EXAMS SURVIVAL GUIDE

Happy Monday, friends! This week is mock week at my sixth form (the second of two this year) and so I thought it would be nice to share my top tips and my 'survival guide' for exam season.

My first tip for you would be to have a study space. For example, I used to do all my work and revision on my bed but it's difficult because you don't have that boundary between work and relaxation. Now, I do my work at my desk and never work on my bed - this creates a separation and boundary between work and relaxing - when I'm at my desk, I need to be doing my work or something productive but, if I sit on my bed, I don't need to be doing the same - it's my relaxation time.

Make a revision timetable. Look at when your exams are and plan according to what you need to know in time order, and also what you feel less confident with. For example, Sociology is one of my subjects and my three exams for this subject are within three weeks of eachother so I have planned my revision around the topics I need to know for each exam and how confident I am with each one. I'm fairly confident with the edcuation topic so my revision for that topic is less frequent when compared to my revision for the beliefs topic - which I am not as confident with. I found monthly planners / calendars for the months of March, April, May and June (I found them on a Tumblr site called The Organised Student) and I have used these to plan what topics I'll be revising each day up until the exams, also factoring in the exams themselves and any other commitments or events that I have. This has really helped me to be organised and prepared with what I need to focus on and also helps to put into perspective how much time I have left to feel confident with what I need for my exams.

Another tip from me is to make a revision playlist - that is, if you concentrate well when listening to music as I do. You can find my current 2017 revision playlist here.

Revision Strategies: 

This, of course, all depends on how you revise and what type of learner you are but these are some of my favourite and most effective ways of revising:

• Past papers - this is the best way to get to grips with the exam structure and the wording of questions. Yes, it is difficult if you're doing a new course like me, as you only have the specimen papers to go from but if you have a revision guide, there's likely to be some exam style questions somewhere in there.
• Mind maps - I like to try to summarise topics onto one A3 sized poster or mind map - there you can condense everything into the most important parts and get the whole topic onto one page. 
• Flashcards - this is my favourite method of revising. I like to summarise the key points onto flashcards and I find it really helpful when other people test me on them - it really helps to jog your memory and, if you do a few cards a day, it shouldn't be long until you know them like the back of your hand. 

It's also very important that you stay hydrated when you're revising so make sure to keep having breaks and having a drink and snacks every so often. 

In terms of the night before an exam, my biggest tip is don't try to cram everything into one night - you won't learn it. If you don't know it the night before, you're never going to know it so try to relax the night before - yes, I know it's hard. Of course, do some revision if you want to, but try not to go overboard and panic yourself.

And so that concludes my mini exam season survival guide. I really hope this helped and you found it useful. Happy revising!