There already is an excellent article on the Justin Craig website on how a parent can support their child on a day-to-day basis with ideas on how to revise and support revision(here).

This article takes a more strategic overview, explaining how exam boards work and how the planning for exam revision is assisted by the exam boards by publishing, well in advance, the exam timetable for the coming year.

Exam Boards

Many parents and those not involved in the world of education are surprised that there is more than one writer of exams. Many think that there is an exams department within the Department for Education whose job it is to write exams and therefore there is one single version of GCSE English Literature or A Level Physics.

This is not the case. There are several exam boards in the UK: AQA, OCR, EDEXCEL, WEJC/EDUQAS (Known as the “Welsh Board” but very popular in the north of England),CCEA ( Northern Ireland’s exam board, but also used by some schools within GB).

The exam boards are overseen by the Joint Council for Qualifications to ensure consistency of standards. In other words, to ensure no exam board is seen as “too hard” or “too easy”.

School Selection of Exam Boards

These exam boards are businesses. Schools are charged per pupil, per exam sat. Each school spends many thousands of pounds each year on exam fees. My last school paid approx. £30,000 annually for 100 GCSE students. Schools with more pupils, who also have a sixth form doing A levels, will obviously spend a great deal more on exam entry fees.

Schools and departments within schools have a great deal of flexibility on which exam board they choose for their pupils and for their individual subjects. So, for example the pupils may be doing WJEC/EDUQAS for English Language and English Literature and AQA for Maths. It is very common for a school to be working with several different exam boards, based on the desires of individual subject leaders.

Justin Craig staff are very experienced in working with the various exam boards. Many Justin Craig staff are examiners and have been for many years.

Which Exam Board has your child’s school selected – and for which subject?

It is important to know which exam board you child is doing for each subject. Each exam board has different specifications and slightly different Assessment Objectives (AOs).

Take for example GCSE English Literature. Dependent on the exam board, a pupil may study: A Christmas Carol, Romeo and Juliet, Blood Brothers, Anthology of Poetry.

For another exam board the literature might be: An Inspector Calls, Animal Farm, Macbeth, Anthology of Poetry (different to other exam boards).

English teachers have a great deal of choice as each exam board lists various plays and novels that they can choose from.

That example is just for English Literature at GCSE! Add to the mix History with its many, many historical periods, Religious Education with the various faiths and philosophies to choose from, Drama with its lists and lists of plays. The sciences and maths are slightly less complicated, but some exam boards ask for different things.

It is therefore vital for parents to know which exam board their child is doing for each subject.

How does a parent do this?

It is simply a straightforward matter of asking your child’s subject teacher or head of subject.

All schools have contact details for individual staff, if they do not then a generic email should be available to be forwarded to the relevant teacher.

Don’t worry about being seen as a nuisance for asking for this information. You are not. Staff will find it refreshing to have a parent taking such a close interest. In the long run it makes their task so much easier.

Exam Board Resources

Once you have discovered which board covers which subject, you will have an enjoyable time looking at the relevant exam board website and seeing all the resources on there, in particular past papers.

Whilst past papers are a valuable resource, I would resist the temptation of printing off a load of them and asking your child to “have a go”. Such an approach could be damaging:

1. If they have not been prepared by the school to know what a past paper looks like, and,
2. The school may have planned to set up a series of mock exams and revision sessions based on past papers, so check with your child’s teacher first.

The Exam Timetable

A quick word about the exams timetable. Despite there being several different exam boards, they do get together and decide which exam is on which day. So, for example, no matter which exam board you child is studying for maths the exams for papers 1,2 and 3 will be on the same day.

Publication

The timetable is published in the Autumn Term at the end of October or earlier. From the published timetable you can get a steer on which exams are early and which are late. For example, Religious Education tends to be one of the first exams and Physics one of the last (though check carefully each year).

Exam tabling & Revision

Knowledge of what is timetabled and when, will help your child (and you!) to fine tune the revision plan as the exam season approaches. As exams are completed, a printed off version of the exam timetable with your child’s exams highlighted and crossed off as they are completed can be a great boost for morale!

Exams Duration

There is usually a six-week period for exams from May though to June. There are never any exams after the end of June, as Northern Ireland Schools finish then (lucky them!). There is a break for the summer half term when there are no exams. Justin Craig run courses during this period, and they can be very useful to introduce a laser focused approach on exams and subjects yet to be set. The JC website has full details of these courses.

Finally, in the words of Corporal Jones: “Don’t panic”. We at Justin Craig are the exam experts and have well over forty years’ experience of successful exam revision. Many of our staff are examiners past and present and ALL are subject experts who know what they are doing and what the secret to success is. Give us a call and we can help.

Good luck!

Transitioning to GCSEs or A Levels?

With the school year now in full swing, many Year 10 and 12 students are struggling to come to terms with the differences and increased demands of a step up.

For Year 10, they need to cover a lot of material over a breadth of subjects, plus possibly playing catch up after a challenging school year.

Whilst we are concentrating more on the Year 12s in the article below, much of the study and organisational advice will apply to Year 10s, with a view to go on to A Levels.

So, what’s so hard about being a year 12 student? Despite studying fewer subjects, the subject content is significantly greater. It’s also much harder, requiring students to display new and enhanced exam and study skills. When combined with the need for students to work more independently and deal with greater demands on their time, it’s no surprise that so many students find the transition from GCSE to A Level challenging.

TOP 5 TIPS

To help students settle in more quickly and get the best exam results possible, our top 5 recommendations are:

• Be mentally prepared by acknowledging that year 10 and 12 is a big shift and being open to the changes that this shift will cause. In particular, it’s important to ask for help if needed and to seek help sooner rather than later. For example, don’t wait until revision time or homework deadline if having difficulty with a topic or question.
• Getting organised is crucial for successful transition. By using a diary/planner and getting into a good study routine, students can help make the most of their precious time and keep track of deadlines. Ensuring notes are complete and well organised will also make revision and homework easier and less time consuming.
• Revise throughout the year rather than just in the run up to exams. Revisiting information, by going through notes at the end of the week, helps ensure students have a good understanding of areas covered and helps embed information in their memory. Then, when it comes to more complex concepts and actual revision time, students will have a good foundation upon which to build, giving them more time for applying and testing their knowledge rather than just learning.
• Use ‘free periods’ wisely. For the first time, many students will have a significant amount of free time at school. Whilst tempting to chat with friends, free periods should be thought of as study time and planned ahead. Using a planner/diary to schedule subjects/tasks for each free period will help make the most of this time and mean there will be less to do when at home.
• Detailed curriculum and assessment objectives are available for every subject and are an invaluable tool for students as they set out exactly what and how they are going to be assessed. In addition to helping students tackle and answer questions effectively, they are also a really useful tool for tutors to explain what students need to improve upon. 

How to approach revision

When it comes to revision techniques to achieve exam success, there are many different methods and approaches. However, education specialist Dr David Crouch  advises: ‘Whatever revision method you use, make sure it works for you and don’t leave preparation until the very last minute.’

At Justin Craig, we have individually tailored courses designed specifically for the differing needs of students. With courses throughout the academic year, our students can spread out their revision, focusing on different subjects during the various school holidays.

To read a review by one of our recent Year 12 students, click here

Our courses are proving more popular than ever this year so please do enquire early if you are interested, either by phone 01727 744340 or email

So here we are, back in September as brand new Year 10 students ready to start your GCSE courses.

As a teacher with over 22 years of experience as both a Head of Year and Head of department, our tutor, Gareth,  suggests that spending just 900 seconds each day from the start of Year 10 and your GCSE’s will in fact be something that your future self will be very thankful for on the 4^th May 2026 when your GCSE exams will begin.

The Starting Gun for Year 10

 Imagine for a moment that when you return to school on the 3^rd September 2024 that the starting gun has sounded at the start of your GCSE journey, as mentioned above, you have a finite date to aim for – the 4^th May 2026. This is 86 weeks and 6 days away from your first day back as a Year 10.

You will often hear teachers tell you that your GCSE’s are a marathon and not a sprint, which is one way to look at it – after all, you do have Year 10 and most of Year 11 ( and those 86 weeks ) to prepare for your exams.

However, rather than agreeing with the conventional view that your GCSE’s are a marathon and not a sprint, I want to share a slightly different perspective and suggest that your GCSE’s are actually more like trying to sprint a marathon.

 You have so much content to cover, new knowledge to be taught, new writing techniques to learn and revise as well as having to come to grips with finite time limits per question and per exam paper.

However, as I have mentioned above, spending just 900 seconds a day each day in Year 10 will help you build and reinforce the good habits. This will enable you to be kinder to your future self at the end of Year 10 with your end of Year exams, as well as preparing for your Year 11 mock exams and final exams.

GCSEs – an exciting time

The start of your GCSE’s is an exciting time, every single student, in every single one of your GCSE classes will be in exactly the same situation as you are – neither you, or any of the other students in your lessons will ever have studied GCSE English, GCSE Maths, GCSE History or any other GCSE or BTEC course you are studying.

This is a really important message for you to take time to process – at the start of Year 10, you are in exactly the same situation as every other student…..but using those 900 seconds each day over the Summer holidays could help ensure you do in fact start in a better place than most students.

Returning to the sprinting a marathon analogy, think about for a minute the most successful sprinter of all time – Usain Bolt. He won 8 gold medals including consecutive 100m and 200m gold medals at three Olympic Games across 12 years. He would train for four years in preparation for the Olympic games, four years preparation day in and day out for an event that lasted less than 10 seconds.

As you sit here, you are in a similar position, except rather than having a four year cycle to prepare for the Olympics, you have a 86 week countdown – because rather like Thanos in the Avengers Infinity Saga – your GCSE’s are inevitable and regardless of how much or little work or effort you put in over those 86 weeks, you will be sitting your exams come the 4^th May 2026.

Make the Difference

So what can you do that will make the difference ?

The golden thread that is running through this article is ‘900 seconds’ – this is very deliberate. 900 seconds in 15 minutes – which is about the same amount of time it would take you to watch 5 full videos on TikTok.

I am absolutely convinced every single one of you reading this article right now could watch 5 less videos each day on TikTok. The author James Clear explains that if you can get 1% better each day at something for a whole year, by the end of that year you will be 37% better than you were at the start of the process.

Those 900 seconds are the key, 15 minutes can either fly by or seem like an eternity depending on what we are doing. If as I am suggesting you give up 15 minutes each day of your summer holidays to help you prepare for your GCSE’s in Year 10 you might think that is way too much time. On the other hand, if I were to tell you that you were only allowed on your mobile phone / tablet / games console or PC for only 15 minutes each day you would rightly argue that is nowhere near enough time.

We make time for what is important to us

One of my favourite quotes is “We make time for what is important to us” – we always seem to be able to find time to scroll social media or play on our consoles, you need to find time now to prepare for your GCSE’s and start building those great habits and the best way to do this is by using the ‘Seinfeld Method’ created by Jerry Seinfeld.

Your parents might know Jerry Seinfeld from the show Seinfeld, you probably know him as Barry the Bee from Bee Movie. He is one of the most successful and wealthy comedians in the world. He was once asked the secret of his success and he explained that he bought a massive wall calendar with all 365 days of the year on it. Every day he would wake up with one goal, the write a joke – it didn’t matter if the joke was funny or not, what mattered was the process and the discipline behind it.

Then each day he would put a tick on the wall chart. He would repeat this each day, building up the ticks, explaining it acted as motivation to not break the streak of consecutive days. If he did end up breaking the streak for some reason – the motivation was to beat the streak the next time.

So how can you use this idea to help you prepare ?

Start by asking your teachers what topics you are covering in your GCSE subjects – you will also be able to find this information out from the options booklets your school will have created for you as well as the Curriculum pages from your schools own website.

Armed with this information you can start to prepare for next year. For example – in English you will be studying a Shakespeare play as well as reading a 19^th Century novel. There will definitely be a film adaptation of whatever play or novel you are studying which you could watch over the summer holidays which would take up a huge chunk of consecutive 900 seconds to help you build that habit streak.

In GCSE History for example you could find out what topics you are studying and use that help you find a plethora of revision videos and documentaries on YouTube on your topics.

Another great tip is to find out which textbooks you will be using in your GCSE subjects – every single year, thousands of Year 11 students sell their old textbooks on Amazon with you often being able to pick up a textbook which would cost £15-£20 brand new for less than £5 in many cases.

Websites like www.getrevising.co.uk are fantastic places where students upload and share their revision materials for pretty much every single exam board, exam paper and topic you can think of and of course, the brilliant www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/secondary website is one of the best one-stop hubs for your GCSE’s.

Take the opportunity now for the best possible result.

Although, it might seem that your GCSE’s are a lifetime away, in reality, in the words of White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland – there is so much to do and so little time to do it. In the blink of an eye it will be the 4^th May 2026. Finally, I’ll leave you with the words of one of the most successful NFL players of all time – Neon Deion Sanders – “Everyone wants to be successful until the see what it takes”. You have the opportunity now, to show that you have what it takes to get ahead and ensure you are in the best possible place for the start of Year 10. I know you can do it.

Although there are some differences planned for the layout and structure of personal statements this year, we know many students struggle writing their personal statement in their university application, as well as those for specialist colleges or to start a career. Our expert tutor, Mohsin, has put together an excellent framework to help your create yours. The sections and help detailed below will work for the new questioning style, as well as a traditional statement.

Opening Paragraph

Capture Your Motivation: Begin by clearly stating why you are passionate about studying your subject. Avoid generic and clichéd phrases such as “ever since I was young, I always wanted to study my subject.” Instead, provide a unique and personal reason that reflects your genuine interest in the subject. Avoid humor, jokes, or any political or religious viewpoints.

Deepen Your Interest

Explain Your Fascination: Discuss what specifically drives you to study the subject further. Do you have a particular career in mind? Link this interest to topics you have studied at A-level that have sparked your curiosity.

Personal Exploration: Illustrate your personal interest by detailing how you have explored the subject beyond the classroom. Mention any relevant books, academic journals,” TED talks, or university lectures you have engaged with. Explain how these experiences have reinforced your desire to study it at university.

Academic and Personal Achievements

Showcase Your Skills: Highlight your academic abilities and how they make you a good fit for the course. Discuss your mathematical and scientific skills and how these support your interest in empirically studying human behaviour. Relate your other A-level subjects, demonstrating skills in essay writing, research, critical analysis, and group work that will aid your degree studies.

Work Experience: Although gaining work experience in the subject field can be challenging, seek opportunities to connect with professionals in related fields. Even shadowing or having conversations with professionals can provide valuable insights. Use these experiences to show your enthusiasm for the practical applications.

Extracurricular Activities

Broaden Your Profile: Include a paragraph about your extracurricular activities and hobbies, and how they have helped you develop relevant skills. Mention any essay competitions, projects, lectures, or other activities that demonstrate your commitment and interest in the subject.

Future Ambitions

Outline Your Goals: Conclude with a short section on your future ambitions or career plans and how a degree will help you achieve them. If you have gap year plans, explain how they will further prepare you for studying at university.

Final Tips

Tailor Your Statement: Remember, your personal statement is your chance to tell the admissions panel why you are an excellent fit for their course. Research your top university choices thoroughly and understand what they seek in applicants. Although you only write one personal statement, ensure it aligns with the requirements and structure of the courses you are applying to.

Research and Reflect: Check if your chosen universities have dedicated pages outlining what they look for in applicants. Take notes and relate your skills and experiences. This will help you create a well-rounded and compelling personal statement.

By following this guidance, you’ll be able to craft a personal statement that effectively communicates your passion, skills, and suitability for studying at university.

On 22nd August, hundreds of thousands of UK teenagers are finding out their GCSE results. For those who achieved their desired grades, congratulations! However, not everyone will have achieved the results they were hoping for.

For parents of teens with disappointing grades, it’s important to help your teen stay calm and keep everything in perspective – no matter your child’s grades, there are lots of options available. Stephen Moore, Director of Justin Craig Education, recommends:

Discussion with teachers on results day

Regarding performance on different assessments, proximity to grade boundaries and whether it’s worth getting assessments remarked. For Maths and English, resitting is compulsory for students failing to achieve a pass (grade 4) if they are under 18 and/or studying full time. In other circumstances e.g. apprenticeships, it may be possible not to resit some GCSEs, but to take a functional skills qualification instead of the GCSE. For other subjects, resits are not compulsory but low grades may affect decisions about A Level choices – again, teachers can provide invaluable support here.

Speak to the Sixth form or College

If your child has narrowly missed the required entry grades, its worth speaking to their preferred sixth form college as they may still offer your teen a place, particularly if extenuating factors could have affected their performance. If that’s not possible, they might allow your child to transfer to a different course or subject, or recommend other colleges and sixth forms which might suit

Providing support and encouragement

To help research and evaluate all the various different options. For example, if your child doesn’t want to resit their GCSEs, then it’s time to make a plan that takes their grades into account. If however, they have a specific career in mind, then now is the time to research all the possible ways it can be achieved! Whilst retakes may be required, there will be other routes, for example, apprenticeships, professional courses, access courses, entry-level roles, work experience, volunteering.

For students considering GCSE retakes, the key to retake success is to learn from the experience and then to create a new study programme. For example, this might entail requesting papers back from the exam board to identify where marks were lost, discussing their approach to revision with teachers or getting specialist support from private tutors or revision course providers.

For more advice from Justin Craig on how to achieve exam success, call the team on 01727  744340.

As A Level Results Day fast approaches, student (and parent) anxiety levels are starting to creep upwards again! We know that there will still be students who do not get the grades they were hoping for or may need to reconsider their plans. For those families, here’s our advice on how you can ease the stress of Results Day and some of the main options available to students who miss their grades.

Have a Plan B!

Even for students who feel fairly confident, researching possible Plan B options prior to results day makes sense and may help students feel less anxious in the run up to the 15^th August. Your main options are:

• Enter Clearing as your grades may be acceptable to other universities
• Retake your A-levels and reapply for entry to University in 2024
• Adopt a different strategy to your preferred career – forget uni for the moment and either get a job, take a vocational course at college or do an traineeship/apprenticeship.

Clearing

• researching universities and courses that might be of interest
• thinking about the reasons you made your original 5 choices and what was most important to you then (eg campus type, accommodation options, location, course content)
• checking out current clearing vacancies on the UCAS website. Universities also start to publish Clearing lists on their own websites from early August.

Reapply & Retake

For those students who think their grades may be much lower than hoped, there are still lots of interesting opportunities eg taking a gap year in order to reapply and retake exams. This is a very common route adopted by students, many of whom combine study with travel/work abroad and/or relevant work experience. If you are considering retakes, its worth checking out entrance requirements as some Universities/courses require students to achieve the grades in one sitting, meaning that you might have to retake all your A Levels rather than just the one where you dropped the grades.

Prep Before Results Day

Just knowing what is going to happen on results day will make the day less stressful:

• UCAS updates Track about 8am on Results Day but universities may take longer to make decisions so you could consider phoning them if there is nothing on Track
• Once Track is updated, you will be able to see the status of your University offers or, if you have missed your grades, your Clearing Details. Depending on your grades/offers, Universities will sometimes offer students an alternative course so it’s worth calling them even if track shows you are in Clearing.
• Even if you get your preferred University place, you’ll still need to pick up your results from school on the day or have made other arrangements with school in advance
• It’s also worth re-reading your personal statement in case you need to discuss anything you mentioned in it.

The Student Room have a great article with detailed advice for A Level results day and also let you sign up for alerts about university clearing and adjustment places.

On Results Day

If Track indicates you are in Clearing, then it’s a good idea to get into school early so that you have plenty of time to talk to teachers about your results and options.

• • If you have just missed your predicted grades, ask your school about appealing and whether it’s worth asking your firm choice to reconsider if they haven’t accepted you.
  • Your best bet for up-to-the-minute vacancies is the UCAS website as it’s always up to date.
  • You might also want to pick up a copy of The Telegraph on results morning. This features listings of all the courses in Clearing at the start of the day, so it’s a decent starting point. Just beware that this listing goes out-of-date very quickly, so it’s worth checking UCAS before calling.

So good luck for 15th August!
We wish you all the best and don’t forget every cloud has a silver lining!

For more advice from Justin Craig Education on how to achieve exam success, please visit www.justincraig.ac.ukor call us on 01727 744340.

Whilst the deadline for applying for medical school is not for a while, it is worth considering what has to be covered in the personal statement so you can plan ahead. For example, if you need work experience, wish to attend lectures or join a medical society, it is very useful to look at the time required and you can plan early and effectively.

To help you, our expert tutor, Stephanie, has put together an excellent set of guidelines primarily written for those students applying for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine. It may also be useful for related disciplines such as Biomedicine and Biochemistry.

Structure

Make sure your personal statement is within the character limit (4000) and the line limit (47). Visit the UCAS website for more information if needed.

First Paragraph

This should be quite short, 4-6 lines. The main purpose of the first paragraph is to inform the reader as to why you wish to pursue a medical career. Seek to be genuine here and do not just write what you think is expected or what you think somebody wants to hear.

Personal experience(s) that inspired you to pursue this career can be included, but these must serve a clear purpose and must not be long-winded accounts. Every word is taking up precious space!

Second Paragraph

Talk about your academic interests and what experiences or topics have motivated you.

• Has there been a particular subtopic of interest that has caused you to go away and do further research
• Or a lecture that you have attended that has provoked curiosity?
• What do you do to pursue your interest in Medicine outside of the classroom?
• Do you regularly attend a medical society?
• What do you spend your time reading?
• Do you eagerly seek out opportunities to enhance your learning and skills?

It would be worth briefly mentioning if you have completed any Olympiads in your chosen subjects.

Third paragraph

This should detail work experience, what you have observed and your reflections (what you learned from it).
This is arguably the MOST IMPORTANT PART of your personal statement as it gives insight into your character and your ability to be a good student.

Can you develop the important skills required in your chosen field? Again, be as concise as possible; there should be a lot of ground to cover in this paragraph. If you have managed to complete a lot of work experience, it would be worth focusing on a few of these in depth, rather than writing a big, long list that doesn’t go into any detail.

Fourth paragraph

This should be much shorter, you can describe activities you partake in that are outside of your academic work. This may include sport, musical instruments, roles of responsibility at school, Duke of Edinburgh etc Don’t go into too much detail, there isn’t enough space.

Lastly

You will write a couple of final lines stating why you would be a good Medical careers student and future Doctor/ Vet/ Dentist. (5 paragraphs in total)

Other important guidelines

As written above, be concise as possible.
You are aiming to give all the highlights of your capabilities, interests and experiences, and given that there are so many and that you have limited space, you must use the limited characters carefully.

• The admissions team will most likely initially scan through your personal statement and won’t appreciate long winded stories.
• Try to use language that you would usually use so that it sounds natural, avoid using a thesaurus.
  Above all, you want to show that you are academically able, genuinely interested in the field of Medicine, self-motivated and a good learner.
• Bear in mind that during interviews you will be expected to confidently discuss any books, topics you have mentioned in your statement.

The bulk of your personal statement will be the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs – the academic and work experience paragraphs. It is these areas that give the most practical based evidence that you will be a good candidate for the course.

A note on work experience

Students often struggle to undertake a variety of work experiences and worry that their personal statements will fall short. Universities are aware of these difficulties and understand that many students will have limited opportunities.

If you have been unable to spend time in a GP surgery but have managed to undertake some regular volunteering at a local care home, for example, there is still a wealth of learning that can be obtained from this experience.

Your observations and reflections on your experience are more valuable than the details of what the work experience entailed. There is also value in dedicating time to something on a regular basis, whether this is volunteering at a care home or mentoring a group of students in a lower year group. It shows that you are committed and willing to stick at something. You will need a lot of grit as a Junior Doctor, for example!

In this article we provide revision tips on different techniques to help students identify and retain relevant information making revision sessions more productive. Being confident to try different techniques and identify which works best for you well before you have to use it for the real exams!

What to revise

Exams mean learning lot of facts but don’t overdo it! Download the specification for free from the exam board for the subjects you are revising for. This will simply state the topics you need to know and list what you need to know about them making your life a lot simpler. Before you start revising, use the traffic light system to “RAG” the spec. Write G (green) next to the topics you are fine with, “R” (red) next to the ones that you have the most trouble with and “A” (amber) next to ones in between. Revise the Red and Ambre topics first! If you can’t find your spec – ask your teacher and they’ll be happy to help.

Revision Mind Maps

A mainstay of science and geography teachers, this technique can be used to quickly sum up and link topics, facts or figures in any subject.

Here’s how it works: Start by drawing a bubble with a topic in it, in the middle of a page for a topic that you are trying to revise e.g. “oil” for GCSE chemistry. Draw a line from that bubble to another bubble and write the name of that linked topic in the new bubble. Fill the new bubble with the facts you need to remember, try to write in short bullet points not in full sentences to fit as much information as possible in a single page. Don’t worry about being messy.

Try colouring in the bubbles to group similar ideas. Nearer the exam time you can remake these mind maps with just the information you keep forgetting to store it in your short term memory, helping you to revise more effectively.

Mind Palaces

Made famous by Sherlock Holmes, in fact this “method of loci” was developed by the ancient Greeks and is popular for memory artists at the circus to remember any facts or figures.

To use it: Imagine a building you know very well with lots of familiar rooms and cupboards. Start by walking through the front door in your imagination and commit an item you want to remember to each room by forming an image between the item and any feature of that room. To remember the “fact”” simply walk through the room. When you get better at it – start using the cupboard too!

Make it fun. Turn it into a competition with your friends to see how many facts you can remember in a short time.

Mnemonics

Whether you’re revising for GCSEs or A Levels, mnemonics provide a catchy way to remember very boring facts… take your pick from*:

• Physics – My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets: Take the first letter of each word, to get the first letter of the planets, in order. Of course now Pluto is no longer a planet this one is slightly outdated – but hard to beat!
• Biology – Kids Playing Carelessly On Freeways Get Squashed: Otherwise known as the scientific classification of the species: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
• Geography – Never Eat Shredded Wheat – Simple, but effective, this first letter mnemonic helps students to remember the cardinal points of the compass, in order.
• Chemistry – please (K) send (Na) Charlie’s (Ca) monkeys (Mg) and zebras (Zn) in copper (Cu) cages lined (Pb) with gold (Au) – an easy way to remember the order of the most reactive metals of the reactivity series (metal symbols show in brackets.

For more mnemonics, take a look at this article: The 5 Best Mnemonics

Revision Card Games

Make a game of it with friends or family. Make revision cards together (sticky post it notes work well) summarizing the most important features of a topic on each card. Screw them up, put them in a hat and pull them out at random – make a question up based on the card you have pulled out and get the other person to guess what was on the card.

Troublesome cards can be used as “toilet post cards”. Stick them to the wall and glance at them until they become familiar.

Pp’s Ms and COWs

If you don’t know where to start, pull out a past paper (pp) (they are free to down load from all exam boards as are the mark schemes) and try it. Don’t worry about getting a low score at the start. The more you do the better you will get. Correct your own work (COW) using the examiners mark scheme (ms) in a colour that stands out. Try to make new mistakes each time by creating a mind map of your previous mistakes.

Other Revision Ideas

If you are looking for something else, try downloading the free examiners report attached to mark schemes on the exam board’s website. These have interesting comments stating what most students missed out on whilst answering key Questions.

Start early and use whatever technique works best for you. Don’t be afraid of being different. Have fun with it, the more you do the better your grades will be.

James Davey, The Exam Coach, helps secondary school students develop the study skills and exam performance techniques required for exam success. As each person experiences stress differently, James has put together a guide offering a variety of solutions.

What is exam stress?

Without getting into too much unnecessary detail I reckon the definition below will suffice for the purpose of this guide.

Exam stress is a feeling of being under abnormal pressure and fearing your exams are going to go badly. As a result, you may feel influencing the outcome of your exams is beyond your control. This feeling is created by hormones and chemicals released in the body as a consequence of an external factor (exams) which can also cause other negative mental and physical symptoms.

Basically, exam stress is a good thing, up to the point where it fosters focused performance, but too much of it can cause overwhelm and decreased performance.

Without stress we have little pushing us into action. In fact, we can actually end up becoming super stressed out by doing nothing constructive! When stress kicks in and helps us pull off that deadline we thought was a lost cause it becomes beneficial. But when stress results in negative symptoms such as insomnia, poor concentration and an impaired ability to do the daily things we normally do, we know we need to reign it back under control.

Now that we’ve established stress isn’t something to be ignored but that it should be recognised, carefully managed, and then used to our advantage, here’s what you can do…

To read the full details of The Exam Coach’s article on how to manage exam stress, click here.

The prospect of exams – and work to be done – can be an overwhelming thought for students, which can lead to feelings of hopelessness or apathy about revising for their exams. When talking to our customers, we often get asked questions regarding parental support during exam season – here are the most common ones, along with our advice.

How can parents help their children revise?

Parental support, encouragement and interest can make a spectacular difference to your child’s motivation and ability to cope with the academic and organisational demands of the exam period. More specifically, we would advise parents to:

• Discuss and agree a rough framework to help students strike a sensible “work/life” balance”
• Be flexible and supportive – use the 80/20 rule. For example, agreeing to a special night out /event can be a great “reward” and doesn’t need to be detrimental to revision if you help them work out how to catch up
• Rather than berating your child if he/she feels demotivated or struggles with balancing all the demands on their time, talk to them about the issues, acknowledge their feelings and help them find a sensible solution
• Teenagers often take an all or nothing ‘catastrophic’ approach to difficulties so if your child asks for your support, encourage them by helping them to see the difficulties in perspective.

What are the most effective revision techniques?

Everyone has different learning styles so the best approach is for students to try out different techniques and find out what works best for you. However the essential things are to:

• Have a realistic revision timetable to help get into a good study routine and make revision feel more manageable
• Have a clear goal for each revision period and try and make the revision as “active as possible” eg by testing yourself at the end of the session to assess progress
• Not waste time struggling or prevaricating. Note down anything you are finding hard and take it to your next lesson or if on study leave, phone friends or your teachers

How can students establish which revision techniques are the most useful for them?

There is a vast array of learning techniques that students can try to see what works best for them. Some of the most popular techniques are:

• Flash cards to help with consolidation and testing of knowledge
• Topic focused posters encapsulating the key points/diagrams
• Spider diagrams to help form connections between points
• Online tests and quizzes to assess progress on specific modules or topics
• Working with a “study buddy” on a specific subject or topic
• Past papers to test exam technique and knowledge

How important is exercise, a healthy diet and sleep?

Preparing for exams is mentally and emotionally demanding, which makes a healthy lifestyle and good nutrition even more important than ever. Sleep is key to effective learning and various research studies show that good sleep patterns help learners consolidate knowledge whereas a lack of sleep results in poor coping strategies for managing stress and ‘fuzzy’ thinking.

What can parents do to help their child manage and reduce stress during exam season?

For children who are feeling stressed, parents can help by providing perspective, listening to worries and providing support/encouragement. Exams aren’t everything! Whatever happens in the exams, you can still be successful in life afterwards. It’s natural for students to worry about their exams, so encourage them not to beat themselves up about it and to stay positive by thinking about how far they have come already rather than panicking about how much they have to do.

There are lots of different ways to de-stress – try looking online for practical tips and tools to help maintain motivation and reduce stress. Here are links to a couple of our favourites:

The Mix 

Young Minds

How can parents help their child if they are struggling to know where to start with their revision?

Our top tips to help kick start revision are:

• Do a list of exam dates & revision topics: Take each subject and break it down into topics, using the specification or text book to create a useful list of everything that needs to be learnt. Also note down any specific skills/areas that need greater work.
• Make a revision plan. Creating a day-by-day plan can be really motivational for students and makes revision feel more manageable by breaking revision into chunks. By helping students prioritise, it also reduces the risk of them running out of revision time. Plans can be as simple as a list of what needs to be done each week up to hour-by-hour colour coded works of art. Don’t expect students to stick 100% to their plan – things change and the plan will need to adapt. Its also good to leave some” blank” time close to each exam in case they need to revisit anything.
• Organise/complete notes. If their notes are the starting point for revision, make sure they are complete and in the right order. If they are not sure, encourage them to talk to their teacher and ask for the teacher to check their notes. If their notes are in a really bad state, try using a revision guide as the basis for revision – just make sure that the guide is for the right exam board and specification.

Is it ok to have the TV on and/or listen to music when revising? What about phones?

Research has shown that students who study in a quiet environment can recall more than those who revise while listening to music. Extroverts, and those with an exceptional ability to control their attention, are not negatively affected as much: but it doesn’t help. Phones can be distracting and evidence shows that undergraduate students who spend more time texting and using social media get lower grades. In another fascinating study, researchers found that the mere sight of a phone was enough to reduce a person’s ability to focus. The implication couldn’t be clearer: out of sight really is out of mind.

How many hours per day should children spend doing revision?

The reality is that there is no miracle number for how many hours you should study for an exam as everyone has different capabilities and learning styles. However, a good starting point is to look at what students themselves are saying. According to The Student Room, between 15 – 20 hours is the average revision time for a massive community of students. Think that’s too much or too little? Why not try it for a week and adjust your revision time if necessary? The key thing to remember is that you need to understand and recall the key topics of each subject.

Don’t forget, preparing for exams is like a marathon – students need to give themselves time for training and practice, pacing themselves before sprinting at the end of the race.

For further information on how to keep students motivated, visit this webpage.