice on effective revision and lists a plethora of techniques to help pupils prepare successfully for exams.

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And so we find ourselves slap-bang in the middle of GCSE and A Level revision time. The Year 7 and 8 pupils are doing their exams as I write and our Year 9s have theirs in the second week after half term. So what better to talk about than revision?

The key thing to remember about revision is that it has to be active, nothing sticks in the head through just staring blankly at a textbook or screen. The other thing to remember is that everyone does it differently and will find methods that work for them; some people love creating spider diagrams whereas others would rather pick their nose with a javelin.

What has certainly changed since my days of revising for GCSEs and A Levels (1990 and 1993, since you ask) is the online world, which can enhance the process hugely. There are many sites which offer free revision tools and even more which require a subscription; but in both cases, the instant feedback pupils get is valuable.

So here is just a small sample of revision techniques and ideas for pupils to help them get through the coming weeks successfully.

Road Map

Most subjects at Bethany use road maps. Use this to focus on the skills and topics you need to revise, not those you’re most confident in.

Quizzes

Use Kahoot and other sites (but bear in mind that anyone can contribute to the quizzes on Kahoot, so you need to take a look to see who made it – generally speaking those made by schools and teachers tend to be vaguely accurate). BBC Bitesize have all sorts of quizzes too.

Documentaries and video tutorials

Use the Revision folder on Teams, as well as YouTube and BBC Bitesize. But don’t just watch – take brief notes.

Notes

But don’t just write pages of notes. Keep them to bullet points, use highlighters to make connections/comparisons, and then test yourself on those notes – rewrite them without looking and see how much you get right and how much you miss out.

Flash Cards

But remember, don’t just write loads of notes – you need to test your knowledge of the notes.

Parents

Talk to them about your revision – explain the topics you’ve learnt, get them to ask you questions. Teach them!

Just A Minute

Test your knowledge of a topic by speaking about it for one minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation – give yourself three lives.

Practice essays/answers

Use the exam board past papers and the Revision folder in teams to find some practice questions. Either write plans for them or full answers. Hand them in to your teacher for marking.

Mind Maps

Use these to show links between different factors – particularly useful for History and Politics.

40-10

40 mins revision, 10 mins break.

Sticky notes

Stick them all over the house, in places which you are going to see.

Group revision

This can be really useful, chatting about topics is great and you can ask each other questions. However, sitting with your friends chatting about the latest hilarious TikTok video does not count.

Online revision sites

Lots of good ones. Gizmo and Medly are good, but speak to your teachers – they will probably have subject-specific ideas too.

Wishing the very best of luck to all pupils in their exams.

 

Mr Davies
Head of History and Politics