Past papers and exam questions

Probably the most important thing to do before an exam or assessment  is practice doing the exam (top tennis players practice playing tennis afterall…)

Past papers are available for every KS4 and KS5 exam and there are lots of KS3 style questions available too – an internet search will often help – try “KS3 Science test questions” for example.

Past papers help you improve your knowledge and recall of the content, and identify gaps in your knowledge; the mark schemes help you understand what examiners are looking for and doing repeated practice of them helps improve your confidence and ability to answer questions in good time.

The best way to use them is:

1. Complete the paper, without being tempted to look at the answers, in the time available for the paper.
2. Then check your answers; be hard on yourself – don’t give yourself the mark if it’s ‘what you meant’ - only if it’s exactly what the markscheme looks for.  Your aim is to become familiar with what the examiner wants – don’t hope they will be nice!
3. Don’t start too early with full past papers – be at least half way through through the course so you don’t run out of papers to do, or become discouraged because you can’t do any of it (though of course take a look at past papers early on to get an idea of what you are working towards).
4. Start really early with past exam questions (rather than whole papers).  You should have these are part of your lessons anyway, but ensure you’re doing lots of them for practice.

YouTube tutorials

If you can avoid getting distracted, Youtube is a great source of fantastic revision material, if you can be selective and are clear on what you are looking for.  A suggested channel which covers loads of courses is in the website section below, but here’s a few to get you started:

• GCSE Physics – Freesciencelessons
• GCSE Biology – Freesciencelessons
• GCSE Chemistry – Freesciencelessons
• GCSE Maths – WrightMaths
• GCSE Computer Science – Computer Science Tutor , Craigndave
• GCSE English – Mr Bruff & Mr Salles Teaches English
• GCSE PE – Ladybridge PE

• A-Level Physics – Science Shorts
• A-Level Biology – Ryan Toal
• A-Level Chemistry – Allery Chemistry
• A-Level Maths – Exam Solutions & Yacine Koucha
• A-Level Further Maths – Exam Solutions
• A-Level Computer Science – Craigndave & Computer Science Tutor
• A-Level English Language – Mr Bruff
• A-Level English Literature – Mr Bruff

Use Flashcards!

Simply, they help you to become really good at quickly recalling key facts and essential knowledge.

Written well, they help you cut down on useless knowledge and focus on what is needed.

Tips:

• Use the exam specification (ask your teacher for this) to help make them, ensuring each card is based on a learning objective
• Make them as question and answer pairs
• Ensure answers are concise, without leaving out key information
• Revise with a friend / family member
• Sort your flash cards into piles of ones you get right (do these occasionally) and ones you get wrong (do these often and try to shrink this pile!)

The Pomodoro Technique

Time matters, and getting the right balance of learning and rest will help your brain manage all that new information.

Simply:

• 25 minutes periods of revision
• 5 minute breaks

This technique only works well if you already have a good revision style and have good focus for those 25 minutes.

It also needs you to be strict with the time – don’t keep going past the 25 minutes, even if you’re feeling fresh; make sure you stick to just 5 minute breaks, else you’ll lose the momentum.

Read about the effectiveness of it and why it works here.

Mind Maps

Mind maps are very effective for learning, and they can help you to understand how topics link together, how ideas can link up, and what your strengths and weaknesses are.

Simply try to write down all that you can remember, and then you can work out the gaps in your knowledge.  The best mind maps can help you revise a whole topic’s content within the space of half an hour and the key is making them memorable with pictures, graphical design, shapes and colour.

Make them fun!  More fun leads to strong memory and better assessment results.