How to Revise for A-Levels: Our Guide to Exam Success in 2024
A-Level Revision Guide: How to Revise
In this blog post, one of our Oxbridge-educated tutors shares her top tips for getting organised and finding the A-Level revision methods best suited to help you learn. Everyone conducts their A-Level revision in a slightly different way, so finding out the method which suits you is the first step in achieving top grades in your A-Level examinations. Here, one of our specialist tutors has broken down some tried-and-tested revision methods into different stages to help you construct an A-Level revision timetable.
Step One: A-Level Revision Organisation
Have a Strong Filing System
Before delving into techniques on how to revise for A-Levels, the very first step is to get organised. All those worksheets you’ve been given in classes, your A-Level homework, textbooks and A-Level revision guides… they’re all helpful for your A-Level revision, of course, but only if you have a robust filing system for them. It would be helpful for you to buy a ring-binder and sort all of your sheets into it, with file-dividers for each topic. Printing off any electronic sheets and putting them into the file ensures that your most important documents are in one easy-to-access place, making it easier to locate your notes for any given topic immediately and streamlining your A-Level revision.
If technology is a significant part of your A-Level revision process, whether that is because your school provides you with a significant amount of digital worksheets or you prefer typing notes over handwriting them, now is the opportunity to get organised digitally too. This includes creating digital folders and sub-folders to store all your e-documents, clearly named for ease of reference later on in your A-Level revision timetable. As the academic year progresses and you become increasingly serious about A-Level revision, your future self will be grateful for your early efforts in getting and staying organised.
Schedule Your Revision Effectively
A-Level revision organisation doesn’t just mean assembling all of your important files, documents and notes in easily locatable places. It also involves getting on top of your workload before it starts to pile up, or in other words efficient time management. I highly recommend time blocking. This technique involves dividing your day into blocks of time designated for A-Level revision tasks that, with dedication and consistency, will allow you to excel in those all-important A-Level exams.
Your calendar should be full but realistic. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can dedicate excessively long stretches of time to studying different topics each day - this will only overwhelm you and throw you off track. I recommend spending roughly 4 hours per day doing A-Level revision at the start of the academic year during holiday periods, and roughly 8 hours towards the tail-end (depending on how much ‘cramming’ you require which hopefully, with the help of our U2 Tuition A-Level revision guide, you won’t need to do!). Don’t worry if you don’t hit 8 hours - as long as your revision is efficient, less hours won’t hurt.
Another crucial element of A-Level revision timetabling is scheduling breaks. The most successful A-Level students appreciate the importance of rest and mental recovery, so be sure to include designated break times in your calendar too. I recommend using the Pomodoro technique to strike the optimal balance between study, rest and play. This will allow you to not feel like you’re dedicating too much or too little time to any of the above.
Highlight Areas for Improvement
Finally, be reflective and self-aware of what you do and don’t understand (content-wise). This may involve taking note of topics you struggle to understand or questions you found challenging to answer during your class or as part of your homework. It’s always best to be proactive and seek further clarification from your teachers. You’ll find that the content of your A-Levels is usually interconnected, so clearing up any confusion early on will ensure that you can develop solid foundational knowledge, making it easier to understand the more complex topics that you are bound to encounter later down the line.
Step Two: Condense your Notes
Good A-Level students are reluctant to depend on their own unconsolidated memory of what they were taught during class, instead making thorough notes throughout the year. They also attempt to cover all bases in their A-Level notes, often writing out what the teacher said verbatim. However, great A-Level students understand that dense notes need to be shortened to only highlight the key information for each topic, making A-Level revision more manageable and the content of each curriculum easier to memorise.
Here are some tried-and-tested options for condensing your A-Level revision notes into more memorisable formats:
A-Level Revision Flashcards:
These are a popular choice, and for good reason, but there’s an art to the humble flashcard! Whatever you do, don’t write everything down onto them. This would essentially be regurgitating your long-form notes onto smaller paper / card which may feel productive but is really just a waste of your time. Instead, try to write information down in question form on one side of the flashcard, with the answer on the other side.
For example, use questions or prompts such as ‘Define osmosis’ or ‘Draw a diagram of osmosis in a plant cell’ on the front of the flashcard, writing / sketching the answer down on the back. This is a form of active revision and is far more effective than writing everything you know about a topic in small handwriting onto a flashcard. Remember, A-Level revision flashcards are only supposed to jog your memory, not act as yet another transcript for everything you’ve learnt in class.
Creating digital flashcards that you can easily access on your phone is great for learning on the go. There are plenty of apps and websites that allow you to create e-flashcards; I recommend Quizlet, Anki and Brainscape. This allows you to use your time efficiently for A-Level revision when stood around in a queue or sitting on the bus.
Audio Recordings:
For those of you who learn best through listening, want to introduce new learning methods to your A-Level revision timetable or are looking for another way to make efficient use of your free time, recording yourself explaining topics is a great option. You may use any voice recording tool, such as the Voice Memo app provided freely to iPhone users, to practice explaining key ideas and concepts. I suggest going off-script from your very first recording (i.e: not reading from your notes, instead reciting everything from memory). This allows you to gauge your understanding and retention of information as early on as possible, highlighting any gaps that you can swiftly address.
Mind Mapping:
This A-Level revision technique is fantastic for courses with interrelated topics that require you to memorise pieces of related information. Mind-maps enable you to visualise connections between facts, facilitating an understanding of the bigger picture of your course. For example, if you’re revising causes of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, you may write down all the different factors you can remember as distinct sections of the mind-map, using the spaces between the sections to explain the relationship between these factors.
To aid your memorisation, try making large-scale mind-maps on A3 paper and sticking them up in your room; this will allow you to absorb the material incrementally. For those of you who are more creative, try using different colour pens and drawing relevant pictures on your mind-map to further jog your memory.
Storyboards:
When trying to understand a step-by-step process, such as the scientific process of meiosis, or the development of a character or story, such as Blanche DuBois’ tragic demise in A Streetcar Named Desire, storyboards are a very useful tool. They allow you to visualise different stages of a story or process and track their advancement or progression, helping you to connect the dots. Your storyboard should include pictures, ideally hand-drawn as these will be more memorable, paired with easy-to-understand captions.
Step Three: Memorise your Notes
A classic mistake that even the most capable students make when doing A-Level revision is spending far too long creating thorough notes and converting them to more memorisable formats, such as flashcards and storyboards, without actually attempting to use them for their intended purpose. Don’t skip this crucial step in our A-Level revision guide, as extensive notes and a stack of flashcards are only useful for your closed book A-Level exams if you make the effort to memorise the content! This step will allow you to keep track of your ability to retain important information, so you know which topics require some extra effort to understand and memorise. Here are some of my suggested methods for memorising A-Level content easily and efficiently:
Look, Cover, Write, Check:
This long-established method of memorisation is an effective one. Find some scrap paper, hide your notes and give yourself five minutes to jot down everything you can remember about a particular topic. Next, check what you’ve written by referring to your A-Level revision notes and write down everything you missed either in a different colour or on a separate sheet of paper. Then, using a new piece of scrap paper, scribble down all of the things you missed the first time (from memory!). Once again, check this against your notes. Repeat this process until you can write down all the information without recourse to your notes. This is proof that you’ve been able to successfully commit your A-Level revision materials to memory.
Test a Friend or Family Member:
Group revision is a great way of making revision fun and is a brilliant way of consolidating your understanding of a topic. This can be done either in-person or over virtual platforms, which we’ve all become very well-acquainted with over lockdown, such as via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Ask each other to explain a topic verbally in as much depth and detail as possible. If you can explain a topic out-loud in a coherent way, you can be confident that you’ve understood it. If you can’t find a revision partner, you can still use the method of revising out loud: cover up your notes and recite everything you can remember.
The most important aspect of testing yourself is spaced repetition. Try to go over all topics at least twice a week to consolidate your learning, spending roughly half an hour at the start of each day going over what you covered the day before. By reviewing A-Level revision material at systematic intervals, you have a much higher chance of retaining information for longer periods of time. This explains why cramming isn’t advisable!
Step Four: A-Level Past Paper Practice
Once you’re confident that you’ve committed your own revision notes to memory, familiarise yourself with the structure of exam questions by doing some past papers. This is a great way to build confidence and steer away from avoidable mistakes which are often made under pressurised exam conditions. Sometimes examiners can phrase questions in an unfamiliar way; integrating extensive past paper practice into your A-Level revision timetable will allow you to get comfortable with the tricky wording of exam questions, ensuring that you can answer exactly what is asked of you.
Allocating A-Level revision time to doing past paper exam practice in timed conditions may feel daunting at first, but it is guaranteed to help you improve your A-Level exam technique, including speed, accuracy and time management skills. It also allows you to figure out which types of questions require more time so you can designate your exam-time accordingly. It is particularly helpful for deciding how to segment your time for essay subjects. With repeated past paper practice, you’ll know just how long you ought to spend planning, writing and checking your essay.
Ensure that you’re getting feedback on your past paper attempts. At first instance, check your practice exam answers against the mark scheme. This is slightly trickier for essay-based subjects such as A-Level English Literature where the perceived quality of your essay, and therefore overall grade, is subjective. In that case, try to ask your subject teacher or an experienced private tutor for an educated estimate of what grade your essay is likely to achieve.
It is also advisable that you go over the A-Level exam specifications for your subject; this will show you exactly what topics you are likely to encounter in the exam, and you can structure your A-Level revision accordingly. This is particularly helpful for STEM subjects as the specification will highlight exactly which equations and definitions you need to have memorised as well as those which will be provided to you.
You may also make use of examiner reports as a tool to structure your A-Level revision. Annually, examiners will reflect on the overall strengths and weaknesses of candidates sitting a particular A-Level exam. This will show you what topics are generally found to be harder or easier, which is highly valuable information for students interested in crafting an efficient A-Level revision timetable!
Step Five: Acing The Exam
Once you’ve memorised all your notes and made significant progress with past papers, you’re ready to sit those exams. Make sure that you eat and sleep well in the weeks leading up to the exam to ensure that your exam performance isn’t hindered by stress / an unhealthy lifestyle. If you’ve followed our A-Level revision guide, there’s no reason not to go into the exams with confidence. Being a successful A-Level student is a skill which requires continuous refinement and honing, so by reading this A-Level revision guide and understanding the key steps to excel in your A-Level exams, you’re already 5 steps ahead of the rest. Good luck!
Final Top Tips for A-Level Revision
Write practice essays
It sounds obvious, but it’s worth a reminder - writing practice essays is the most effective way to prepare for your essay-based exams. You can choose a topic from your syllabus and write a timed essay as if you were in an exam setting. It’s also a good idea to seek third party feedback for your essays, whether from your school teacher or an A-Level private tutor. You can then restructure your A-Level revision timetable according to the areas that you have identified need the most improvement.
Watch educational videos
Watching A-Level educational videos is an excellent way to reinforce your understanding of a topic. Platforms like YouTube offer a wide range of educational content that can be accessed for free. You can watch videos on specific topics or follow a playlist to revise a broader range of subjects.
Organise study groups
Organising study groups with classmates or friends is an engaging way to ensure that you understand a topic. You can take turns presenting and discussing key points. This can help you gain new perspectives on a subject and clarify any confusion.
Use revision apps
There are several revision apps available that can help you create A-Level revision timetables, set goals and track your progress. Apps like Forest, Quizlet and GoConqr can help you stay organised and motivated.
Take breaks
Taking breaks is essential to avoid burnout and maintain focus. You can use your breaks to engage in physical activity, listen to music or simply relax. Taking a break will help you come back to your A-Level revision with renewed energy and focus.
In conclusion, A-Level revision activities can be both fun and effective if you employ a variety of methods! Whether you prefer flashcards, online quizzes or educational videos, there are a number of ways to make revision more engaging and enjoyable. By incorporating these activities into your A-Level revision routine, you can enhance your learning experience and be one step closer to achieving your academic goals.
Looking for a Top A-Level Revision Tutor?
We have a wonderful team of specialist A-Level tutors, most of whom hold an Oxbridge degree and have accumulated years worth of A-Level tuition experience. Our A-Level private tutors are well-placed to ensure students are on track to achieve their desired grades, whether that may be through supporting students with their A-Level assignments, providing students with a solid A-Level revision timetable based on an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses or other modes of A-Level preparation for examinations and/or coursework. See below for more details.
The A-Level Tuition Process
1) We suggest an Oxbridge graduate with a specialism in your chosen A-Level subject(s) as a mentor, sending their full CV for review
We will select an A-Level private tutor with most experience of the examination board the student is following. We may suggest a range of tutors to choose from with slightly differing rates depending on qualifications and level of experience.
2) We typically suggest beginning with a 1.5 hour informal assessment / first session
The tutor will get to know the student and assess their current performance level and identify strengths and weaknesses. Following this, we issue a report with feedback, make sure you are happy with the tutor, and structure a plan for future sessions.
3) Regular A-Level tuition sessions
Following the first session, the tutor(s) will curate a plan for further sessions, working out a good split between papers / texts / topics to cover. They will also ensure the student has the tools they need with regards to exam technique / understanding how to tick the boxes of mark schemes. All of our A-Level tutors are Oxbridge-educated and highly passionate about their subjects, so should hopefully mentor and inspire the student too! We send reports after every session detailing feedback and students / parents & guardians liaise directly with the tutor to arrange sessions around their schedule.
Sessions from £75/h + VAT.