The worst feeling is being in the mind-set to revise but not actually knowing how to start. This has happened to me on numerous occasions and I'm afraid until you find a way to revise that suits you, this may happen a lot. Thats why I believe it is important to find a way to revise early on so that you do not have this problem again and again.
I would start revising little and often. If you cram two years worth of revision into one night you will fail. Not only will you fail but you will be exhausted. Trust me, doing little and often gives you more time later on and also reduces stress. Lots of people ask "What's the point in starting early" and thats okay. It does seem ridiculous in some ways to revise a year or two years in advance when you could revise months before but thats not the point. The point is, if you start revising early you will find yourself feeling less stressed and anxious when it comes to your exams.
Establishing a cut off time from revision is key! During my GCSE's my cut off time for revision was 7:30pm to 8:00pm. This allowed me to still be able to relax before bed and reduce my risk of feeling exhausted the next day at school. If you don't set a cut off point, you will find it difficult to know when to stop revising and may end up disrupting your sleep schedule which isn't healthy.
Studies show that your brain can only focus on information for a short period of time, thats why revising in short half an hour to an hour bursts is best. When I first decided to start revising I used a weekly planner to write down a revision schedule for each week. Every Sunday I would write down three or four subjects that I wanted to revise and write down how long I would revise them for. This enabled me to stay on track and not lose my mindset when sitting down to revise. Making a plan also makes you feel like you have accomplished a lot when you can cross off what you have done at the end of the evening. I would always recommend completing your homework first and then revising, this way you can stay on top of your school work. If you get lots of homework one day, don't worry if you can't complete all three subjects of revision just do one or two and make sure you end your revision at your cut off time.
There is no easy way to find a way of revising that works for you. All I can say is that you should be open minded to anything that people suggest to you. I used to hate flash cards and thought that they were only good for mini tests not exams. However, when I started my GCSE revision I found them really useful. I don't recommend sticking to one form of revision because that can seem repetitive and boring. Instead switch it up and try different methods.
Here are some of my favourites:
-Mindmaps (English Literature, Media, RE basically any subject that includes lots of written work)
-Past-papers (Every subject!!!)
-Flash cards (Every subject, mainly ones that contain key words and definitions)
-Youtube Videos (Every subject, videos are so useful to watch to recap and consolidate information)
-Writing out notes (Every subject)
-Online quizzes (Every subject)
There are many other ways to revise but those are the methods I used and still use and find them very helpful. Try these out when your revising and soon you will find a method, maybe even for each individual subject, that suits you!
I hope this helped. More blog posts to follow.
-Holly